Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center. Ted Cruz.
Speaker 2: Nice to have you with us on this Friday morning,
Speaker 2: and Center, We've got a lot to talk about, including
Speaker 2: the tragedy that happened. You were right there in Washington
Speaker 2: when all this was unfolding with this helicopter and airplane
Speaker 2: colliding at Reagan National Airport.
Speaker 3: Well, it was truly a tragic and horrific accident, and
Speaker 3: it cost the lives of sixty seven souls. The commercial
Speaker 3: airliner from American Airlines, flying from Wichita, Kansas to Washington
Speaker 3: d C. Reagan Airport had sixty passengers on it and
Speaker 3: four crew members, and then an Army black Hawk helicopter
Speaker 3: had three soldiers on it, bringing the total death toll
Speaker 3: to sixty seven. The two collided just before nine pm
Speaker 3: on Wednesday night. They collided as the American Airlines airliner
Speaker 3: was landing at d C. Reagan Airport. And I'll tell
Speaker 3: you today, so you and I are recording this Thursday night. Today,
Speaker 3: I spent a lot of the day dealing with the
Speaker 3: aftermath of this. So, as you know, I'm the chairman
Speaker 3: of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It
Speaker 3: has jurisdiction over all of aviation. And so today I
Speaker 3: hosted briefings from the FAA and the NTSB, the National
Speaker 3: Traffic Safety Board, and we were heard from. They were
Speaker 3: bipartisan briefings. I had senators both Republicans and Democrats that participated,
Speaker 3: and we got we got briefings the NTSB, which is
Speaker 3: as I said, the National Transportation Safety Board does investigations
Speaker 3: whenever there's a serious accident, whenever there's an accident, an
Speaker 3: aviation accident, whenever there's a rail accident, they do investigations,
Speaker 3: and we heard from them. Now as of Thursday, the
Speaker 3: NTSB had over a dozen investigators on the ground. And listen,
Speaker 3: in the wake of an accident, you've got to actually
Speaker 3: see what happened. You've got to investigate and discover the facts,
Speaker 3: discover the evidence. In this instance, we know that the
Speaker 3: American Airlines flight was coming in. It was initially on
Speaker 3: runway one at Reagan Airport, and then the air traffic
Speaker 3: controllers moved it to runway thirty three, So they shifted
Speaker 3: the runway right at the very end, and the American
Speaker 3: Airlines pilots changed their descent to land on runway thirty three. Now,
Speaker 3: simultaneously there was an Army black Hawk helicopter that was traveling.
Speaker 3: There are multiple helicopter routes that go in and around
Speaker 3: Reagan Airport, and that Army helicopter was on Route one
Speaker 3: and then it was shifting from Route one to Root four,
Speaker 3: and the air traffic controllers were in contact with the
Speaker 3: pilots of the American Airlines flight and also the pilots
Speaker 3: of the helicopter, and after telling the American Airlines jet
Speaker 3: to land on Runway thirty three, the air traffic controller
Speaker 3: tells the black Hawk pilots to visually confirm and have
Speaker 3: in the line of sight the incoming plane, and the
Speaker 3: black Hawk helicopter pilots confirmed that yes, they have the
Speaker 3: plane in sight, and they also instruct the black Hawk
Speaker 3: pilots to come behind the plane that is landing. What
Speaker 3: in fact happens, or what appears to have happened, is
Speaker 3: the black Hawk helicopter came in front of the plane
Speaker 3: that was landing. The two collided midair and exploded midair.
Speaker 3: Now at this point it appears everyone involved died. Both
Speaker 3: the plane and the black Hawk helicopter sunk into the
Speaker 3: Potomac River. They were both in relatively shallow water about
Speaker 3: seven to eight feet of water where they had sunk,
Speaker 3: and as of Thursday, the black box, the flight recorder
Speaker 3: had been recovered from the airplane and they are in
Speaker 3: the process of recovering the black box the audio transcript
Speaker 3: recorder for the Blackhawk helicopter, so both of those will
Speaker 3: be recovered and they're trying to piece together what happened.
Speaker 3: What do we know. We know that somebody were multiple
Speaker 3: somebodies made a catastrophic mistake, a catastrophic mistake that led
Speaker 3: to a massive loss of life at this point, and look,
Speaker 3: there are lots of people who are giving all sorts
Speaker 3: of theories, who are jumping on all sorts of possibilities.
Speaker 3: In my view, we shouldn't speculate. We shouldn't we shouldn't
Speaker 3: get ahead of the evidence. We need to understand exactly
Speaker 3: what caused this accident, whether it was an error on
Speaker 3: the part of the army pilot, whether it was conceivably
Speaker 3: an error on the part of the commercial airliner pilot,
Speaker 3: whether it was an error on the part of the
Speaker 3: air traffic controller, or some combination of multiplayers in that regard.
Speaker 3: We don't know right now. What we do know is
Speaker 3: two aircraft we're in the same place at the same time.
