A helicopter collides with a passenger jet in Washington DC, RFK Jr. is grilled during Senate confirmation hearings, and Trump signs an executive order ending federal support of “so-called gender transitions” for children. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.Black Rifle Coffee: Get 20% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code DAILYWIRE at https://www.blackriflecoffee.com
Tragedy strikes at Reagan National Airport as a passenger jet collides with a military helicopter.
I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river, but it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.
We discuss what we know so far about the search and rescue operation and the cause of the crash.
I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, January 30th, and this is Morning Wire. Robert Kennedy Jr. is grilled by senators during his first day of confirmation hearings.
You're not going to take money from drug companies in any way, shape, or form. Who? Yes, you.
I'm happy to commit to that. I don't think any of them want to give me money, by the way.
And Trump signs an executive order ending all federal support for so-called gender transitions for minors.
It's going to de-incentivize so many doctors, so many agencies, so many families from doing this to their children.
Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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A passenger plane carrying at least 64 people collided with a helicopter last night near Reagan National Airport. The crash sent the plane plummeting into the Potomac and prompted a massive search and rescue operation.
Joining us with more on the horrific crash is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So Tim, a shocking and terrifying story. What do we know so far about this crash?
This is obviously a developing story with more details coming to light every minute, but as of this recording, what we know for sure is that the collision took place last night at about 9 p.m. Eastern Time. The plane was American Airlines Flight 5342, and it collided with a Blackhawk helicopter over the Potomac River in D.C.
The plane appears to have been approaching the airport preparing to land when it collided with the military helicopter. Within an hour, the incident was declared a mass casualty event and all flights were grounded at Reagan National Airport. The plane was a regional jet, a Bombardier CRJ 7000, which left Wichita, Kansas at around 5.30 p.m. local time.
It was operated by PSA, a subsidiary of American Airlines. That model of plane generally carries 60 to 70 passengers. CNBC reports that this particular flight had 64 people on board, 60 passengers and four crew members. The helicopter it collided with had another three crew members or soldiers on board.
The helicopter also had a gold top, which typically signifies a VIP or senior government official, but reports say no one like that was on board. President Trump released the following statement late last night. I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God bless their souls.
Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise. Within minutes of the crash, a massive search and rescue operation was mounted, including 100 ambulances and boats on the river. Because the plane landed in the water, that added another layer of urgency to the search and rescue operation.
NBC Washington reported last night that the water temperature in the Potomac was about 37 degrees, and that hypothermia can begin to set in after 15 to 20 minutes of exposure to those conditions.
crash landing in freezing water in the dark is just an absolute nightmare. What do we know about the rescue effort?
Well, the response was rapid, and hundreds of first responders have been involved. Along with police and fire departments on land, fireboats were deployed in the water. There's been every effort to try to find any possible survivors.
Kansas Senator Roger Marshall was on the scene last night, and he put out a statement asking for prayers for the victims, the emergency responders, and for his state as, again, the flight originated from Wichita.
From what we've learned so far, do we know how this happened?
That's what investigators will have to find out. Modern commercial airliners are equipped with technology that is supposed to prevent exactly the sort of situation. It even has experts surprised. Here's CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean, himself a private pilot and instructor.
I'm stumbling over my words here because this is just so staggering. that there is a mid-air collision involving a commercial airliner. Commercial flights are equipped for ages with a system called TCAS, Traffic Collision Avoidance System. It tells the pilots in the cockpit how to avoid other airplanes nearby.
It tells the pilots, there's traffic ahead of you, climb, climb now, descend, descend now. This would be an incredible lining up of the holes in the Swiss cheese, which is the saying in aviation, the gaps in the safety chain in aviation, that this happened. And now investigators have an incredible amount of work cut out for them to figure out how a commercial airliner in the United States in 2025
When the pilots are incredibly trained, the technology is incredibly sharp, collided with what is apparently a military or government helicopter. Nobody else uses the Blackhawk. It is really something else. I'm just stunned.
Muntean also said that this accident will change aviation.
The fact that this happened in D.C. over near Reagan National Airport, some of the busiest airspace in the country and one of the single busiest runways in the national airspace system is really pretty incredible.
So still a lot of questions to be answered here.
Indeed. And we will, of course, be monitoring the story closely and giving updates as more details come out. Tim, thanks for reporting.
Of course. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the Senate yesterday for a high-stakes and contentious confirmation hearing.
Here with the details on the RFK confirmation bid and other hearings that will kick off this morning is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, some big names in the Senate today, namely RFK round two. What can you tell us?
Yeah, so far, Trump has gotten six nominees through, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But now come a few nominees who are going to have a tougher time getting across the finish line.
Kash Patel, who's up for FBI director, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and the big one, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick for secretary of health and human services.
So let's start with Kennedy. He got things going yesterday.
Right. So Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee for step one of his confirmation. And it really marked the culmination of a remarkable turnaround for someone who two years ago was running for president as a Democrat. If confirmed, he would be the first HHS secretary in history to not share the party of the president who appointed them. But again, that is a big if.
Kennedy has arguably the toughest path to confirmation of any nominee for a few reasons. Democrats have turned on him for his vocal support of Trump, his skepticism on vaccines, and his criticism of party leadership over the last decade, among many other things.
For example, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse said Kennedy, quote, while Senator Bernie Sanders took issue with a series of baby onesies sold by an organization Kennedy used to work with.
One of them is titled Unfaxed Unafraid. Next one is No Vax, No Problem. Now you're coming before this committee and you say you're pro-vaccine.
And to give you an idea of how heated things got, here's a brief exchange between Senator Elizabeth Warren and Kennedy on the topic of legal protections for vaccine manufacturers.
