A Trans National Guard -Pilot was false accused of having flighted the helicopter in the deadly plank collision

Cnn
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A Trans member of the National Guard speaks after a wave of claims on social media that mistakenly pointed to her as the pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger jet in Washington, Wednesday and killed 67 people.

Jo Ellis, a UH60 Black Hawk -Helicopter Pilot to Virginia Army National Guard, Posted on Facebook Friday To expel the rumors that had repeated President Donald Trump’s non -substantiated accusation of diversity initiatives for the fatal accident.

“Some madness has happened on the internet and I am named as one of the pilots in the DC crash,” Ellis wrote. “It is insulting for the victims and families of those who are lost, and they deserve better than this BS from the Bots and Troll of the Internet.”

In her Facebook post, Ellis shared a screenshot of two X -posts that connected her to be trans to the catastrophic crash, with a user who said they “wouldn’t be surprised” if “the” pilot was trans “in response On another post that claimed Ellis “has made radicalized anti-trump statements about Socials. The latter account has since deleted the post and published an apology.

A separate story that has a blue mark and 13,600 followers shared a now-plated post directly attacking Ellis and spreading the false conspiracy theory. While the account also has issued a correctionAt The post was still rocking in At least 195,000 views and were spared almost 1,000 times before they were deleted.

At the time of both corrections, “Jo Ellis” was the No. 3 -ending topic on X, with 19,400 positions. And in spite of Ellis’ correction – which she further treated in A follow-up Facebook videoThe heading “Proof of Life”-high-ranking accounts on X has continued to spread incorrect information and hate opinion.

Ellis’ erroneous scapegoat in the right-right circles follows the guard’s published sit-down with CNNS Michael Smerconish, which is intended to appear in Saturday’s episode by “The Smetconish Podcast”, where she discussed her service and experiences with gender dysphoria. In an essay to Smerconish’s newsletterEllis also discussed his story and wrote about transition while serving in the military.

Hadetale after the crash repeated the recent attacks by Trump about DEI initiatives and performing acts aimed at transient Americans. Since he returned to the oval office, Trump has repeatedly aimed at transking people and said in his Inauguration speech “That there are only two sexes: male and female.” In the midst of his flurry of executive orders, Trump has also banned transient Americans from earning in the military, reviving his order in 2017, which was lifted by then -President Joe Biden in 2021. And in his first briefing room address, the crash linked to dei, while also accused Initiatives from Democrats.

“We must only have the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,” Trump said. “I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary, you remember it.”

“Only the highest fitness they must be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers,” he said.

In one Thursday the White House MemoTrump accused Obama -the administration’s implementation of “a biographical questionnaire at FAA to move the focus of hiring away from objective fitness”, which further links the crash to DEI initiatives.

“The Biden administration rejected eerie credit-based employment that required all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous” diversity and inclusion “tactics and specifically recruit people with” serious intellectual “disabilities in FAA,” Trump wrote in the memo.

Neither the memo nor Trump’s press conference provided any evidence to support his brave claims. When a reporter pressed the president for an explanation of his diversity requirements during the press conference, Trump again failed to present evidence, simply replied, “Because common sense and unfortunately not many people.”

Basic DEI attacks have become one of the most important pillars of the president’s Maga platform, and Trump is far from alone in associating disasters of diversity initiatives. When catastrophic fires broke out in California, Elon Musk used his X -sermon chair To demand “DEI means that people die” while others were aiming for Karen BassThe first woman and the second black person who served as Los Angeles mayor. Conservatives also accused Kristin CrowleyThe city’s first woman and open gay fire manager for the fires that killed 28 people.

Other events have also been linked to DEI initiatives. Rep. Dan Meuser told Fox News That New Orleans’ New Year’s Tragedy was because “the priority of the last four years has been DEI, not IEDs.” And Phil LymanThe one-time Gubernatorial Hopeful Maryland, accused the Baltimore Key Brdieg disaster about “governors who prioritize diversity.”