Speaker 3: Now as we were having the briefing from the NTSB
Speaker 3: and the FAA that they told us several things. Number
Speaker 3: number one that had the helicopter stayed on Route four,
Speaker 3: it would have been well out of the way of
Speaker 3: the landing path of the airline, and it would have
Speaker 3: been in a lower altitude than where the helicopter and
Speaker 3: the jet collided. We don't know what happened exactly. One
Speaker 3: of the things the NTSB is going to do in
Speaker 3: this investigation is they're going to listen to the black
Speaker 3: boxer coardings of both aircraft and they're going to retrace
Speaker 3: the path the exact path of both aircraft to discover
Speaker 3: was one of them where it was not supposed to be?
Speaker 3: Were both of them where they were not supposed to be.
Speaker 3: At this point, we don't have a clear answer to that,
Speaker 3: and it's easy I would say, don't trust twitter, don't
Speaker 3: trust every theory. Look, they looked at one theory and actually,
Speaker 3: something I asked the NTSB, I said, when the air
Speaker 3: traffic controller asked the black Hawk pilots, do you have
Speaker 3: visual confirmation to the aircraft, and the black Hawk pilots
Speaker 3: confirm that do we have evidence that they were looking
Speaker 3: at a different airplane. You could certainly this strikes me
Speaker 3: as a reasonable inference that the the helicopter pilot looks
Speaker 3: and says, yes, I see the plane and perhaps didn't
Speaker 3: realize it was a different plane that was landing, because
Speaker 3: presumably if they saw the plane that led to the collision,
Speaker 3: they would not have stayed in the in the path
Speaker 3: of the plane, but they would would have piloted elsewhere.
Speaker 3: So NTSB and FAA told me right now, we don't know,
Speaker 3: so that's not confirmed. That's a theory people are saying
Speaker 3: online it is a plausible theory, but we don't have
Speaker 3: confirmation of that right now. There's also discussion about the equipment.
Speaker 3: So the Blackhawk helicopter had a transponder, so it was
Speaker 3: appearing on radar. It did not have technology called ADSB,
Speaker 3: which is technology that pings the location of an aircraft,
Speaker 3: and it does so using GPS rather than radar, and
Speaker 3: ADSB is more accurate and more reliable then simply a
Speaker 3: transponder that is pinging on radar. Now, under the FAA rules,
Speaker 3: military aircraft and federal law enforcement, an aircraft are exempted
Speaker 3: from the requirement that they have ADSB technology, And I
Speaker 3: will tell you as we were talking with the FAA,
Speaker 3: as we were talking with the NTSB, what they told us,
Speaker 3: at least initially, is that had the Blackhawk had ADSB,
Speaker 3: they said, it would have not have altered the ability
Speaker 3: of air traffic control and the American Airlines pilot to
Speaker 3: see the helicopter. I don't know. I will confess I
Speaker 3: don't know the technical answers to this precisely, which is
Speaker 3: why the investigation needs to proceed. I expect to get
Speaker 3: an answer on that, but we don't know the answer
Speaker 3: to that exactly. I will say, also, Ben, I think
Speaker 3: a very reasonable question that a number of senators were
Speaker 3: asking is why exactly are there so many helicopter flight
Speaker 3: paths immediately in the vicinity of such a busy airport
Speaker 3: as DC Reagan Airport. Is that a sound policy decision
Speaker 3: to have helicopters traveling that close. Now, now, I don't
Speaker 3: know if that's the cause of it, By the way,
Speaker 3: we will. What we do know is the two should
Speaker 3: not have collided, and so somebody screwed up, and we'll
Speaker 3: figure out who and how and why.
Speaker 2: And look, Washington and I talked to a pilot today,
Speaker 2: and he said, Washington's just different and Reagan's just different.
Speaker 2: There's a lot more helicopters there, there's a lot more
Speaker 2: airspace there that's different than other parts. It's a lot
Speaker 2: more intense, there's a lot more rules, especially after nine
Speaker 2: to eleven, and so you got to look at all
Speaker 2: those things. It goes back to what you're saying, it's
Speaker 2: just different. Private airplanes, for example, aren't going into Reagan.
Speaker 2: You go into DoLS for that exact reason, because you're
Speaker 2: protecting and so there are so many X factors. Is
Speaker 2: one pilot to today, There's so many questions to ask.
Speaker 2: This is not a simple yes or no or point
Speaker 2: of finger because there's so many X factors when you
Speaker 2: fly to DCA.
Speaker 3: Well, and I'll say the briefing that I hosted with
Speaker 3: NTSB of the FAA, so I had, I was on it.
Speaker 3: Obviously Maria Cantwell, who's the ranking member of the senior
Speaker 3: Democrat on the Commerce Committee, she was on it. We
Speaker 3: also had both of the Kansas Senators, Jerry Moran and
Speaker 3: Roger Marshall. They both participated, and obviously the flight came
Speaker 3: from WHICHITAS. So the Kansas senators are particularly engaged and
Speaker 3: then we had Tammy Duckworth and Jerry Moran and Tammy
Speaker 3: Duckworth are the chairman and ranking member, respectively of the
Speaker 3: Aviation Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, so they're both particularly
Speaker 3: engaged in aviation issues, which is why I invited both
Speaker 3: of them to participate. So Tammy Duckworth was in the military.
