CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers deleted a post blaming President Donald Trump for the deadly airplane-helicopter collision near the Potomac and quickly apologized, writing, “I fucked up.”
The nation was stunned when an American Airlines flight with over 60 people aboard collided with a BlackHawk Army Helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport at 8:48 pm Wednesday night.
Trump reacted with a series of social media posts, one of which speculated about the disaster even as rescue operations were in full swing. Just hours after the crash, Trump tried to assign blame for the crash, writing:
The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!
!!
Elsewhere on social media, others posted tweets suggesting Trump could be to blame by referencing recent White House announcements. In one post, Sellers posted a screenshot of a press release entitled “Trump’s Dangerous Freeze of Air Traffic Control Hiring” and captioned it “8 days ago.”
Sellers deleted the post and apologized for the timing of his observation, writing:
I deleted the post because timing matters. Politics at this point does not. I fucked up, I own that. I am very prayerful but I’m also very frustrated upset and disturbed with where we are as a country. I recognize, and I will do better.The only thing that matters is rescuing the survivors, and ensuring this never happens again.
When reached for comment, a CNN spokesperson opted to let Sellers’s apology speak for itself.