President Donald Trump began his White House briefing Thursday with a moment of silence and a prayer for victims of Wednesday's crash at Reagan National Airport. But his remarks quickly became a diatribe against diversity hiring and his allegation — so far without evidence — that lowered standards were to blame for the

The president implied that the crash was caused by the FAA's recruitment of people with "severe intellectual disabilities" and "psychiatric problems."

An American Airlines regional jet went down in the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after colliding with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, with no survivors expected amid the extremely cold and windy conditions.

President Trump said the crash was a "tragedy of terrible proportions" and told family members "Our hearts are shattered alongside yours."

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, known as the black boxes, may offer clues about what went wrong before the crash.

President Donald Trump said the cause for the crash involving an American Airlines plane and military aircraft has yet to be determined Thursday during a White House press conference.

A pair of young figure skaters, their mothers, and two Russian coaches were among the 60 passengers on board the jet.

The president also blamed the Biden and Obama administrations for the overnight plane crash in Washington, D.C., where there have been no reported survivors.

In somber remarks at a news conference early Thursday morning, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall suggested he feared the passengers and crew aboard a regional American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter that collided were lost.