CNN analyst Bakari Sellers deleted and apologized for a tweet sent less than two hours after Wednesday night’s mid-air collision of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight that pinned responsibility for the crash on Donald Trump.
About an hour after Sellers’ tweet was posted, as rescue workers were frantically searching for survivors, the president took to Truth Social, posting his theory about the disaster. Officials now say all 64 people on the flight, along with the three soldiers in the helicopter, likely perished.
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport,” Trump wrote. “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,” he asked. “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”
And the president was just getting started. On Thursday, Trump blamed DEI initiatives implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration, even though it contradicted his previous assertion that the helicopter pilot was likely at fault.
Of course, Trump is unlikely to face any consequences for his ill-considered speculation. And he doesn’t do apologies.
Conversely, Sellers — who had posted a screenshot of a week-old press release from the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure headlined “Trump’s Dangerous Freeze of Air Traffic Control Hiring,” which he deleted — acknowledged he “f–ked up.”
“I deleted the post because timing matters,” Sellers tweeted. “Politics at this point does not. I f-cked 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,” he concluded.
MAGA nation was unimpressed with Sellers’ mea culpa.
“You continuously F up and then have to apologize. No one should ever allow you on their network ever again EVER,” wrote one commenter. “You are a sick sick man infected with TDS. Seek help from a mental health professional.”
“Vile vile individual who has no place in Media,” remarked another.
“While first responders were still pulling bodies out of the Potomac River, he decided to recycle some garbage from Dems and somehow score political points. Depraved,” added a third.
CNN declined comment, letting Sellers’ apology speak for itself.
It’s unclear whether Sellers will face any punishment from his employer. But it comes at a time when CNN is trying to repair fraught relations with the president.
It was no coincidence, most media analysts observed, that the network’s most aggressive Trump critic recently lost his job. Jim Acosta’s morning show was canceled by the network, which offered to move him to the midnight graveyard shift. Acosta resigned, and the New York Times reported he believed the network’s reorganization of its lineup was intended to silence the president’s antagonists.
“As the son of a Cuban refugee, I took home the lesson … it is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant,” Acosta said. “I have always believed it’s the job of the press to hold power to account.”
Acosta’s departure was celebrated by the president, who called him a “major loser” in a Truth Social post.
Trump has yet to comment on Sellers’ controversial tweet.
