“When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones, which every one of us in this room has, do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination, or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color?”
—Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during yesterday’s press briefing that focused on the tragic Reagan National Airport collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter.
Leavitt, the youngest Presidential paid liar in the history of the position (See? She’s “historic” too!), issued more powerful, well-expressed and memorable statements in her first week than her DEI predecessor did during her entire tenure. That fact, which couldn’t escape even the most biased of the reporters in the room, made her Ethics Quote of the Week more striking. [The transcript of yesterday’s briefing, is here.]
The astounding thing to ponder is that there probably are hard-wired woke fanatics who would prefer to plummet to their deaths in a plane flown by a pilot of the “right” ethnicity.
President Trump’s rush to use the accident as part of his assault on DEI policies and bureaucracies was an ugly unforced political error (get used to them if you aren’t already), and the Axis media has been hammering on it ever since. It is Leavitt’s unenviable job to defuse these metaphorical bombs, and she did a remarkable job yesterday. Plenty of evidence is being revealed indicating that whatever the ethnicity of the personnel in the Reagan National control tower that night, the FAA’s budget priorities and recruitment policies have devoted time and resources to social justice goals when its priority must be the safety of Americans in the air.
This issue could have been and should have been raised in the days and weeks after the tragedy, and it is unfortunate that the President is so tone-deaf in such situations, but he is, and fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly. He displayed no empathy at all, just anger and the determination to fix the problem as he sees it. It tells me, among other things, that Trump has weak advisors. Knowing how he is, someone should have been whispering in his ear, “Now remember, all anyone want to hear from you now is that this was a tragedy and that the nation mourns the victims. The finger-pointing has to wait.” Wasn’t that obvious? To someone?
Nevertheless, Leavitt’s line—I’m sure she had it ready to go before the briefing—is irrefutable, and the DEI infestation looks especially foolish, dangerous and reckless in the context of air travel. And the job of White House Press Secretary.
Leavitt, meanwhile, is “going places.” Trump would be prudent to do everything in his power to keep her in that job as long as he can.
Ethics Alarms 
Is it jut me, or does she have a Rosamund Pike thing going on?
PWS
Wait, YOU have a Rosamund Pike thing going on?
Can’t explain why, but she’s on the short list; may have been her…um…attire in Jack Reacher…
Actually, much as I like Rosamund, Karoline is prettier.
I saw a piece this week going on about how a lefty in the White House press corps audaciously called Ms. Leavitt a “spinmeister,” and had a good laugh. I was shocked, shocked I tell you. I couldn’t help thinking how far “spinmeister” is behind “paid liar.”
In the context, “a certain skin color” does not mean white. So, she leaves us with the choice of a pilot who can fly the plane safely or a pilot who is non-white. That may not be precisely a false dilemma, but it is close enough that ‘ethics quote of the week’ does not seem to fit.
Can you expand on the observable context around that isolated quote you appear to be ascribing racist connotations to?
To me (and perhaps the majority) it appears to be the exact same anti-racist sentiment expressed in Dr King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.
OR is this one of those bizarro world rules on speech where Democrats aren’t racist when they talk about schools becoming jungles because they are mixing white kids with dumb kids?
Based on the question she was responding to, the context was DEI. She offered her audience a choice, a pilot who will get you there safely, or a pilot of color. I understand why some will not see that as a false choice, a close cousin of false dilemma.
That’s not what she said. She was speaking of what a passenger is likely to be concerned about, ethnicity or competence. It’s an obvious choice. She did not imply any preference for any color or ethnicity. Do I care if a pilot “looks like me’? Does anyone in their right mind? How is that a false dilemma? The clear message is that any decision that is not consistent with that obvious preference is a poor one, a dangerous one, a stupid one. Which, indeed, it is.
Right over my head. The point is that the skin color of the pilot is irrelevant to flying the plane. Is that not clear?
To your point, “a certain skin color” can refer to anyone depending on the listener. White racists likely also need reminding that the skill of the pilot is more important than what they look like.
I find the challenge Leavitt’s statement poses to people’s complacency refreshing. That said, it isn’t quite as well-presented as what many here could compose. (I’ve only read the part Jack quoted, so there may be more that helps clarify.)
It would be good to acknowledge why people value diversity in professional aviation. At the same time, it’s important to make it clear that if that goal is to be achieved, the burden to make that happen cannot all fall on the field of aviation, lest it compromise the mission of safety somehow (be it by hiring people who are not ready or by refraining from hiring people who are).
I might have phrased the point as, “Diversity and safety are obviously not mutually exclusive, especially in the long term. We would like to see both of them increase. However, they cannot both be the top priority. That is mutually exclusive.”
And not just in professional aviation. The medical profession. Research. Teaching. Plumbing. Auto mechanics. Police. Fire-fighting. The military. Any government decision-making position. Etc. Etc.
No. You either choose people based on merit, or you choose someone else for a reason ‘more important’ than merit. You cannot have it both ways.
If merit happens to net you ‘diverse’ employees, that’s fine. If it doesn’t, that’s also fine. The appropriate amount of time to spend considering how the applicants tan is exactly zero.
The only reason to assume a change to a merit-based system will net you a more diverse workforce is if your current majority is the majority for reasons other than that group outperforming other groups.
At least in the FAA’s case, that seems to not be the case. That is, too many people of one ethnic group were passing their tests, with many consequently rejected on the basis of their overrepresented ethnicity. The workforce at the FAA is therefore likely to be less diverse, not more, with a shift to merit-based hiring.
Karoline Leavitt got to where she is because of DEI. The baby shouldn’t be thrown out with the bath water.
You’ll have to provide details to that theory for me, or anyone, to take it as a serious observation. If “where she is” means her current position, it’s self-evident nonsense. The first time I heard her on a news show, I thought, “Wow, she’s sharp, organized, speaks clearly, has a great voice and presentation; she’s attractive and expressive. She’d make a terrific paid liar!” That’s from my audition skills as a talent evaluator. And she was, in fact, raised to that post on merit: she’s the first WH Press Secretary who’s impressed me since Tony Snow. Can you name a better candidate who should have gotten the job?
I doubt that she’s the most entertaining person in the US that would take that job if offered.
That job was only given to men until recently. Trump is a genius at marketing.
It’s a bit more than entertainment. Until the end of his first term, all of his Press Secretaries had been pretty bad, including Huckabee-Sanders. Another lesson Trump 2.0 learned well.
How is she a bit more than entertainment? She’s not educational because we aready known you can’t believe everything she says at face value.