I'll comply with all the ethical guidelines. That's not the question. You and I, you have said- You're asking me, Senator, you're asking me not to sue vaccine companies. No, I am not. Yeah, you are.
That's exactly what you're doing. But Kennedy did have plenty of supporters in the room, including his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, and conservative host Megyn Kelly. It was a raucous crowd at times as the audience burst into applause following a number of his responses to Democrat questioning.
For his part, Kennedy said much of the opposition coming from the left stems from Democrats' hatred of Donald Trump and anyone associated with him.
All these Democrats are opposed to me for partisan issues. They used to be my friends. Now they're against me because anything that President Trump does, any decision he makes has to be lampooned, derided, discredited, marginalized, vilified.
Now, despite his lifelong status as a Democrat, Kennedy has grown enormously popular with GOP voters. Polling shows he has some of the highest favorability ratings of any Trump cabinet nominee. And his crusade to, quote, make America healthy again has been gaining a lot of steam on the right. But there were still some who displayed some doubts about his standing, particularly on abortion.
Kennedy is personally pro-abortion, but... says he'll support the Trump administration's position if confirmed, and that he would study the effects of Mifepristone, the most widely used abortion pill.
I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion. President Trump has asked me to study the safety of methadone. He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies.
Now, Kennedy is going to sit for another hearing today. We're also going to hear from Gabbard and Patel. What can we expect from those hearings?
Well, they are almost certainly going to be just as contentious. Gabbard faces a very tough road to confirmation in order to even get to the Senate floor for a vote. He's got a first-win majority approval from the Intel Committee, and that is no sure thing. Republicans hold a 9-8 advantage on that committee. But one of those nine is Susan Collins, who has already voted no on Pete Hegsteth.
So we'll be watching very closely to see how she reacts to Gabbard's testimony. For his part, FBI nominee Kash Patel does look to have a clearer path to confirmation, but we certainly expect to see some fireworks. Over the last few years, he's been one of the most vocal, staunchest critics of the FBI.
He's vowed to slash thousands of positions that he says are unnecessary, much to the chagrin of Democrats. So buckle up.
Well, three nominees that people are very excited about. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
Anytime.
Also, Cabot is going to be hosting The Daily Wire's live coverage of all three of those hearings starting at 9.30 Eastern. You can watch them on Daily Wire's YouTube or X Accounts or on the Daily Wire app. This week, President Trump signed an executive order banning the federal government from funding or supporting transgender drugs or surgeries for children.
Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi is here now with more. Hey, Mairead. So this issue has been a major focal point of this show and our parent company, The Daily Wire. So we wanted to dig into this order in more depth here. First, tell us exactly what Trump signed on Tuesday.
Hi, John. Sure. So Trump's order commits that the U.S. will not fund or support what it describes as the, quote, so-called transition of a child from one sex to another. And it vows that the administration, quote, will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.
The order says child transgender medical transitions are a dangerous trend that will be a stain on our nation's history, and they must end now.
So no equivocation. They're a full condemnation of these procedures.
Right.
And what does this mean in practice? How will this be enforced?
Well, it means that any institution that receives federal funding like research or education grants must end the transgender chemical and surgical mutilation of children, as the order puts it. This would be hospitals or medical schools. The order also aims to slash Medicare and Medicaid funding to health providers that offer transgender drugs and surgeries to children.
And it also calls for legislation that would allow children and their parents to sue doctors who provided them with these drugs and surgeries. And it directs the Attorney General to investigate transgender sanctuary states that try to strip custody from parents who oppose these medical interventions.
The order also acknowledges rapid-onset gender dysphoria, and it gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who would be RFK Jr. if he's confirmed, 90 days to review research and submit a report on how to best help children with gender dysphoria.
Trump's order also gives federal agencies 60 days to report on their progress, which includes scrapping any policies that rely on the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which the order calls junk science.
So we've noted that this is a massive reversal from the Biden administration's very much pro-trans agenda. How did we get to this point?
Well, it's taken a cultural shift and that's been driven by a lot of investigative work. And as you mentioned, we have to note that The Daily Wire, while certainly not alone in exposing this, often took the lead in several key ways. And I'd like to highlight a few of those moments. It's a pretty long list, so just bear with me here. Sure. Mm-hmm.
Then, as many of our listeners might remember, our 2021 investigation into the alleged cover-up by Loudoun County Public Schools of a boy wearing a skirt sexually assaulting a ninth-grade girl in a girl's bathroom alarmed parents and became a flashpoint in the national discussion. Matt Walsh has also been a major voice on this as well.
He starred in the Daily Wire documentary, What is a Woman?, which really galvanized the criticism of gender ideology. Walsh also posted an expose on Vanderbilt University's pediatric gender clinic offering these drugs and surgeries to children. That prompted Tennessee lawmakers to ban them. That legislation is now before the Supreme Court.
Now polling shows that Trump actually ended up winning in part because of this trans issue, correct?
Right. This proved to be a crucial campaign issue that drew a lot of support for Trump. The trend of males encroaching on women's sports often came up. And that's something we've also highlighted on this show, where female athletes have been seriously injured by trans-identifying male players or lost out on victories or felt violated sharing a locker room with male teammates.
So again, we weren't alone, but The Daily Wire has approached this as an urgent issue that has needed to be exposed for what it is. And the tide appears to have turned now.
a truly remarkable change in policy we're seeing from the Trump administration. We'll be watching what steps Republicans now take in Congress on this issue in the coming weeks. Murray, thanks so much for reporting.
Thanks, John.
Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.