Speaker 3: She was a helicopter pilot and she's in a wheelchair.
Speaker 3: She was very badly wounded in a combat injury. But
Speaker 3: she is an experienced helicopter pilot. I will tell you
Speaker 3: in the briefing, I commented, I said, Tammy, it's really
Speaker 3: helpful to have an experienced helicopter pilot as part of
Speaker 3: this discussion, because she was literally she had the maps
Speaker 3: out of the flight path and she's looking at, okay,
Speaker 3: where runway thirty three is and where helicopter Roote four is.
Speaker 3: And Tammy was saying in the course of the discussion,
Speaker 3: if the helicopter stayed on helicopter Route four, it should
Speaker 3: not have been anywhere close to the landing pattern for
Speaker 3: runway thirty three. So that was an insight. Look, I'm
Speaker 3: not a helicopter pilot. I don't have the insight to
Speaker 3: look at those maps and determine that. I thought that
Speaker 3: was a very interesting insight from her. I'll tell you
Speaker 3: something else she said that I didn't know that was interesting.
Speaker 3: It's been widely reported the Army black helicopter was on
Speaker 3: a training mission. What she said is the Army routinely
Speaker 3: codes virtually every flight as a training mission. And she
Speaker 3: said the reason they do that is Army pilots are
Speaker 3: required to have a certain number of hours to keep
Speaker 3: their certification, and so every flight they do as a
Speaker 3: training mission to maintain those hours. So what she said
Speaker 3: is it doesn't necessarily convey what the purpose of that
Speaker 3: flight was that it is being called a training mission.
Speaker 3: I have to admit I would not have known that
Speaker 3: had she not said that, And I think all of
Speaker 3: us we were like, oh, that's.
Speaker 2: Interesting because when you listen this, especially if you're just
Speaker 2: watching the news, and they're like, why would you have
Speaker 2: this training flight this time of night? Yeah, right there
Speaker 2: in this airspace. Surely there's somewhere else you could go
Speaker 2: and treat that is a lot less congested than DCA
Speaker 2: and all the regulations that you have, and this bravo
Speaker 2: space around the Washington d C. At the highest level
Speaker 2: go somewhere else and be safer. But the way that
Speaker 2: you just described it from her, well, this actually makes sense.
Speaker 2: They could be doing real work and they categorize it.
Speaker 1: As a training mission.
Speaker 3: So look, I think in the days that go forward,
Speaker 3: we're going to find out what the precise mission was.
Speaker 3: My understanding is the pilots for the American Airlines flight
Speaker 3: were quite experienced. They had a very significant number of
Speaker 3: hours of flight, so they were very experienced. At this point,
Speaker 3: I don't have a clear picture of what the experience
Speaker 3: level was for the Army pilots. I'm confident we will
Speaker 3: find out more about that, and I'm confident we will
Speaker 3: have discussions on policy questions. One discussion I'm sure we
Speaker 3: will have is whether the exemptions of the FAA rules
Speaker 3: for military aircraft and federal law enforcement aircraft from having
Speaker 3: the ADSB technology, Whether that is a good decision or not.
Speaker 3: My understanding is one of the reasons for that exemption
Speaker 3: is the military law enforcement sometimes doesn't want to be tracked.
Speaker 3: They don't want their location evident, And there may be
Speaker 3: reasons for both military law enforcement context why you want
Speaker 3: the ability not to be tracked in real time. I
Speaker 3: think that's a discussion we're going to have to have,
Speaker 3: and as I sit here today, I don't know whether
Speaker 3: that if the Blackhawk had that technology, whether it would
Speaker 3: have made a material difference preventing this accident. I think
Speaker 3: that's a reasonable question to ask. Secondly, I think we're
Speaker 3: going to get some real questions about, Okay, how many
Speaker 3: helicopter flights are there in and around Reagan Airport? Do
Speaker 3: we need all of those flights? Is there an unnecessary
Speaker 3: unreasonable risk. I don't know the answer to that. There
Speaker 3: may be some compelling reason why you need to have that.
Speaker 3: I certainly think you ought to give the military a
Speaker 3: chance to explain it. But I think given this horrific
Speaker 3: collision and the lives that are lost, we're going to
Speaker 3: have to have a very serious conversation about what caused
Speaker 3: this accident and what steps can be taken to prevent
Speaker 3: this from happening in the future.
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about the government aspect of this as well,
Speaker 2: because there's people that have been asking is there full staffing?
Speaker 2: Are we understaffed? Are there enough people in the towers?
Speaker 2: Are there enough qualified people in the towers? Has that
Speaker 2: even become part of the conversation yet?
Speaker 1: On the hill.
