Jesse Watters: Air traffic control was “unable to meet their own DEI quotas, and that’s what is leading to staffing shortages”
Watters: “They rejected 1,000 well-qualified applicants for air traffic control because they weren't diverse enough”
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From the January 30, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five
JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): The New York Times was reporting that there was severe staffing shortages at the control tower. They're supposed to have 30, they only had 19. This has been going on for quite some time. So, one of the air traffic control guys was doing the job of two people, and when you do that, he's communicating with the chopper and the plane pilot, and what happens is, is you get radio frequencies that the helicopter pilots are not hearing the same thing as the plane pilots.
The staffing shortages, Donald Trump is arguing, are a result of DEI policies. You go back to the Obama-Biden administration and they rejected 1,000 well-qualified applicants for air traffic control because they weren't diverse enough. Joe Biden had a DEI quota. And this isn't about Black people. A lot of people here DEI, you think Black, no. He's trying to set quotas for people who are deaf to get jobs, people who are dwarves to get jobs, people with transgender issues to get jobs. It's not about race. It's every sort of underprivileged person that has issues, and they want to be able to put these in positions at the FAA. They were unable to meet their own DEI quotas, and that's what is leading to staffing shortages, among many other things.