President Joe Biden, right, is greeted by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker upon arrival at Soldier Field Landing Zone on his way to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. (Reuters/Craig Hudson)
The second-term governor is among the long list of Democrats considering a 2028 presidential run. Pritzker has seized opportunities over the past two weeks to play a leadership role in Democrat opposition to Trump, refusing, for example, to follow Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Pritzker’s comments Thursday were the latest in a long-standing feud between the two.
"Sloppy J.B. Pritzker… has presided over the destruction and disintegration of Illinois at levels never seen before in any State," Trump wrote on Truth Social in June. "Crime is rampant and people are, sadly, fleeing Illinois. Unless a change is made at the Governor’s level, Illinois can never be Great Again!"
Trump’s attacks have veered into the ad hominem, labeling Pritzker a "rotund Governor from the once great State of Illinois, who makes Chris Christie look like a male model."
In his statement, Pritzker demanded the Trump administration answer his "critical questions," including why the control tower was not fully staffed during the crash; why the Trump administration fired members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee; whether the president now understands fully staffing federal agencies is a "matter of life and death"; and whether he plans to reverse federal workforce cuts.
President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
"This was on January 14th, so that was a week before I entered office," Trump said, seeking to push blame onto the Biden administration. "They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA's program."
Trump then expanded his list of conditions allowed among controllers: "Hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism."
The president drew a stark contrast between Democratic policies and his own first-week executive orders that halted DEI programs in the federal government and restored "the highest standards of air traffic controllers."
"Brilliant people have to be in those positions," he stated.
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When asked how he came to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash, the president said, "Because I have common sense."
Pritzker is not the only potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender who took issue with Trump’s comments. After Trump called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a "disaster," Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic primary candidate, called Trump’s comments "despicable."
"As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying," he wrote on X. "We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe."
Deirdre Heavey is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blue-state-governor-lashes-out-trump-targeting-dei-policies-dc-plane-crash-unfit-lead