Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Inside the Investigation into the Tragic DC Airline Crash, plus Trump Confirmations Accelerate

Transcript

Inside the Investigation into the Tragic DC Airline Crash, plus Trump Confirmations Accelerate · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center. Ted Cruz.
0:03
Speaker 2: Nice to have you with us on this Friday morning,
0:05
Speaker 2: and Center, We've got a lot to talk about, including
0:09
Speaker 2: the tragedy that happened. You were right there in Washington
0:12
Speaker 2: when all this was unfolding with this helicopter and airplane
0:16
Speaker 2: colliding at Reagan National Airport.
0:19
Speaker 3: Well, it was truly a tragic and horrific accident, and
0:23
Speaker 3: it cost the lives of sixty seven souls. The commercial
0:27
Speaker 3: airliner from American Airlines, flying from Wichita, Kansas to Washington
0:31
Speaker 3: d C. Reagan Airport had sixty passengers on it and
0:35
Speaker 3: four crew members, and then an Army black Hawk helicopter
0:40
Speaker 3: had three soldiers on it, bringing the total death toll
0:43
Speaker 3: to sixty seven. The two collided just before nine pm
0:52
Speaker 3: on Wednesday night. They collided as the American Airlines airliner
0:59
Speaker 3: was landing at d C. Reagan Airport. And I'll tell
1:02
Speaker 3: you today, so you and I are recording this Thursday night. Today,
1:06
Speaker 3: I spent a lot of the day dealing with the
1:08
Speaker 3: aftermath of this. So, as you know, I'm the chairman
1:11
Speaker 3: of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It
1:14
Speaker 3: has jurisdiction over all of aviation. And so today I
1:19
Speaker 3: hosted briefings from the FAA and the NTSB, the National
1:24
Speaker 3: Traffic Safety Board, and we were heard from. They were
1:33
Speaker 3: bipartisan briefings. I had senators both Republicans and Democrats that participated,
1:40
Speaker 3: and we got we got briefings the NTSB, which is
1:46
Speaker 3: as I said, the National Transportation Safety Board does investigations
1:51
Speaker 3: whenever there's a serious accident, whenever there's an accident, an
1:54
Speaker 3: aviation accident, whenever there's a rail accident, they do investigations,
1:59
Speaker 3: and we heard from them. Now as of Thursday, the
2:04
Speaker 3: NTSB had over a dozen investigators on the ground. And listen,
2:10
Speaker 3: in the wake of an accident, you've got to actually
2:13
Speaker 3: see what happened. You've got to investigate and discover the facts,
2:15
Speaker 3: discover the evidence. In this instance, we know that the
2:19
Speaker 3: American Airlines flight was coming in. It was initially on
2:24
Speaker 3: runway one at Reagan Airport, and then the air traffic
2:28
Speaker 3: controllers moved it to runway thirty three, So they shifted
2:31
Speaker 3: the runway right at the very end, and the American
2:33
Speaker 3: Airlines pilots changed their descent to land on runway thirty three. Now,
2:40
Speaker 3: simultaneously there was an Army black Hawk helicopter that was traveling.
2:44
Speaker 3: There are multiple helicopter routes that go in and around
2:48
Speaker 3: Reagan Airport, and that Army helicopter was on Route one
2:53
Speaker 3: and then it was shifting from Route one to Root four,
2:56
Speaker 3: and the air traffic controllers were in contact with the
3:00
Speaker 3: pilots of the American Airlines flight and also the pilots
3:05
Speaker 3: of the helicopter, and after telling the American Airlines jet
3:10
Speaker 3: to land on Runway thirty three, the air traffic controller
3:15
Speaker 3: tells the black Hawk pilots to visually confirm and have
3:21
Speaker 3: in the line of sight the incoming plane, and the
3:24
Speaker 3: black Hawk helicopter pilots confirmed that yes, they have the
3:27
Speaker 3: plane in sight, and they also instruct the black Hawk
3:33
Speaker 3: pilots to come behind the plane that is landing. What
3:38
Speaker 3: in fact happens, or what appears to have happened, is
3:42
Speaker 3: the black Hawk helicopter came in front of the plane
3:45
Speaker 3: that was landing. The two collided midair and exploded midair.
3:49
Speaker 3: Now at this point it appears everyone involved died. Both
3:56
Speaker 3: the plane and the black Hawk helicopter sunk into the
3:59
Speaker 3: Potomac River. They were both in relatively shallow water about
4:05
Speaker 3: seven to eight feet of water where they had sunk,
4:10
Speaker 3: and as of Thursday, the black box, the flight recorder
4:16
Speaker 3: had been recovered from the airplane and they are in
4:20
Speaker 3: the process of recovering the black box the audio transcript
4:25
Speaker 3: recorder for the Blackhawk helicopter, so both of those will
4:28
Speaker 3: be recovered and they're trying to piece together what happened.
4:31
Speaker 3: What do we know. We know that somebody were multiple
4:35
Speaker 3: somebodies made a catastrophic mistake, a catastrophic mistake that led
4:41
Speaker 3: to a massive loss of life at this point, and look,
4:45
Speaker 3: there are lots of people who are giving all sorts
4:47
Speaker 3: of theories, who are jumping on all sorts of possibilities.
4:50
Speaker 3: In my view, we shouldn't speculate. We shouldn't we shouldn't
4:54
Speaker 3: get ahead of the evidence. We need to understand exactly
4:57
Speaker 3: what caused this accident, whether it was an error on
5:01
Speaker 3: the part of the army pilot, whether it was conceivably
5:05
Speaker 3: an error on the part of the commercial airliner pilot,
5:09
Speaker 3: whether it was an error on the part of the
5:11
Speaker 3: air traffic controller, or some combination of multiplayers in that regard.
5:16
Speaker 3: We don't know right now. What we do know is
5:19
Speaker 3: two aircraft we're in the same place at the same time.
