Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s FAA Plan QUICKLY BACKFIRES in HIS FACE

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Trump’s role as the nation’s “consoler in chief” has spectacularly failed only 10 days into his administration, with him falsely and immediately blaming Biden, Obama, DEI and "wokeness" for the American Airlines Flight 5342 aircraft disaster while victims are being pulled from the icy Potomac, for cheap political gain. Popok looks at the “best and brightest” Trump has hired and how he has already gutted the FAA and NTSB leadership just prior to this disaster. Go to https://joindeleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF for 20% off. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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They're still pulling victims out of the Potomac in the tragic collision of American Airlines Flight 5342 with a Black Hawk Army helicopter and Donald Trump's already playing not only the blame game, but he's laying it at the feet of a political trope arguing that diversity, equity and inclusion killed those people on the plane. That's how depraved and disgusting Donald Trump is to make cheap political hay of a national tragedy. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF, and I wanted to weigh in on this particular approach. Didn't take long when I heard the tragedy yesterday. I'm traveling myself.

When I heard the tragedy yesterday, I thought traveling myself, when I heard the tragedy yesterday, I thought within minutes the MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump are going to try to start pointing the finger and laying blame. Have you ever seen a president take the podium trying to be the Consular-in-Chief, trying to be the person who can comfort America, and there and within eight minutes of his presentation, instead of talking about the National Transportation Safety Board or the FAA getting to the bottom of the issue. He's already pinning blame on the Democrats, on Obama, on Biden, on wokeness.

That's what killed these people, not the helicopter having a tragic accident and collision, killings over almost 70 people on board that plane. Think about it, most of us have flown at one time or another. Think about that horror for a minute. What Donald Trump decided, this was a perfect time to reinforce his most depraved approach to policymaking, which is to attack wokeness, whatever that means, and say that's the reason the planes and the helicopter collided. I mean, the TSA, the Federal Transportation Safety Board, the FAA, all those that are

investigating haven't even gotten their boots on, and already Donald Trump is lying and assigning blame. They haven't solved the mystery boots on and already Donald Trump is lying and assigning blame. They haven't solved the mystery of this tragedy yet. We don't know if it's the air traffic controllers. In fact, the only clip I've heard about air traffic controllers is to remind the military jet flying in the same congested space, the military helicopter, making sure he knows to be behind and not into and intersect with American Airlines Flight 5342. Donald Trump actually stood there and looked the American people in the eye. Instead of comforting them and consoling them, putting his arms around them, he started to

read from something his staff had handed him from the website of the FAA where they're trying to hire people, not necessarily by the way, to be air traffic controllers. The FAA is a large organization with tens of thousands of people. Not all of them are the frontline air traffic controllers. The FAA was trying to bring in underrepresented groups in our society who can do other jobs. You may not be able to be a fighter pilot, but you can serve in the Navy or the Air Force in other capacities, whether you're missing an arm, a leg,

you're on the spectrum or whatever it is, but no, to Donald Trump, the reason that the plane and the helicopter collided is because somebody with mental disabilities or mental handicaps or whatever you want to call it, you know, didn't properly track the two aircraft. That's not what's happened so far. That's not the result of any investigation

because that result, that investigation hasn't even happened. And to sit there and say this is a woke problem as bodies are being dredged and dragged out of the Potomac is depraved. That's who some people voted for to be the President of the United States. This is not the time for political, cheap political shots. And this is not the time to look at the American people and lie to them and tell them that the reason is, is because somebody with a disability,

put the helicopter in the path of the plane or vice versa. That's a lie, because Donald Trump needs to, as he's doing right now, because it's fresh on his mind with all his executive orders, try to hollow out all these federal agencies and trying to get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion. To Donald Trump, you've got to be a white genius in order to hold that job. And then he brings in another half-baked, too-smart-by-half Sean Duffy, another white guy to be the head of the transportation, to be the

head of transportation, and then took shots that go after Pete Buttigieg. How is he responsible for this? This is the same air traffic controller system, the same air traffic controller technology that's been in place for the last 40 to 50 years. That's the problem. The problem is there's been a failure to properly upgrade air traffic controlling technology. He's got all these technologists in his cabinet or next to him with Elon Musk, go refurbish the technology of air traffic safety if that's what you want it to do or if that's what you want it to do, or if that's what you want it to stay, or to say,

say that that's the new initiative off of today, that these people didn't die in vain, that you're gonna lead a new space program as the president to invest whatever it takes to make sure these things don't happen in the future. That's not what Donald Trump said. In fact, let me show you what Donald Trump said. Let's play the clip.

