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‘I mean, he played the role of consoler-in-chief,’ Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner dramatically said on Thursday. Immediately after President Donald Trump wrapped up a White House briefing in which he repeatedly and baselessly suggested the deadly midair crash over Washington, D.C., was the result of minorities hired through diversity initiatives, several Fox News hosts praised him for playing the role of “consoler-in-chief” to the nation.
With all 67 passengers and crew of the American Airlines flight and Black Hawk helicopter that collided over Ronald Reagan National Airport feared dead, Trump pointed the finger at his Democratic predecessors and DEI policies during an unhinged press conference on Thursday. Trump and his administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, also accused the Biden administration of turning away qualified air traffic control applicants “because of the color of their skin,” claiming the FAA felt that its “workforce was too white.” When pressed for evidence to back his claims that diversity caused the crash, Trump said “it just could have been” and that it was merely “common sense.”.
Still, the immediate takeaway from Fox News hosts Harris Faulkner and Kayleigh McEnany was that the president solemnly honored the victims of the deadliest U.S. plane crash in nearly a quarter-century. “I want to start, Kayleigh, with something that the president said in about his third or fourth paragraph,” Faulkner noted, reading from Trump’s prepared remarks. “‘This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital and in our nation's history and a tragedy of terrible proportions. As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. We are a country, and really we are in mourning. This has really shaken a lot of people, including people very sadly from other nations who were on that flight.’” Turning towards McEnany, Faulkner dramatically intoned: “I mean, he played the role of consoler-in-chief.”.
McEnany, who was Trump’s press secretary in his first administration before joining Fox News, wholeheartedly agreed with her colleague. “President Trump confirmed there are no survivors, but this is the hell these individuals are being put through,” she said. “[Fox News reporter] Bill Melugin said he knew one of the individuals whose wife was on the plane. She’s a mother of a 1-year-old and 3-year-old. We pray for these families, and to have a president come out as consoler in chief in a moment like this is important for the nation.”.