5:22
Speaker 3: Now as we were having the briefing from the NTSB
5:27
Speaker 3: and the FAA that they told us several things. Number
5:32
Speaker 3: number one that had the helicopter stayed on Route four,
5:39
Speaker 3: it would have been well out of the way of
5:41
Speaker 3: the landing path of the airline, and it would have
5:45
Speaker 3: been in a lower altitude than where the helicopter and
5:50
Speaker 3: the jet collided. We don't know what happened exactly. One
5:55
Speaker 3: of the things the NTSB is going to do in
5:57
Speaker 3: this investigation is they're going to listen to the black
5:59
Speaker 3: boxer coardings of both aircraft and they're going to retrace
6:03
Speaker 3: the path the exact path of both aircraft to discover
6:07
Speaker 3: was one of them where it was not supposed to be?
6:10
Speaker 3: Were both of them where they were not supposed to be.
6:12
Speaker 3: At this point, we don't have a clear answer to that,
6:15
Speaker 3: and it's easy I would say, don't trust twitter, don't
6:18
Speaker 3: trust every theory. Look, they looked at one theory and actually,
6:22
Speaker 3: something I asked the NTSB, I said, when the air
6:25
Speaker 3: traffic controller asked the black Hawk pilots, do you have
6:28
Speaker 3: visual confirmation to the aircraft, and the black Hawk pilots
6:31
Speaker 3: confirm that do we have evidence that they were looking
6:34
Speaker 3: at a different airplane. You could certainly this strikes me
6:37
Speaker 3: as a reasonable inference that the the helicopter pilot looks
6:40
Speaker 3: and says, yes, I see the plane and perhaps didn't
6:44
Speaker 3: realize it was a different plane that was landing, because
6:47
Speaker 3: presumably if they saw the plane that led to the collision,
6:50
Speaker 3: they would not have stayed in the in the path
6:53
Speaker 3: of the plane, but they would would have piloted elsewhere.
6:55
Speaker 3: So NTSB and FAA told me right now, we don't know,
6:59
Speaker 3: so that's not confirmed. That's a theory people are saying
7:03
Speaker 3: online it is a plausible theory, but we don't have
7:07
Speaker 3: confirmation of that right now. There's also discussion about the equipment.
7:14
Speaker 3: So the Blackhawk helicopter had a transponder, so it was
7:18
Speaker 3: appearing on radar. It did not have technology called ADSB,
7:26
Speaker 3: which is technology that pings the location of an aircraft,
7:31
Speaker 3: and it does so using GPS rather than radar, and
7:35
Speaker 3: ADSB is more accurate and more reliable then simply a
7:39
Speaker 3: transponder that is pinging on radar. Now, under the FAA rules,
7:46
Speaker 3: military aircraft and federal law enforcement, an aircraft are exempted
7:52
Speaker 3: from the requirement that they have ADSB technology, And I
7:55
Speaker 3: will tell you as we were talking with the FAA,
7:58
Speaker 3: as we were talking with the NTSB, what they told us,
8:05
Speaker 3: at least initially, is that had the Blackhawk had ADSB,
8:11
Speaker 3: they said, it would have not have altered the ability
8:13
Speaker 3: of air traffic control and the American Airlines pilot to
8:18
Speaker 3: see the helicopter. I don't know. I will confess I
8:23
Speaker 3: don't know the technical answers to this precisely, which is
8:27
Speaker 3: why the investigation needs to proceed. I expect to get
8:31
Speaker 3: an answer on that, but we don't know the answer
8:33
Speaker 3: to that exactly. I will say, also, Ben, I think
8:37
Speaker 3: a very reasonable question that a number of senators were
8:40
Speaker 3: asking is why exactly are there so many helicopter flight
8:46
Speaker 3: paths immediately in the vicinity of such a busy airport
8:50
Speaker 3: as DC Reagan Airport. Is that a sound policy decision
8:57
Speaker 3: to have helicopters traveling that close. Now, now, I don't
9:01
Speaker 3: know if that's the cause of it, By the way,
9:03
Speaker 3: we will. What we do know is the two should
9:05
Speaker 3: not have collided, and so somebody screwed up, and we'll
9:08
Speaker 3: figure out who and how and why.
9:11
Speaker 2: And look, Washington and I talked to a pilot today,
9:13
Speaker 2: and he said, Washington's just different and Reagan's just different.
9:16
Speaker 2: There's a lot more helicopters there, there's a lot more
9:19
Speaker 2: airspace there that's different than other parts. It's a lot
9:22
Speaker 2: more intense, there's a lot more rules, especially after nine
9:25
Speaker 2: to eleven, and so you got to look at all
9:27
Speaker 2: those things. It goes back to what you're saying, it's
9:30
Speaker 2: just different. Private airplanes, for example, aren't going into Reagan.
9:34
Speaker 2: You go into DoLS for that exact reason, because you're
9:37
Speaker 2: protecting and so there are so many X factors. Is
9:41
Speaker 2: one pilot to today, There's so many questions to ask.
9:44
Speaker 2: This is not a simple yes or no or point
9:47
Speaker 2: of finger because there's so many X factors when you
9:49
Speaker 2: fly to DCA.
9:51
Speaker 3: Well, and I'll say the briefing that I hosted with
9:53
Speaker 3: NTSB of the FAA, so I had, I was on it.
9:56
Speaker 3: Obviously Maria Cantwell, who's the ranking member of the senior
9:59
Speaker 3: Democrat on the Commerce Committee, she was on it. We
10:02
Speaker 3: also had both of the Kansas Senators, Jerry Moran and
10:06
Speaker 3: Roger Marshall. They both participated, and obviously the flight came
10:09
Speaker 3: from WHICHITAS. So the Kansas senators are particularly engaged and
10:13
Speaker 3: then we had Tammy Duckworth and Jerry Moran and Tammy
10:16
Speaker 3: Duckworth are the chairman and ranking member, respectively of the
10:20
Speaker 3: Aviation Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, so they're both particularly
10:24
Speaker 3: engaged in aviation issues, which is why I invited both
10:26
Speaker 3: of them to participate. So Tammy Duckworth was in the military.