Speaker 3: It's certainly part of the conversation. I would say, at
Speaker 3: this point, we don't know. So I've seen reports that
Speaker 3: the air traffic controller was assigned to multiple responsibilities. It's
Speaker 3: not clear what the facts are on that. And one
Speaker 3: of the dangers coming out of a catastrophic accident is
Speaker 3: there's a fog of war. There's people here snip at
Speaker 3: this and the other, and they repeat it. And I'm
Speaker 3: a big believer, I will say the NTSB, I've grown
Speaker 3: to really respect the work they do. They investigate when
Speaker 3: you have a catastrophic accident. They investigate based on the facts,
Speaker 3: based on evidence, and they do a good job of
Speaker 3: not jumping into conclusions, trying to figure out, okay, exactly
Speaker 3: what happened. So a last airlines when you had the
Speaker 3: door plug blow off, and TSB did a very thorough
Speaker 3: investigation there and presented their conclusions. And so today we
Speaker 3: heard from them, but it was barely twelve hours into
Speaker 3: the investigation, so they didn't know a whole lot yet.
Speaker 3: And I do think and they will reach a conclusion expeditiously.
Speaker 3: These guys are serious and technical and they try to
Speaker 3: follow the facts, and that investigation is important. Once we
Speaker 3: know the facts of what caused the accident, then we
Speaker 3: can say, all right, what steps can be taken to
Speaker 3: minimize these risks going forward. But I do think one
Speaker 3: of the things I'm merging my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats,
Speaker 3: is is don't don't get ahead of ourselves. And by
Speaker 3: the way, I'll tell you just a personal aspect to this.
Speaker 3: So last night, Wednesday night, I was having dinner in Washington,
Speaker 3: d C. I was having dinner with Mike Waltz. Mike
Speaker 3: Waltz is President Trump's national security advisor. And so most
Speaker 3: nights when I'm in Washington, d C. I have working dinners.
Speaker 3: I have dinners with colleagues, with other senators or House members.
Speaker 3: I have dinners with cabinet members. Sometimes I have dinners
Speaker 3: with subject matter experts. So last night I was having
Speaker 3: dinner with Mike Waltz, the Trump's national security advisor, and
Speaker 3: we were talking foreign policy. We're talking the Middle East.
Speaker 3: We were talking Israel and Iran and China and all
Speaker 3: of the foreign policy challenges facing this country. And I
Speaker 3: will tell you right at the end of the dinner,
Speaker 3: we actually were just wrapping up when Mike got a
Speaker 3: call and said, oh, wow, okay, there's been a collision
Speaker 3: between a jet and helicopter a DC Reagan airport. So
Speaker 3: Mike left to go back to the White House to
Speaker 3: deal with it. And as I was walking out, I'll
Speaker 3: tell you been a particularly personal aspect. So last night
Speaker 3: Heidi was flying into d C and she was flying
Speaker 3: into Reagan. Wow. And she was due to land about
Speaker 3: thirty minutes after this accident happened. And so I'll say,
Speaker 3: my body man, who's a great kid, is with me frequently,
Speaker 3: came up. I'll give him credit what he said to
Speaker 3: me walking up, As he said, Heidie's okay, but there's
Speaker 3: been an accident at d C Reagan and a commercial
Speaker 3: jettis Hitt helicopter. I was very glad he started with
Speaker 3: Heidie's okay, because I got to say, and so what happened.
Speaker 3: Her flight was diverted from Reagan and it landed in
Speaker 3: BWI for beer.
Speaker 1: They don't know.
Speaker 3: Bw's Baltimore, Baltimore, Washington, and it's about forty five minutes away.
Speaker 3: There are three airports that serve DC Washington. Reagan is
Speaker 3: the closest to d C Washington. Dulles's in northern Virginia
Speaker 3: a little further out, and then BWI Baltimore, Washington is,
Speaker 3: like I said, forty five minutes to an hour out.
Speaker 3: So she was diverted. And so when she landed it
Speaker 3: was interesting. I texted her immediately said hey, are you okay?
Speaker 3: I got no answer because she was still in the air.
Speaker 3: And then when she landed, I called her immediately, and
Speaker 3: as she was getting off the plane, she said, what happened?
Speaker 3: I don't understand. Why do we get sent to BWI?
Speaker 3: So they didn't tell the passengers why they were diverted,
Speaker 3: and so I told her what had happened, and she
Speaker 3: was and I look, I understand, you don't want to
Speaker 3: tell passengers on an airplane. Hey, there was just a
Speaker 3: plane crash that freaks people out. But I told her
Speaker 3: and then she came home. But I got ad met it.
Speaker 3: It freaked me out a little bit that my wife
Speaker 3: was within twenty thirty minutes of where there was a
Speaker 3: fatal plane crash at that airport, and you and I
Speaker 3: both landed at DCA hundreds if not hundreds of thousands
Speaker 3: of times, and so it's I got to say. I did.
Speaker 3: I was, I said a long prayer and was like God,
Speaker 3: thank you for sparing Heidi and I. When she got
Speaker 3: to our apartment, I gave her a very long hug.
Speaker 3: And it's uh. And I am grieving for the sixty
Speaker 3: seven families who are mourning the loss of their loved ones.
Speaker 3: It's horrific and and and we're certainly grieving them. And
Speaker 3: we're grateful for all the first responders and everyone who's
Speaker 3: been really heroic, UH, try to deal with this, this
Speaker 3: this catastrophe since it happened.