And while he runs it, 45,000 people, and he's run it right into the ground with his diversity. So I had to say that it's terrible. Then it's a group within the FAA, another story, determined that the workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately. This was in the Obama administration just prior to my getting there. And we took care of African Americans, Hispanic Americans.

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So, wokeness did not kill those passengers, American, Russian, some of them. So, wokeness did not kill those passengers, American, Russian, some of them, coming back from a figure skating development camp. What killed it, we will find out. What killed them, we will find out. I assume it was a combination of equipment and human error. Was air traffic safety and air traffic control part of it? We will find out. But it's not because the guy sitting in the chair was black, which is what Donald Trump

wants to say, but can't bring himself to say it. All I know is on the first day in office, 10 days ago, it's hard to believe it was 10 days ago, this administration so spinning out of control already, he fired, Donald Trump fired the head of the Transportation Safety Board, the head of the TSA, the head of the Aviation Security Council, and the head of the FAA took one look at Donald Trump, and he resigned one year into a five year term. Nobody wants to work for Donald Trump. They said, you know, Sean Duffy got up there, you know, with his, you know, totally hit the wrong tone, this new head of the transportation

secretary, and said, best and brightest, Mr. President, you're right. That's what you said. That's what you're going to bring here. Best and brightest. Is Pete Hegseth the best and brightest Donald Trump could find to run the Pentagon off the Fox and Friends bench? Is Tulsi Gabbard the best and brightest to run the national intelligence community? Is RFK Jr. and whatever that flop sweat of a performance was and going on in his confirmation hearing, is he the best and brightest to run health, to be the top health official?

Dr. Oz, the best and brightest to be head of Medicare and Medicaid? Cash Patel, the best and brightest to be the head of the FBI? Pam Bondi, the best and brightest to be the head of the DOJ? What does that say about you, Sean? Not much. Not much. Not much. This is a national tragedy. Today it was this.

Tomorrow it could be a war that breaks out. And we're watching how Donald Trump's mind and executive function works. And the word works is doing a heavy lift in that sentence. What do we do about it? We don't let Donald Trump get away with anymore his lying to the American public. There's no other way to about it. We don't let Donald Trump get away with anymore. He's lying to the American public. There's no other way to put it. He stares the American public in the eye with the giant presidential seal on his podium and he lies to them, hoping that it'll reinforce some perverse policy of his that he does while families are grieving

and victims are being pulled out of the icy cold Potomac. This is the measure of the man. This is the measure of his character. This is how his executive function and mind works. And we're only 10 days into his administration. He already looks gassed. He already looks fatigued. mine works, and we're only 10 days into his administration. He already looks gassed, he already looks fatigued, he already looks like he'd rather be somewhere else, obviously.

They hand him gibberish, he repeats gibberish. I just, I wanted today to be a moment where I could grieve for some fallen Americans and others around the world. I remember the last time we had a catastrophe like this in the Washington DC area at a rake and I remember that flight out of Florida. I knew people that were, had family on that flight. I just wanted, they're not, you know, Donald Trump with great fanfare and in every public filing he made in his criminal cases and other cases, said that he was going to be the great healer.

He was going to be the great uniter. He was going to be the great bringing the country together. It's time to put down our weapons and hug our neighbors. And only Donald Trump can do that. Is that what we just saw during that press conference and his approach? Who writes this for him? If anybody is soulless, lacking a soul, lacking a conscience, pathological, it is Donald Trump.

We need to call it out. Somebody once said to me on our Legal AF channel, we have to talk truth to each other first before we can start talking truth to power. We've got to start taking the various shards that come at us from mainstream media, make sense of it, and then we're ready and we're doing that here. We're talking to each other. We're being honest with each other and we're calling out cheap political hacks like Donald Trump, lacking character, lacking empathy, lacking sympathy, cannot possibly ever be the consoler in chief

for his performance today. I'm Michael Popok, you're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Follow me Wednesdays and Saturdays on Midas Touch, the Legal AF podcast. Tuesdays, Popok Live, where I sit at the intersection of law and politics and other things on a new podcast on 8 p.m. Eastern Time on the Midas Touch Network.

Come over to our new channel we're doing together with the Legal AF and Midas Touch communities called Legal AF on the YouTube. Legal AF MTN, help us build that community as well. Till my next reporting, I'm Michael Popock. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN.

That's at Legal AF MTN.