10:30
Speaker 3: She was a helicopter pilot and she's in a wheelchair.
10:33
Speaker 3: She was very badly wounded in a combat injury. But
10:39
Speaker 3: she is an experienced helicopter pilot. I will tell you
10:41
Speaker 3: in the briefing, I commented, I said, Tammy, it's really
10:44
Speaker 3: helpful to have an experienced helicopter pilot as part of
10:48
Speaker 3: this discussion, because she was literally she had the maps
10:51
Speaker 3: out of the flight path and she's looking at, okay,
10:54
Speaker 3: where runway thirty three is and where helicopter Roote four is.
10:57
Speaker 3: And Tammy was saying in the course of the discussion,
11:00
Speaker 3: if the helicopter stayed on helicopter Route four, it should
11:04
Speaker 3: not have been anywhere close to the landing pattern for
11:08
Speaker 3: runway thirty three. So that was an insight. Look, I'm
11:12
Speaker 3: not a helicopter pilot. I don't have the insight to
11:14
Speaker 3: look at those maps and determine that. I thought that
11:16
Speaker 3: was a very interesting insight from her. I'll tell you
11:18
Speaker 3: something else she said that I didn't know that was interesting.
11:21
Speaker 3: It's been widely reported the Army black helicopter was on
11:24
Speaker 3: a training mission. What she said is the Army routinely
11:29
Speaker 3: codes virtually every flight as a training mission. And she
11:33
Speaker 3: said the reason they do that is Army pilots are
11:35
Speaker 3: required to have a certain number of hours to keep
11:39
Speaker 3: their certification, and so every flight they do as a
11:42
Speaker 3: training mission to maintain those hours. So what she said
11:45
Speaker 3: is it doesn't necessarily convey what the purpose of that
11:48
Speaker 3: flight was that it is being called a training mission.
11:51
Speaker 3: I have to admit I would not have known that
11:54
Speaker 3: had she not said that, And I think all of
11:55
Speaker 3: us we were like, oh, that's.
11:57
Speaker 2: Interesting because when you listen this, especially if you're just
12:01
Speaker 2: watching the news, and they're like, why would you have
12:02
Speaker 2: this training flight this time of night? Yeah, right there
12:06
Speaker 2: in this airspace. Surely there's somewhere else you could go
12:08
Speaker 2: and treat that is a lot less congested than DCA
12:11
Speaker 2: and all the regulations that you have, and this bravo
12:14
Speaker 2: space around the Washington d C. At the highest level
12:19
Speaker 2: go somewhere else and be safer. But the way that
12:21
Speaker 2: you just described it from her, well, this actually makes sense.
12:24
Speaker 2: They could be doing real work and they categorize it.
12:27
Speaker 1: As a training mission.
12:28
Speaker 3: So look, I think in the days that go forward,
12:31
Speaker 3: we're going to find out what the precise mission was.
12:36
Speaker 3: My understanding is the pilots for the American Airlines flight
12:39
Speaker 3: were quite experienced. They had a very significant number of
12:43
Speaker 3: hours of flight, so they were very experienced. At this point,
12:45
Speaker 3: I don't have a clear picture of what the experience
12:48
Speaker 3: level was for the Army pilots. I'm confident we will
12:51
Speaker 3: find out more about that, and I'm confident we will
12:55
Speaker 3: have discussions on policy questions. One discussion I'm sure we
12:59
Speaker 3: will have is whether the exemptions of the FAA rules
13:03
Speaker 3: for military aircraft and federal law enforcement aircraft from having
13:06
Speaker 3: the ADSB technology, Whether that is a good decision or not.
13:12
Speaker 3: My understanding is one of the reasons for that exemption
13:14
Speaker 3: is the military law enforcement sometimes doesn't want to be tracked.
13:17
Speaker 3: They don't want their location evident, And there may be
13:21
Speaker 3: reasons for both military law enforcement context why you want
13:26
Speaker 3: the ability not to be tracked in real time. I
13:30
Speaker 3: think that's a discussion we're going to have to have,
13:33
Speaker 3: and as I sit here today, I don't know whether
13:37
Speaker 3: that if the Blackhawk had that technology, whether it would
13:40
Speaker 3: have made a material difference preventing this accident. I think
13:44
Speaker 3: that's a reasonable question to ask. Secondly, I think we're
13:48
Speaker 3: going to get some real questions about, Okay, how many
13:51
Speaker 3: helicopter flights are there in and around Reagan Airport? Do
13:56
Speaker 3: we need all of those flights? Is there an unnecessary
14:00
Speaker 3: unreasonable risk. I don't know the answer to that. There
14:02
Speaker 3: may be some compelling reason why you need to have that.
14:05
Speaker 3: I certainly think you ought to give the military a
14:07
Speaker 3: chance to explain it. But I think given this horrific
14:12
Speaker 3: collision and the lives that are lost, we're going to
14:16
Speaker 3: have to have a very serious conversation about what caused
14:20
Speaker 3: this accident and what steps can be taken to prevent
14:24
Speaker 3: this from happening in the future.
14:26
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about the government aspect of this as well,
14:28
Speaker 2: because there's people that have been asking is there full staffing?
14:32
Speaker 2: Are we understaffed? Are there enough people in the towers?
14:36
Speaker 2: Are there enough qualified people in the towers? Has that
14:39
Speaker 2: even become part of the conversation yet?
14:41
Speaker 1: On the hill.