Speaker 2: Well, I also want to just highlight the response was incredible.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure you've got some of that briefing that
Speaker 2: came about this. You know, there's always criticism of we
Speaker 2: could do things better, but the on the ground first responders'
Speaker 2: response truly seemed unbelievable. How quick they were responding, how
Speaker 2: fast there were so many people there to help. You
Speaker 2: were hoping for good news that they were going to
Speaker 2: be survivors. We now know that the tragic loss of
Speaker 2: life and what the reality was, but even in the recovery,
Speaker 2: it was all hands on deck. And it made me
Speaker 2: proud to be an American. I mean, it was it
Speaker 2: was truly incredible to watch it in real time on TV.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I talked early this morning to Robert Isam, who's
Speaker 3: the CEO of American Airlines. He flew to DC. He
Speaker 3: was on the ground. Obviously they were dealing with sixty
Speaker 3: passengers and four crew members who were killed, and they
Speaker 3: were dealing with trying to provide help and support to
Speaker 3: the families, and I talked to him. I also talked
Speaker 3: to Sean Duffy as the Secretary of Transportation. You know,
Speaker 3: Seawan was confirmed the day earlier, like it literally this
Speaker 3: was his first day on the job. Yeah, And Shawn
Speaker 3: is a good man and a serious man, and he's
Speaker 3: been diving in and trying to deal with it. But
Speaker 3: this is a heck of a welcome to be Secretary
Speaker 3: of Transportation. We've got a major airplane accident on day
Speaker 3: one and he's dealing with it and look the resources
Speaker 3: to investigate to try to determine ex exactly what happened.
Speaker 3: The NTSB in particular, they're very good at this, and
Speaker 3: we're trying to track down Obviously there was a massive
Speaker 3: mistake somewhere, but we need to figure out who made
Speaker 3: it and why and and and how could it have
Speaker 3: been prevented so that we can learn lessons and try
Speaker 3: to stop this from happening again. I will say this
Speaker 3: though also as just to comfort everyone. As horrific as
Speaker 3: this is, it is worth remembering that air travel is
Speaker 3: is hands down the safest mode of transport it and
Speaker 3: your odds of being killed driving to the airport are
Speaker 3: still higher than they are being killed flying on a
Speaker 3: commercial airline, so they're not zero. And and and in
Speaker 3: some ways it is amazing given the flights that occur
Speaker 3: all over this country in so many places, that that
Speaker 3: that that it has been a long time since we've
Speaker 3: had a mass fatality accident in the United States, given
Speaker 3: how complicated lying is, and in some ways that's remarkable.
Speaker 3: But nonetheless this tragedy, we should do everything we can
Speaker 3: to press for zero fatalities. And so we're going to
Speaker 3: learn lessons from this and try to try to prevent
Speaker 3: it from happening again.
Speaker 2: You mentioned something and just you talk about perspective, it
Speaker 2: was it's amazing just how fast things can change. Because
Speaker 2: Sean Duffy, who you know well, and his wife Rachel,
Speaker 2: they have a large family, and he was welcomed just
Speaker 2: minutes before at his office and his family was there,
Speaker 2: and he walked up to walk into the office where
Speaker 2: he's going to serve the American people. And he went
Speaker 2: into that office and then I'm sure afterwards was immediately
Speaker 2: rushed out because of what happened. And I sent a
Speaker 2: note to is what Rachel last night. I just said,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm so proud and I'm so sorry that
Speaker 2: the first night that this is what you're having to
Speaker 2: deal with the best that I know. God has put
Speaker 2: y'all there for times like this to lead into comfort.
Speaker 2: And I do think the American peoples to understand they're
Speaker 2: incredible leaders that we have just gained who are going
Speaker 2: to do an amazing job in times like these.
Speaker 1: Sean is one of those.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I'm grateful that he was on board
Speaker 3: and confirmed and was able to be doing his job
Speaker 3: on the day of this accident. Also Pete Hegseth, who
Speaker 3: was just confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Listen, this is
Speaker 3: a crisis involving the loss of life for three soldiers
Speaker 3: as well and the question of who was at fault.
Speaker 3: There's at least some real question whether the military pilots
Speaker 3: have committed some serious error. We don't know for sure,
Speaker 3: but that you look at Pete Hegseith, you're just confirmed
Speaker 3: his Defense secretary. This is a serious challenge to deal
Speaker 3: with in his first couple of days as well, and
Speaker 3: I'm grateful both of them were confirmed on the job,
Speaker 3: because you need strong leadership to deal with the crisis
Speaker 3: of this magnitude.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you my next question quickly
Speaker 2: was going to be the follow up on the military.
Speaker 2: We talked so much about, you know, transportation, the airlines
Speaker 2: and the CEO and et cetera, But let's talk about
Speaker 2: the military side.
Speaker 1: There was loss of life there as well. What do
Speaker 1: we know from that perspective.
