Emergency response units search the crash site of the American Airlines plane on the Potomac River
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

‘MAGA = Deplorable’: A Republican congressman on Fox News blames DEI for horrific DC plane crash

The Make America Great Again crowd has come under fire for its response to a recent tragedy in Washington, D.C. At 8:47pm on Jan. 29th, an American Airlines jet crashed into an Army helicopter while conducting a routine landing over the Potomac River, causing the plane and its 64 passengers to plunge into the icy waters below. It has been confirmed there are no survivors.

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The tragedy marks the deadliest plane crash in nearly 24 years, and Republican Congressman Andy Ogles believes that he has found the cause of the disaster: DEI.

In an interview on the Fox News segment Mornings With Maria host, Maria Bartiromo asked Ogles if the crash could have been the result of “foul play.” Ogles answered her with a series of questions of his own, asking whether or not the disaster could have been attributed to “human error” or “equipment failure,” before posing the rhetorical, “Did DEI play a role in this type of thing?”

A user on Twitter gave Ogles an answer with a simple math equation “MAGA = Deplorable.”

This isn’t the first time MAGA has incomprehensibly attributed national tragedies to inclusive hiring practices. After the New Years Day truck attack in New Orleans that killed over 14 people this January , MAGA politicians were quick to lay blame the incident on DEI initiatives in the FBI, the implementation of which they believe distracted law enforcement officials from preventing the tragedy. House Majority leader Steve Scalise said in a statement after the killings that law enforcement agencies have been come so wrapped up “wokeness,” that their “main focus is on diversity as opposed to security.”

Elon Musk has attempted t0 argue that DEI practices made civilians less safe as well. In a series of Twitter posts, the billionaire opined that diversity efforts at Boeing had caused air travel to become more dangerous. Musk offered no evidence to substantiate his claims, and one of his replies brought attention to another user’s post that questioned the IQ of Black airline employees. Musk was excoriated by civil rights leaders, including National Urban League CEO Marc Morial, who called his comments “abhorrent and pathetic.” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson issued a stern reminder to Musk that “the proliferation of hate speech and white supremacist conspiracy theories kills people,” while DEI efforts create a “more inclusive society.”

While MAGA may blame DEI for the recent tragedy in D.C., they do so at the expense of the man who leads their party. Donald Trump recently claimed to have made air travel safe again after eliminating DEI practices at the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees air traffic across the nation. The crash, which claimed the lives of dozens, occurred after Trump’s anti-DEI regulations went into effect — MAGA has been silent about this fact.

In their war on DEI, Republicans have recently won their most troubling victory yet. In the first week of his presidency, Donald Trump signed an executive order halting DEI practices in all federal agencies, indefinitely pausing the employment of all employees responsible for their implementation in the process. More recently, Trump issued an executive order ending DEI initiatives in the United States military. His efforts to end the initiatives in the armed forces are supported by his newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who intends to create a task force to implement “merit-based, color-blind policies” across all military branches.

DEI isn’t the only boogeyman that MAGA has pointed to in order explain the nation’s horrors. After the truck attack in New Orleans, Republican politicians blamed undocumented immigrants for the attack, though the shooter was a U.S. citizen.


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Sarah Fimm
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like... REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They're like that... but with anime. It's starting to get sad.