14:42
Speaker 3: It's certainly part of the conversation. I would say, at
14:44
Speaker 3: this point, we don't know. So I've seen reports that
14:47
Speaker 3: the air traffic controller was assigned to multiple responsibilities. It's
14:51
Speaker 3: not clear what the facts are on that. And one
14:53
Speaker 3: of the dangers coming out of a catastrophic accident is
14:57
Speaker 3: there's a fog of war. There's people here snip at
15:00
Speaker 3: this and the other, and they repeat it. And I'm
15:03
Speaker 3: a big believer, I will say the NTSB, I've grown
15:06
Speaker 3: to really respect the work they do. They investigate when
15:10
Speaker 3: you have a catastrophic accident. They investigate based on the facts,
15:14
Speaker 3: based on evidence, and they do a good job of
15:17
Speaker 3: not jumping into conclusions, trying to figure out, okay, exactly
15:19
Speaker 3: what happened. So a last airlines when you had the
15:21
Speaker 3: door plug blow off, and TSB did a very thorough
15:24
Speaker 3: investigation there and presented their conclusions. And so today we
15:28
Speaker 3: heard from them, but it was barely twelve hours into
15:33
Speaker 3: the investigation, so they didn't know a whole lot yet.
15:38
Speaker 3: And I do think and they will reach a conclusion expeditiously.
15:42
Speaker 3: These guys are serious and technical and they try to
15:45
Speaker 3: follow the facts, and that investigation is important. Once we
15:49
Speaker 3: know the facts of what caused the accident, then we
15:54
Speaker 3: can say, all right, what steps can be taken to
15:58
Speaker 3: minimize these risks going forward. But I do think one
16:04
Speaker 3: of the things I'm merging my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats,
16:07
Speaker 3: is is don't don't get ahead of ourselves. And by
16:10
Speaker 3: the way, I'll tell you just a personal aspect to this.
16:14
Speaker 3: So last night, Wednesday night, I was having dinner in Washington,
16:18
Speaker 3: d C. I was having dinner with Mike Waltz. Mike
16:20
Speaker 3: Waltz is President Trump's national security advisor. And so most
16:25
Speaker 3: nights when I'm in Washington, d C. I have working dinners.
16:29
Speaker 3: I have dinners with colleagues, with other senators or House members.
16:32
Speaker 3: I have dinners with cabinet members. Sometimes I have dinners
16:36
Speaker 3: with subject matter experts. So last night I was having
16:38
Speaker 3: dinner with Mike Waltz, the Trump's national security advisor, and
16:41
Speaker 3: we were talking foreign policy. We're talking the Middle East.
16:44
Speaker 3: We were talking Israel and Iran and China and all
16:46
Speaker 3: of the foreign policy challenges facing this country. And I
16:50
Speaker 3: will tell you right at the end of the dinner,
16:52
Speaker 3: we actually were just wrapping up when Mike got a
16:55
Speaker 3: call and said, oh, wow, okay, there's been a collision
16:58
Speaker 3: between a jet and helicopter a DC Reagan airport. So
17:01
Speaker 3: Mike left to go back to the White House to
17:03
Speaker 3: deal with it. And as I was walking out, I'll
17:07
Speaker 3: tell you been a particularly personal aspect. So last night
17:11
Speaker 3: Heidi was flying into d C and she was flying
17:15
Speaker 3: into Reagan. Wow. And she was due to land about
17:19
Speaker 3: thirty minutes after this accident happened. And so I'll say,
17:24
Speaker 3: my body man, who's a great kid, is with me frequently,
17:28
Speaker 3: came up. I'll give him credit what he said to
17:30
Speaker 3: me walking up, As he said, Heidie's okay, but there's
17:34
Speaker 3: been an accident at d C Reagan and a commercial
17:37
Speaker 3: jettis Hitt helicopter. I was very glad he started with
17:40
Speaker 3: Heidie's okay, because I got to say, and so what happened.
17:43
Speaker 3: Her flight was diverted from Reagan and it landed in
17:46
Speaker 3: BWI for beer.
17:48
Speaker 1: They don't know.
17:48
Speaker 3: Bw's Baltimore, Baltimore, Washington, and it's about forty five minutes away.
17:53
Speaker 3: There are three airports that serve DC Washington. Reagan is
17:56
Speaker 3: the closest to d C Washington. Dulles's in northern Virginia
18:00
Speaker 3: a little further out, and then BWI Baltimore, Washington is,
18:04
Speaker 3: like I said, forty five minutes to an hour out.
18:06
Speaker 3: So she was diverted. And so when she landed it
18:09
Speaker 3: was interesting. I texted her immediately said hey, are you okay?
18:12
Speaker 3: I got no answer because she was still in the air.
18:14
Speaker 3: And then when she landed, I called her immediately, and
18:18
Speaker 3: as she was getting off the plane, she said, what happened?
18:21
Speaker 3: I don't understand. Why do we get sent to BWI?
18:23
Speaker 3: So they didn't tell the passengers why they were diverted,
18:26
Speaker 3: and so I told her what had happened, and she
18:29
Speaker 3: was and I look, I understand, you don't want to
18:31
Speaker 3: tell passengers on an airplane. Hey, there was just a
18:33
Speaker 3: plane crash that freaks people out. But I told her
18:37
Speaker 3: and then she came home. But I got ad met it.
18:40
Speaker 3: It freaked me out a little bit that my wife
18:43
Speaker 3: was within twenty thirty minutes of where there was a
18:46
Speaker 3: fatal plane crash at that airport, and you and I
18:49
Speaker 3: both landed at DCA hundreds if not hundreds of thousands
18:54
Speaker 3: of times, and so it's I got to say. I did.
19:01
Speaker 3: I was, I said a long prayer and was like God,
19:05
Speaker 3: thank you for sparing Heidi and I. When she got
19:08
Speaker 3: to our apartment, I gave her a very long hug.
19:11
Speaker 3: And it's uh. And I am grieving for the sixty
19:14
Speaker 3: seven families who are mourning the loss of their loved ones.
19:18
Speaker 3: It's horrific and and and we're certainly grieving them. And
19:22
Speaker 3: we're grateful for all the first responders and everyone who's
19:25
Speaker 3: been really heroic, UH, try to deal with this, this
19:28
Speaker 3: this catastrophe since it happened.
19:30
Speaker 2: Well, I also want to just highlight the response was incredible.