Speaker 3: We know three soldiers were aboard the Blackhawk and they
Speaker 3: were all killed. We don't know the details now of
Speaker 3: who made the mistake. Obviously somebody did because this should
Speaker 3: not have happened, But we don't know where the mistake was,
Speaker 3: and it's where the investigation, like NTSB will retrace the
Speaker 3: exact path of each airline, each aircraft and figure out, Okay,
Speaker 3: who was not where they were supposed to be, Who
Speaker 3: was in the wrong place? Was there a miscommunication? Look,
Speaker 3: as you review the transcripts, you know FA and NTSB
Speaker 3: told us, at least initially reviewing the transcript. It appeared
Speaker 3: like when the air traffic controllers said, okay, do you
Speaker 3: have visual confirmation of the airline and the helicopter pilot
Speaker 3: said yes. What we were told in the b anything
Speaker 3: is ordinarily the air traffic controller would move on say okay,
Speaker 3: you guys are taken care of, onto the next flight.
Speaker 3: So that was their initial take. Is that exchange appeared
Speaker 3: to be a fairly typical exchange back and forth of
Speaker 3: navigating multiple aircraft in close proximity. Nevertheless, we'll find out
Speaker 3: as we examine. Was there just one individual who made
Speaker 3: an error? Were there multiple individuals? Was what was the
Speaker 3: cause of this? And that I'm confident I've told the
Speaker 3: other members of the Commerce Committee. As NTSB reaches conclusions,
Speaker 3: i'll have another briefing where we sit down with them
Speaker 3: and can ask them, ask them hard questions and understand, Okay,
Speaker 3: what really caused this and how do we prevent it
Speaker 3: from happening again.
Speaker 2: This brings us to confirmations, and I do want to
Speaker 2: just give a quick update for everybody about where we are.
Speaker 2: It shows you the importance of having people in these
Speaker 2: positions you talk about. Sean Duffy is a great example.
Speaker 2: Confirmed on the day this happened. There are several other
Speaker 2: major posts that we have confirmation hearings that wrapped up
Speaker 2: on Thursday, as you and I recording this Thursday night.
Speaker 2: There will not be votes on them till next week.
Speaker 2: How are things moving forward? Where are we in general
Speaker 2: right now compared to in the past, Because I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: are they slowing us down? Are we getting back on track?
Speaker 2: Where are we?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 3: Look, the Democrats are certainly engaged in delay and obstruction.
Speaker 3: That being said, where we are now? Eight cabinet members
Speaker 3: have been confirmed, So we.
Speaker 1: Are so ple know what's the total number that is
Speaker 1: a full.
Speaker 3: Cabinet in the low twenties.
Speaker 2: Okay, So we're far away. We're not even a half,
Speaker 2: We're not even a fifty percent.
Speaker 3: Correct, But we are ahead of where Biden was at
Speaker 3: this point, and we're ahead of where Trump was in
Speaker 3: the first term. So eight is moving with greater expedition
Speaker 3: than the last two administrations of scene and so started with.
Speaker 3: The first cabinet member confirm was Marco Rubio. He was
Speaker 3: confirmed on January twentieth, the first day, and he was
Speaker 3: confirmed ninety nine to zero. The second cabinet member was
Speaker 3: the CIA director John Ratcliffe. He had seventy four yeses
Speaker 3: and twenty five knows. After that, you had Pete Hegseth
Speaker 3: as Defense Secretary. He had fifty one yeses and fifty knows.
Speaker 3: The Vice President J. D. Vance cast the tie breaking vote.
Speaker 3: The next person confirmed was the Secretary of Homeland Security,
Speaker 3: Christy Dome. She had fifty nine yeses and thirty four nos.
Speaker 3: After that, the Treasury Secretary was confirmed. He had sixty
Speaker 3: eight yes, twenty nine knows. That's Scott Bessent. After that,
Speaker 3: the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was confirmed. We're very glad
Speaker 3: he was confirmed given this crisis. He had seventy seven
Speaker 3: yeses and twenty two knows. After that, the EPA Administrator
Speaker 3: Lee Zelden, former congressman from New York, former candidate for
Speaker 3: governor in New York, a friend of mine. He was
Speaker 3: confirmed as EPA administrator with fifty six yes's, forty two knows.
Speaker 3: And then just today, the Interior Secretary Doug Burgham, the
Speaker 3: former governor of North Dakota. He was confirmed seventy nine
Speaker 3: yes as eighteen nos. Now where do we stand now?
Speaker 3: In addition to confirming Doug Burgham, we've teed up as
Speaker 3: the next cabinet members to be confirmed, Chris Wright as
Speaker 3: Secretary of Energy, Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
Speaker 3: and Pam Bondy as Attorney General, and Scott Turner as
Speaker 3: Secretary of Housing in Urban Development. All of those are
Speaker 3: our scheduled to be confirmed next week, so they're teed up.
Speaker 3: We were going to ram through the weekend and keep
Speaker 3: the Democrats here because they were engaged in obstruction, and
Speaker 3: Thursday night the Democrats caved and they agreed to expedite
Speaker 3: and move these forward. So we're moving now on a
Speaker 3: faster pace than we would have if we had rammed
Speaker 3: through the weekend and the Democrats had extended all the time.
