Horace Cooper DEI Airlines Ingraham

Horace Cooper: Airlines, Boeing, Biden Prioritize Diversity Over Safety

After a terrifying close call on an Alaska Airlines flight that started an investigation into — and now an official FAA grounding of — Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, the question must be asked: Have Boeing and other companies in the airline industry sacrificed excellence and safety on the altar of diversity?

On the Fox News program “The Ingraham Angle,” Project 21 Chairman Horace Cooper discussed this issue with host Laura Ingraham and retired United Airlines pilot Scott Pattillo.

Horace noted that the insidious Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) ideology is certainly a concerning issue among many giants in the airline industry, but that fingers can actually be pointed much higher: President Biden himself. For example, Biden selected Pete Buttigieg to be the first openly gay Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, and as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg now oversees the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Horace said:

In my latest book, I mention this dalliance with DEI, this idea that diversity is more important than a meritocracy. I titled the chapter “D-I-E” because THIS CAN KILL.

When I was a kid we asked this question about whether you wanted your cardiologist to be someone who sort of was socially promoted through medical school or did you want the excellent? We eventually started talking about pilots. Now I read that there are airlines like United, there are airline building companies, that are going around saying that we need more diversity rather than talent.

The president of the United States has picked Mayor Pete to be in charge of airline safety — again, choosing diversity over the importance of the real reason there’s an FAA, and that’s safety, that’s making sure that when passengers get on the plane, they’re going to actually reach their loved ones.

Do you know where diversity is desperately needed in the airline industry? In DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT. In 2020, the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project warned Boeing executives that they needed to add a diversity of viewpoints to their board in order to avoid unnecessary errors.

In times like these, when Boeing has egg on its face, we wish all the more that those executives had listened to us.



The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.