19:35
Speaker 2: And I'm sure you've got some of that briefing that
19:37
Speaker 2: came about this. You know, there's always criticism of we
19:41
Speaker 2: could do things better, but the on the ground first responders'
19:45
Speaker 2: response truly seemed unbelievable. How quick they were responding, how
19:51
Speaker 2: fast there were so many people there to help. You
19:54
Speaker 2: were hoping for good news that they were going to
19:56
Speaker 2: be survivors. We now know that the tragic loss of
19:59
Speaker 2: life and what the reality was, but even in the recovery,
20:03
Speaker 2: it was all hands on deck. And it made me
20:06
Speaker 2: proud to be an American. I mean, it was it
20:08
Speaker 2: was truly incredible to watch it in real time on TV.
20:11
Speaker 3: Yeah. I talked early this morning to Robert Isam, who's
20:14
Speaker 3: the CEO of American Airlines. He flew to DC. He
20:18
Speaker 3: was on the ground. Obviously they were dealing with sixty
20:21
Speaker 3: passengers and four crew members who were killed, and they
20:24
Speaker 3: were dealing with trying to provide help and support to
20:26
Speaker 3: the families, and I talked to him. I also talked
20:29
Speaker 3: to Sean Duffy as the Secretary of Transportation. You know,
20:33
Speaker 3: Seawan was confirmed the day earlier, like it literally this
20:37
Speaker 3: was his first day on the job. Yeah, And Shawn
20:41
Speaker 3: is a good man and a serious man, and he's
20:43
Speaker 3: been diving in and trying to deal with it. But
20:45
Speaker 3: this is a heck of a welcome to be Secretary
20:47
Speaker 3: of Transportation. We've got a major airplane accident on day
20:52
Speaker 3: one and he's dealing with it and look the resources
20:56
Speaker 3: to investigate to try to determine ex exactly what happened.
21:01
Speaker 3: The NTSB in particular, they're very good at this, and
21:04
Speaker 3: we're trying to track down Obviously there was a massive
21:09
Speaker 3: mistake somewhere, but we need to figure out who made
21:13
Speaker 3: it and why and and and how could it have
21:15
Speaker 3: been prevented so that we can learn lessons and try
21:18
Speaker 3: to stop this from happening again. I will say this
21:21
Speaker 3: though also as just to comfort everyone. As horrific as
21:25
Speaker 3: this is, it is worth remembering that air travel is
21:30
Speaker 3: is hands down the safest mode of transport it and
21:32
Speaker 3: your odds of being killed driving to the airport are
21:38
Speaker 3: still higher than they are being killed flying on a
21:41
Speaker 3: commercial airline, so they're not zero. And and and in
21:44
Speaker 3: some ways it is amazing given the flights that occur
21:48
Speaker 3: all over this country in so many places, that that
21:52
Speaker 3: that that it has been a long time since we've
21:55
Speaker 3: had a mass fatality accident in the United States, given
21:59
Speaker 3: how complicated lying is, and in some ways that's remarkable.
22:02
Speaker 3: But nonetheless this tragedy, we should do everything we can
22:07
Speaker 3: to press for zero fatalities. And so we're going to
22:11
Speaker 3: learn lessons from this and try to try to prevent
22:14
Speaker 3: it from happening again.
22:16
Speaker 2: You mentioned something and just you talk about perspective, it
22:18
Speaker 2: was it's amazing just how fast things can change. Because
22:23
Speaker 2: Sean Duffy, who you know well, and his wife Rachel,
22:27
Speaker 2: they have a large family, and he was welcomed just
22:32
Speaker 2: minutes before at his office and his family was there,
22:37
Speaker 2: and he walked up to walk into the office where
22:40
Speaker 2: he's going to serve the American people. And he went
22:42
Speaker 2: into that office and then I'm sure afterwards was immediately
22:45
Speaker 2: rushed out because of what happened. And I sent a
22:48
Speaker 2: note to is what Rachel last night. I just said,
22:51
Speaker 2: you know, I'm so proud and I'm so sorry that
22:53
Speaker 2: the first night that this is what you're having to
22:55
Speaker 2: deal with the best that I know. God has put
22:57
Speaker 2: y'all there for times like this to lead into comfort.
23:00
Speaker 2: And I do think the American peoples to understand they're
23:02
Speaker 2: incredible leaders that we have just gained who are going
23:05
Speaker 2: to do an amazing job in times like these.
23:08
Speaker 1: Sean is one of those.
23:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I'm grateful that he was on board
23:13
Speaker 3: and confirmed and was able to be doing his job
23:15
Speaker 3: on the day of this accident. Also Pete Hegseth, who
23:18
Speaker 3: was just confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Listen, this is
23:21
Speaker 3: a crisis involving the loss of life for three soldiers
23:25
Speaker 3: as well and the question of who was at fault.
23:29
Speaker 3: There's at least some real question whether the military pilots
23:34
Speaker 3: have committed some serious error. We don't know for sure,
23:38
Speaker 3: but that you look at Pete Hegseith, you're just confirmed
23:42
Speaker 3: his Defense secretary. This is a serious challenge to deal
23:45
Speaker 3: with in his first couple of days as well, and
23:47
Speaker 3: I'm grateful both of them were confirmed on the job,
23:51
Speaker 3: because you need strong leadership to deal with the crisis
23:54
Speaker 3: of this magnitude.
23:55
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you my next question quickly
23:57
Speaker 2: was going to be the follow up on the military.
24:00
Speaker 2: We talked so much about, you know, transportation, the airlines
24:04
Speaker 2: and the CEO and et cetera, But let's talk about
24:06
Speaker 2: the military side.
24:08
Speaker 1: There was loss of life there as well. What do
24:10
Speaker 1: we know from that perspective.