Speaker 3: So they agreed, all right, we'll compress the time if
Speaker 3: we let them fly home, and so by next week,
Speaker 3: as I said, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Eddans Affairs,
Speaker 3: Attorney General and hud we'll all make it through next week.
Speaker 2: That obviously means the pace is moving up. When you
Speaker 2: look at so far what's happened there does seem to
Speaker 2: be a little bit of a change. Now we're noticing
Speaker 2: it with the Democrats in the media especially, it seems
Speaker 2: like there's a real appetite to just get a nominee
Speaker 2: whatever when they get their hands on to not pass.
Speaker 2: Is that part of the gainsmanship that we're witnessing. Am
Speaker 2: I reading the room the right way?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Look, I still believe, and I've said this a number
Speaker 3: of times, that all of Trump's cabinet nominees are going
Speaker 3: to be confirmed, and I think they'll be confirmed within
Speaker 3: thirty days. That we are leaning in. We're putting the
Speaker 3: pedal to the medal under the Senate rules that the
Speaker 3: Democrats can delay some, but I think within thirty days
Speaker 3: we'll get them all through Out the two the three
Speaker 3: that they are going after hardest are in terms of
Speaker 3: cabinet nominees, Tulca Gabbert for Director of National Intelligence, Bobby
Speaker 3: Kennedy for Health and Human Services, and then it's not
Speaker 3: a cabinet position, but Cash Pateel for Director of the FBI,
Speaker 3: which it's a sub cabinet position but a very very
Speaker 3: important law enforcement position. Those are the three. It's not
Speaker 3: complicated or subtle. Those three are the top targets of
Speaker 3: the Democrats. Today. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, we had
Speaker 3: cash Betel's hearing. I was vigorous at the hearing defending him.
Speaker 3: I will tell you I think I think Cash did
Speaker 3: very well. I think he acquitted himself in an excellent way.
Speaker 3: This evening I was on Sean Hannity, and as I
Speaker 3: put it, I said, my assessment of the Democrats behavior
Speaker 3: at cash Betel's hearing reminded me of the quote from
Speaker 3: Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was a tale told by an idiot,
Speaker 3: full of out in fury and signifying nothing.
Speaker 2: That is a great accurate way of describing it. Was
Speaker 2: a you know what show is how I was going
Speaker 2: to put it.
Speaker 3: But they didn't land any material blows. And look, the
Speaker 3: point on Cash. What they're attacking him on not that
Speaker 3: he's not qualified. He's clearly qualified. He has over a
Speaker 3: decade of experience in law enforcement, national security, including having
Speaker 3: been a federal public defender, including having been a federal prosecutor,
Speaker 3: having worked in the National Security Division of the Department
Speaker 3: of Justice, having worked in the White House and the
Speaker 3: National Security Council, having been a senior intelligence staffer on
Speaker 3: Capitol Hill, and having been the chief of staff at
Speaker 3: the United States Defense Department. They're not arguing he's unqualified.
Speaker 3: What they're arguing is they're terrified he will do exactly
Speaker 3: what President Trump promised he would do, which is eliminate
Speaker 3: the politicization and weaponization of the FBI and get it
Speaker 3: back to its core function. I believe Cash Bettel will
Speaker 3: do that, and I think the Democrats are free out
Speaker 3: because they don't want them to do that. But I
Speaker 3: think Cash will make it through. We also had hearings
Speaker 3: this week for both Bobby Kennedy and Tulsea Gabbert. I
Speaker 3: don't know, it is not impossible that one of those
Speaker 3: nominees is defeated, but I think they all make it through.
Speaker 2: Right now, when you look at the Republicans, when Democrats
Speaker 2: are pushing this obstructionism the way that they are doing
Speaker 2: it and trying to slow things down, does that unify
Speaker 2: the Republican base more because it's like, all right, come on, guys.
Speaker 2: Does that make it actually easier to get the votes
Speaker 2: you need because you realize what you're up against?
Speaker 3: A look, potentially, you had Pete hag Seth, who is
Speaker 3: the one they went after the hardest so far, and
Speaker 3: that vote was fifty to fifty. We lost three Republicans.
Speaker 3: We lost Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell. Because
Speaker 3: we have a fifty three to forty seven majority, losing
Speaker 3: three made it fifty to fifty, and that meant the
Speaker 3: Vice President JD. Vance could break the tie. I am
Speaker 3: glad we have fifty three. If we had a fifty
Speaker 3: one vote majority, I would not be nearly so sanguine.
Speaker 3: I would not be saying every Trump Cabinet nominee is
Speaker 3: going to be confirmed if we had a fifty one
Speaker 3: vote majority. But because we have fifty three, we can
Speaker 3: lose up to three, and so I think all of
Speaker 3: these make it through. Listen, Tulsi. Tulsi was a Democrat
Speaker 3: for most of her career. She is perceived if you
Speaker 3: look at Republican foreign policy, they're interventionists and isolationists. There
Speaker 3: are many who perceive Tulsi as much more of an isolationist.
