Bill Maher offered rare praise for President Trump over his controversial ‘swimming’ response to the Washington, DC, plane crash.
The talk show host, 69, surprised some viewers as he defended Trump for mocking a question about visiting the crash site at the Potomac River, where 67 people lost their lives when a Blackhawk military helicopter crashed into an American Airlines jet on Wednesday night.
The moment came when Trump fielded questions in the Oval Office on his administration’s response the next day, saying he plans to see the area, but ‘not the site.’
‘Because what – you tell me. What’s the site? Water. We’re going to go swimming?’ he said.
Although the interaction sparked backlash from many who thought Trump was trivializing the horror crash, Maher said he admired Trump’s authenticity in the moment.
‘Any other politician would go, “Of course, it was a tragedy”, he said.
‘And (after seeing Trump’s swimming remark), I was like, exactly, f*** right, you’re exactly right. It’s a stupid question, and you got just the answer you deserve.’
It came after Maher divided his audience as he joked about the tragic plane crash in his Friday night opening monologue, which some viewers felt was ‘too soon.’
The talk show host, 69, opened his show by noting the ‘horrible news from DC’ this week.
Maher poked fun at the controversial response from President Trump, saying he ‘immediately came out and said “We don’t know what caused the crash”, and then 10 seconds later blamed DEI.’
‘And then the Democrats blamed Elon Musk for getting rid of the FAA 10 days earlier, and then Bobby Kennedy said they all died from the vaccine,’ he added.
The comedian said Trump’s leap to blame DEI was because reactions in the US to tragedies such as the crash are ‘always such an overreaction.’
‘Yes, with DEI, we overreached with that, now we have an accident like this, and Trump’s view is that the air traffic controller was distracted because he was a Haitian eating a cat at the time.’
Maher’s monologue was criticized by some who said the political jokes about the devastating crash were ‘too soon.’
‘Plane crash jokes? Yikes,’ one commenter said in response.
Maher, a frequent Trump critic, went on in his monologue to slam the Trump administration’s early moves re-staffing the aviation industry.
‘This administration is 11 f***ing days old, it seems longer, doesn’t it?’ he said.
‘And already they have gotten rid of the FAA, the head of the TSA, eliminated the Aviation Security Committee – I know you guys are very big on firing, but maybe keep the people who talk to the airplanes.’
It comes as scrutiny has now fallen on how the shocking plane crash unfolded over one of the busiest airspaces in America, with a number of officials describing it as ‘preventable.’
Among the errors included that an air traffic controller was reportedly allowed to leave their post early just before American Airlines Flight 5342 collided in midair with a military helicopter.
After the staffer left, one air traffic controller was left to handle both helicopter traffic and manage planes – which should have been a divided duty – according to The New York Times.
Those tasks are usually handled between two people from 10am until 9:30 pm, according to the report. After then, the duties are typically combined and left to one person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.
A supervisor reportedly decided to combine those duties before the scheduled cutoff time however, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.
It has also emerged that the Army helicopter, which was carrying three soldiers, involved in the collision might have also deviated from its approved flight path.
The outlet again spoke with insiders that said the Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter was not on its approved route and flying higher than it should have been.
Reagan National has been understaffed for many years, with just 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.
On Thursday morning, officials confirmed all 67 on both the plane and helicopter had perished, with their rescue mission then becoming a recovery operation.
Investigators made a break through later that night, after they had pulled 40 bodies to shore, when they found two black boxes from the American Airlines flight.
A flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were pulled from the river by salvage teams.
This will be of monumental assistance to authorities as they investigate what exactly happened in the moments leading to disaster.