24:12
Speaker 3: We know three soldiers were aboard the Blackhawk and they
24:15
Speaker 3: were all killed. We don't know the details now of
24:19
Speaker 3: who made the mistake. Obviously somebody did because this should
24:23
Speaker 3: not have happened, But we don't know where the mistake was,
24:27
Speaker 3: and it's where the investigation, like NTSB will retrace the
24:32
Speaker 3: exact path of each airline, each aircraft and figure out, Okay,
24:37
Speaker 3: who was not where they were supposed to be, Who
24:41
Speaker 3: was in the wrong place? Was there a miscommunication? Look,
24:44
Speaker 3: as you review the transcripts, you know FA and NTSB
24:49
Speaker 3: told us, at least initially reviewing the transcript. It appeared
24:52
Speaker 3: like when the air traffic controllers said, okay, do you
24:54
Speaker 3: have visual confirmation of the airline and the helicopter pilot
24:57
Speaker 3: said yes. What we were told in the b anything
25:00
Speaker 3: is ordinarily the air traffic controller would move on say okay,
25:03
Speaker 3: you guys are taken care of, onto the next flight.
25:05
Speaker 3: So that was their initial take. Is that exchange appeared
25:11
Speaker 3: to be a fairly typical exchange back and forth of
25:14
Speaker 3: navigating multiple aircraft in close proximity. Nevertheless, we'll find out
25:22
Speaker 3: as we examine. Was there just one individual who made
25:27
Speaker 3: an error? Were there multiple individuals? Was what was the
25:31
Speaker 3: cause of this? And that I'm confident I've told the
25:34
Speaker 3: other members of the Commerce Committee. As NTSB reaches conclusions,
25:39
Speaker 3: i'll have another briefing where we sit down with them
25:41
Speaker 3: and can ask them, ask them hard questions and understand, Okay,
25:46
Speaker 3: what really caused this and how do we prevent it
25:48
Speaker 3: from happening again.
25:50
Speaker 2: This brings us to confirmations, and I do want to
25:53
Speaker 2: just give a quick update for everybody about where we are.
25:56
Speaker 2: It shows you the importance of having people in these
25:59
Speaker 2: positions you talk about. Sean Duffy is a great example.
26:01
Speaker 2: Confirmed on the day this happened. There are several other
26:05
Speaker 2: major posts that we have confirmation hearings that wrapped up
26:10
Speaker 2: on Thursday, as you and I recording this Thursday night.
26:13
Speaker 2: There will not be votes on them till next week.
26:15
Speaker 2: How are things moving forward? Where are we in general
26:18
Speaker 2: right now compared to in the past, Because I'm just saying,
26:22
Speaker 2: are they slowing us down? Are we getting back on track?
26:25
Speaker 2: Where are we?
26:26
Speaker 4: So?
26:26
Speaker 3: Look, the Democrats are certainly engaged in delay and obstruction.
26:30
Speaker 3: That being said, where we are now? Eight cabinet members
26:33
Speaker 3: have been confirmed, So we.
26:34
Speaker 1: Are so ple know what's the total number that is
26:37
Speaker 1: a full.
26:38
Speaker 3: Cabinet in the low twenties.
26:41
Speaker 2: Okay, So we're far away. We're not even a half,
26:43
Speaker 2: We're not even a fifty percent.
26:44
Speaker 3: Correct, But we are ahead of where Biden was at
26:49
Speaker 3: this point, and we're ahead of where Trump was in
26:52
Speaker 3: the first term. So eight is moving with greater expedition
26:56
Speaker 3: than the last two administrations of scene and so started with.
27:00
Speaker 3: The first cabinet member confirm was Marco Rubio. He was
27:03
Speaker 3: confirmed on January twentieth, the first day, and he was
27:06
Speaker 3: confirmed ninety nine to zero. The second cabinet member was
27:10
Speaker 3: the CIA director John Ratcliffe. He had seventy four yeses
27:14
Speaker 3: and twenty five knows. After that, you had Pete Hegseth
27:18
Speaker 3: as Defense Secretary. He had fifty one yeses and fifty knows.
27:22
Speaker 3: The Vice President J. D. Vance cast the tie breaking vote.
27:25
Speaker 3: The next person confirmed was the Secretary of Homeland Security,
27:28
Speaker 3: Christy Dome. She had fifty nine yeses and thirty four nos.
27:33
Speaker 3: After that, the Treasury Secretary was confirmed. He had sixty
27:37
Speaker 3: eight yes, twenty nine knows. That's Scott Bessent. After that,
27:42
Speaker 3: the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was confirmed. We're very glad
27:45
Speaker 3: he was confirmed given this crisis. He had seventy seven
27:48
Speaker 3: yeses and twenty two knows. After that, the EPA Administrator
27:54
Speaker 3: Lee Zelden, former congressman from New York, former candidate for
27:58
Speaker 3: governor in New York, a friend of mine. He was
28:00
Speaker 3: confirmed as EPA administrator with fifty six yes's, forty two knows.
28:05
Speaker 3: And then just today, the Interior Secretary Doug Burgham, the
28:08
Speaker 3: former governor of North Dakota. He was confirmed seventy nine
28:13
Speaker 3: yes as eighteen nos. Now where do we stand now?
28:16
Speaker 3: In addition to confirming Doug Burgham, we've teed up as
28:19
Speaker 3: the next cabinet members to be confirmed, Chris Wright as
28:23
Speaker 3: Secretary of Energy, Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
28:28
Speaker 3: and Pam Bondy as Attorney General, and Scott Turner as
28:32
Speaker 3: Secretary of Housing in Urban Development. All of those are
28:36
Speaker 3: our scheduled to be confirmed next week, so they're teed up.
28:40
Speaker 3: We were going to ram through the weekend and keep
28:43
Speaker 3: the Democrats here because they were engaged in obstruction, and
28:46
Speaker 3: Thursday night the Democrats caved and they agreed to expedite
28:50
Speaker 3: and move these forward. So we're moving now on a
28:53
Speaker 3: faster pace than we would have if we had rammed
28:57
Speaker 3: through the weekend and the Democrats had extended all the time.
29:00
Speaker 3: So they agreed, all right, we'll compress the time if
29:03
Speaker 3: we let them fly home, and so by next week,
29:06
Speaker 3: as I said, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Eddans Affairs,
29:09
Speaker 3: Attorney General and hud we'll all make it through next week.