Speaker 3: So there are Republicans who have real concerns with her
Speaker 3: will that play out into no votes. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think the President deserves a considerable amount of deference
Speaker 3: in naming his cabinet members, and he has decided to
Speaker 3: name Tulci Gabbert. I'm going to vote yes, but I
Speaker 3: don't know. It's not impossible that we get four no votes,
Speaker 3: which would take down the nomination. Likewise, Bobby Kennedy. Bobby
Speaker 3: Kennedy's a complicated situation. Both Kennedy and Tulsa, until like
Speaker 3: twelve minutes ago, they were both Democrats, and so Bobby
Speaker 3: Kennedy obviously a scion of one of the great Democrat
Speaker 3: royalty families, Camelot. It is a curious dynamic. It's not
Speaker 3: clear to me any Democrat is going to vote for him,
Speaker 3: which is an interesting situation. Listen, there's some conservatives. Bobby Kennedy,
Speaker 3: until recently, on many policies is his views were quite
Speaker 3: left of center. I'm going to vote for Bobby Kennedy
Speaker 3: because I think he's a change agent, because I think
Speaker 3: he has courage to take on I think some of
Speaker 3: the corruption that we have at HHS, particularly with big Pharma,
Speaker 3: that gets in bed with the career bureaucrats there and
Speaker 3: stifles competition and drives up costs. I think if you
Speaker 3: have a terrible disease, you should have a right to
Speaker 3: access life saving medication. And I'm one of the original
Speaker 3: sponsors of the right to Try legislation. I think that's
Speaker 3: very important, and i think Bobby Kennedy is going to
Speaker 3: shake up the cronyism that that has characterized HHS. What's
Speaker 3: not clear to me is I don't if any Democrats
Speaker 3: want that cronyism shaken up, and to be honest, there
Speaker 3: may be some Republicans that don't. Let's play this exchange.
Speaker 3: So this is Bobby Kennedy responding to Bernie Sanders. Bernie's
Speaker 3: going to vote now. When Bernie was attacking him like crazy,
Speaker 3: but I got to say, Bobby Kennedy popped him back
Speaker 3: pretty hard. Listen to this exchange.
Speaker 5: I'm going to make America healthier than other countries in
Speaker 5: the world. Right now, will.
Speaker 4: You guarantee do what every other major country. It's a
Speaker 4: simple question.
Speaker 5: And by the way, Bernie, you know the problem of
Speaker 5: corruption is not just in the federal agents, is in
Speaker 5: Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting,
Speaker 5: include yourself, or accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical
Speaker 5: industry protecting their interests.
Speaker 4: Oh I thought that that would No. No, I ran
Speaker 4: for president like you. I got millions, millions of contributions.
Speaker 4: They did not come from the executives, not one nickel
Speaker 4: of pack money from the pharmaceuticals and they came to
Speaker 4: twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty, you were the single largest.
Speaker 4: Because I received a pharmaceutical combinations from workers all over
Speaker 4: this country.
Speaker 3: Workers.
Speaker 1: You were this, not a nickel from corporate.
Speaker 5: You was the single largest pharmaceutical.
Speaker 4: Dollars from workers in point three five million. Yeah, out
Speaker 4: of two hundred millions.
Speaker 3: All right, but.
Speaker 4: You have not answered last question.
Speaker 2: I mean that you want to talk about a beatdown
Speaker 2: with the facts there, Bernie, You've accepted millions of dollars
Speaker 2: in the pharmaceutical industry.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, you were this single.
Speaker 2: Largest receiver of pharmacyal dollars one point five millions.
Speaker 1: Like, let's just move on here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he did not like that exchange. By the way,
Speaker 3: I've never seen a confirmation hearing where the nominee refers
Speaker 3: to the senator by his first name. He keeps calling
Speaker 3: him Bernie. Like it's clear Bobby Kennedy and Bernie Sanators
Speaker 3: they know each other well. I mean, they've got a
Speaker 3: long history there. Because that's that that that's quite unusual too.
Speaker 3: But I gotta say Bernie was not anticipating that pop back.
Speaker 3: We'll see how it plays out. But I think Kennedy's
Speaker 3: gonna get confirmed. I want him to get confirmed. I
Speaker 3: like Bobby Kennedy, and I also think there are a
Speaker 3: lot of Americans, a lot of Americans who are not
Speaker 3: even very political, a lot of moms who are worried
Speaker 3: about the garbage that that our kids are are consuming,
Speaker 3: are worried about the rise in in in in chronic illness,
Speaker 3: that that that that. I think Bobby Kennedy is a
Speaker 3: very good person to take that on well.
Speaker 2: And the keyword you use was an age of change. Ye,
Speaker 2: there is an appetite for that in Washington. The status
Speaker 2: quo people are sick and tired of. And that's part
Speaker 2: of the reason why I think Donald Trump brought who
Speaker 2: he brought to the table. Absolutely, don't forget. We did
Speaker 2: a show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We do a week
Speaker 2: in review as well on Saturdays. At that subscribe or
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Speaker 2: you up to down on the latest breaking news and the
Speaker 2: Sina and I will see you back here Saturday for
Speaker 2: the weekend review.