29:13
Speaker 2: That obviously means the pace is moving up. When you
29:16
Speaker 2: look at so far what's happened there does seem to
29:20
Speaker 2: be a little bit of a change. Now we're noticing
29:22
Speaker 2: it with the Democrats in the media especially, it seems
29:26
Speaker 2: like there's a real appetite to just get a nominee
29:33
Speaker 2: whatever when they get their hands on to not pass.
29:36
Speaker 2: Is that part of the gainsmanship that we're witnessing. Am
29:39
Speaker 2: I reading the room the right way?
29:40
Speaker 5: Yeah?
29:40
Speaker 3: Look, I still believe, and I've said this a number
29:43
Speaker 3: of times, that all of Trump's cabinet nominees are going
29:47
Speaker 3: to be confirmed, and I think they'll be confirmed within
29:49
Speaker 3: thirty days. That we are leaning in. We're putting the
29:51
Speaker 3: pedal to the medal under the Senate rules that the
29:54
Speaker 3: Democrats can delay some, but I think within thirty days
29:58
Speaker 3: we'll get them all through Out the two the three
30:03
Speaker 3: that they are going after hardest are in terms of
30:07
Speaker 3: cabinet nominees, Tulca Gabbert for Director of National Intelligence, Bobby
30:12
Speaker 3: Kennedy for Health and Human Services, and then it's not
30:16
Speaker 3: a cabinet position, but Cash Pateel for Director of the FBI,
30:20
Speaker 3: which it's a sub cabinet position but a very very
30:23
Speaker 3: important law enforcement position. Those are the three. It's not
30:26
Speaker 3: complicated or subtle. Those three are the top targets of
30:30
Speaker 3: the Democrats. Today. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, we had
30:34
Speaker 3: cash Betel's hearing. I was vigorous at the hearing defending him.
30:39
Speaker 3: I will tell you I think I think Cash did
30:43
Speaker 3: very well. I think he acquitted himself in an excellent way.
30:46
Speaker 3: This evening I was on Sean Hannity, and as I
30:48
Speaker 3: put it, I said, my assessment of the Democrats behavior
30:51
Speaker 3: at cash Betel's hearing reminded me of the quote from
30:55
Speaker 3: Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was a tale told by an idiot,
30:59
Speaker 3: full of out in fury and signifying nothing.
31:03
Speaker 2: That is a great accurate way of describing it. Was
31:06
Speaker 2: a you know what show is how I was going
31:08
Speaker 2: to put it.
31:08
Speaker 3: But they didn't land any material blows. And look, the
31:11
Speaker 3: point on Cash. What they're attacking him on not that
31:15
Speaker 3: he's not qualified. He's clearly qualified. He has over a
31:20
Speaker 3: decade of experience in law enforcement, national security, including having
31:24
Speaker 3: been a federal public defender, including having been a federal prosecutor,
31:28
Speaker 3: having worked in the National Security Division of the Department
31:31
Speaker 3: of Justice, having worked in the White House and the
31:33
Speaker 3: National Security Council, having been a senior intelligence staffer on
31:36
Speaker 3: Capitol Hill, and having been the chief of staff at
31:39
Speaker 3: the United States Defense Department. They're not arguing he's unqualified.
31:45
Speaker 3: What they're arguing is they're terrified he will do exactly
31:49
Speaker 3: what President Trump promised he would do, which is eliminate
31:52
Speaker 3: the politicization and weaponization of the FBI and get it
31:55
Speaker 3: back to its core function. I believe Cash Bettel will
31:58
Speaker 3: do that, and I think the Democrats are free out
32:00
Speaker 3: because they don't want them to do that. But I
32:02
Speaker 3: think Cash will make it through. We also had hearings
32:05
Speaker 3: this week for both Bobby Kennedy and Tulsea Gabbert. I
32:08
Speaker 3: don't know, it is not impossible that one of those
32:13
Speaker 3: nominees is defeated, but I think they all make it through.
32:17
Speaker 2: Right now, when you look at the Republicans, when Democrats
32:21
Speaker 2: are pushing this obstructionism the way that they are doing
32:24
Speaker 2: it and trying to slow things down, does that unify
32:27
Speaker 2: the Republican base more because it's like, all right, come on, guys.
32:31
Speaker 2: Does that make it actually easier to get the votes
32:33
Speaker 2: you need because you realize what you're up against?
32:36
Speaker 3: A look, potentially, you had Pete hag Seth, who is
32:40
Speaker 3: the one they went after the hardest so far, and
32:45
Speaker 3: that vote was fifty to fifty. We lost three Republicans.
32:47
Speaker 3: We lost Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell. Because
32:52
Speaker 3: we have a fifty three to forty seven majority, losing
32:55
Speaker 3: three made it fifty to fifty, and that meant the
32:57
Speaker 3: Vice President JD. Vance could break the tie. I am
33:00
Speaker 3: glad we have fifty three. If we had a fifty
33:02
Speaker 3: one vote majority, I would not be nearly so sanguine.
33:05
Speaker 3: I would not be saying every Trump Cabinet nominee is
33:08
Speaker 3: going to be confirmed if we had a fifty one
33:10
Speaker 3: vote majority. But because we have fifty three, we can
33:13
Speaker 3: lose up to three, and so I think all of
33:17
Speaker 3: these make it through. Listen, Tulsi. Tulsi was a Democrat
33:22
Speaker 3: for most of her career. She is perceived if you
33:24
Speaker 3: look at Republican foreign policy, they're interventionists and isolationists. There
33:29
Speaker 3: are many who perceive Tulsi as much more of an isolationist.
33:33
Speaker 3: So there are Republicans who have real concerns with her
33:37
Speaker 3: will that play out into no votes. I don't know.
33:40
Speaker 3: I think the President deserves a considerable amount of deference
33:43
Speaker 3: in naming his cabinet members, and he has decided to
33:46
Speaker 3: name Tulci Gabbert. I'm going to vote yes, but I
33:50
Speaker 3: don't know. It's not impossible that we get four no votes,
33:55
Speaker 3: which would take down the nomination. Likewise, Bobby Kennedy. Bobby
33:58
Speaker 3: Kennedy's a complicated situation. Both Kennedy and Tulsa, until like
34:02
Speaker 3: twelve minutes ago, they were both Democrats, and so Bobby
34:07
Speaker 3: Kennedy obviously a scion of one of the great Democrat
34:11
Speaker 3: royalty families, Camelot. It is a curious dynamic. It's not
34:16
Speaker 3: clear to me any Democrat is going to vote for him,
34:20
Speaker 3: which is an interesting situation. Listen, there's some conservatives. Bobby Kennedy,
34:26
Speaker 3: until recently, on many policies is his views were quite
34:31
Speaker 3: left of center. I'm going to vote for Bobby Kennedy
34:35
Speaker 3: because I think he's a change agent, because I think
34:37
Speaker 3: he has courage to take on I think some of
34:40
Speaker 3: the corruption that we have at HHS, particularly with big Pharma,
34:43
Speaker 3: that gets in bed with the career bureaucrats there and
34:47
Speaker 3: stifles competition and drives up costs. I think if you
34:53
Speaker 3: have a terrible disease, you should have a right to
34:57
Speaker 3: access life saving medication. And I'm one of the original
35:00
Speaker 3: sponsors of the right to Try legislation. I think that's
35:04
Speaker 3: very important, and i think Bobby Kennedy is going to
35:07
Speaker 3: shake up the cronyism that that has characterized HHS. What's
35:15
Speaker 3: not clear to me is I don't if any Democrats
35:19
Speaker 3: want that cronyism shaken up, and to be honest, there
35:23
Speaker 3: may be some Republicans that don't. Let's play this exchange.
35:26
Speaker 3: So this is Bobby Kennedy responding to Bernie Sanders. Bernie's
35:30
Speaker 3: going to vote now. When Bernie was attacking him like crazy,
35:33
Speaker 3: but I got to say, Bobby Kennedy popped him back
35:36
Speaker 3: pretty hard. Listen to this exchange.
35:38
Speaker 5: I'm going to make America healthier than other countries in
35:42
Speaker 5: the world. Right now, will.
35:43
Speaker 4: You guarantee do what every other major country. It's a
35:47
Speaker 4: simple question.
35:48
Speaker 5: And by the way, Bernie, you know the problem of
35:52
Speaker 5: corruption is not just in the federal agents, is in
35:55
Speaker 5: Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting,
35:59
Speaker 5: include yourself, or accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical
36:03
Speaker 5: industry protecting their interests.
36:06
Speaker 4: Oh I thought that that would No. No, I ran
36:11
Speaker 4: for president like you. I got millions, millions of contributions.
36:16
Speaker 4: They did not come from the executives, not one nickel
36:20
Speaker 4: of pack money from the pharmaceuticals and they came to
36:23
Speaker 4: twenty twenty.
36:24
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty, you were the single largest.
36:27
Speaker 4: Because I received a pharmaceutical combinations from workers all over
36:32
Speaker 4: this country.
36:33
Speaker 3: Workers.
36:34
Speaker 1: You were this, not a nickel from corporate.
36:37
Speaker 5: You was the single largest pharmaceutical.
36:40
Speaker 4: Dollars from workers in point three five million. Yeah, out
36:44
Speaker 4: of two hundred millions.
36:46
Speaker 3: All right, but.
36:48
Speaker 4: You have not answered last question.
36:52
Speaker 2: I mean that you want to talk about a beatdown
36:53
Speaker 2: with the facts there, Bernie, You've accepted millions of dollars
36:57
Speaker 2: in the pharmaceutical industry.
36:58
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, you were this single.
37:00
Speaker 2: Largest receiver of pharmacyal dollars one point five millions.
37:03
Speaker 1: Like, let's just move on here.
37:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, he did not like that exchange. By the way,
37:09
Speaker 3: I've never seen a confirmation hearing where the nominee refers
37:12
Speaker 3: to the senator by his first name. He keeps calling
37:14
Speaker 3: him Bernie. Like it's clear Bobby Kennedy and Bernie Sanators
37:17
Speaker 3: they know each other well. I mean, they've got a
37:20
Speaker 3: long history there. Because that's that that that's quite unusual too.
37:25
Speaker 3: But I gotta say Bernie was not anticipating that pop back.
37:30
Speaker 3: We'll see how it plays out. But I think Kennedy's
37:32
Speaker 3: gonna get confirmed. I want him to get confirmed. I
37:35
Speaker 3: like Bobby Kennedy, and I also think there are a
37:38
Speaker 3: lot of Americans, a lot of Americans who are not
37:41
Speaker 3: even very political, a lot of moms who are worried
37:44
Speaker 3: about the garbage that that our kids are are consuming,
37:47
Speaker 3: are worried about the rise in in in in chronic illness,
37:52
Speaker 3: that that that that. I think Bobby Kennedy is a
37:55
Speaker 3: very good person to take that on well.
37:57
Speaker 2: And the keyword you use was an age of change. Ye,
38:01
Speaker 2: there is an appetite for that in Washington. The status
38:04
Speaker 2: quo people are sick and tired of. And that's part
38:07
Speaker 2: of the reason why I think Donald Trump brought who
38:08
Speaker 2: he brought to the table. Absolutely, don't forget. We did
38:12
Speaker 2: a show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We do a week
38:14
Speaker 2: in review as well on Saturdays. At that subscribe or
38:18
Speaker 2: auto download button on those in between days, grab my
38:21
Speaker 2: podcast to Ben ferguson podcasts as well, and I'll keep
38:24
Speaker 2: you up to down on the latest breaking news and the
38:25
Speaker 2: Sina and I will see you back here Saturday for
38:28
Speaker 2: the weekend review.