Well, what do you know? Another day, another scandal in the Biden administration’s never-ending obsession with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—this time, putting air traffic control in the hands of people who may or may not actually be qualified to do the job. Because who cares if you can safely guide hundreds of planes through crowded airspace as long as you check the right demographic boxes, right?
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy isn’t playing around, though. On Thursday, he announced a full-scale investigation into hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after a bombshell voicemail surfaced, exposing how an air traffic operations supervisor was handing out test answers to select candidates. And by “select,” we mean “not white,” because, as the Daily Mail reported, the FAA’s hiring scheme specifically worked to “minimize competition” by keeping white applicants out of the loop.
I am launching a full investigation into the DEI hiring allegations at the FAA immediately.
If true, swift accountability will come for those responsible. We need the best and brightest, not buzzword, DEI hires. https://t.co/CTW75umVb5
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) March 13, 2025
The voicemail in question comes from 2014—yes, the Obama years, when every federal agency seemed to be more focused on social engineering than actually doing its job. In the clip, Shelton Snow, a New York-based FAA supervisor, is caught red-handed promising to email screenshots of test answers to certain applicants. Not surprisingly, the group that received this advantage? African Americans, women, and other minority candidates. Everyone else? Sorry, your merit didn’t matter.
NEW: A DEI activist is caught on a voicemail offering minority Air Traffic Control candidates the chance to cheat, according to The Daily Mail.
“There are some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of, and I am going to send that to you via email.”
“I… pic.twitter.com/FlqwUNNqNw
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) March 12, 2025
The test in question was part of a Biographical Assessment exam, a new hiring filter introduced during the Obama administration that conveniently replaced a peer-reviewed cognitive test. Why? Because the old test actually measured ability, and the results weren’t producing the “right” racial outcomes. The new one? A glorified personality quiz that, apparently, was so difficult that certain candidates needed an answer sheet sent to them in advance.
Now, let’s be clear—when it comes to federal agencies, incompetence is nothing new. But the FAA? This is the group responsible for making sure airplanes don’t slam into each other midair. Maybe, just maybe, hiring the most competent candidates should be a priority here. But under Obama and Biden, it hasn’t been. Instead, the FAA openly promotes policies that emphasize “diversity” over ability, and the results are starting to show.
President Trump has been all over this issue, particularly after the tragic mid-air collision over Washington, D.C., in January. A regional American Airlines jet crashed into a U.S. Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport, killing everyone on board. In response, Trump didn’t mince words: “I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first.”
And he’s not wrong. The FAA’s own website proudly states that its “qualified applicants” include individuals with severe vision impairment, hearing loss, missing limbs, paralysis, epilepsy, psychiatric disabilities, and even “severe intellectual disabilities.” Now, some of these conditions might not be deal-breakers for certain roles, but are we seriously supposed to believe that someone with severe intellectual disabilities can effectively perform every position in air traffic control? This is safety-critical work, not a social experiment.
And let’s not forget Pete Buttigieg, the previous Transportation Secretary, who seemed to think his main job was to check Twitter for mean comments rather than ensure America’s infrastructure didn’t collapse. Trump hit the nail on the head when he called Buttigieg’s hiring the result of a “good line of bulls**t.” Buttigieg was the poster child for what happens when DEI replaces competence—a guy more concerned with getting the right number of electric vehicle chargers installed than making sure planes could actually land safely.
Duffy, thankfully, seems to be taking a different approach. His message is clear: no more hiring based on social justice talking points. If you want to work in air traffic control, you should actually be qualified for the job. Not just sort of qualified. Not helped along by a supervisor slipping you the answers. Fully, unquestionably, prepared to do the job that literally keeps people alive.
This investigation is long overdue, and if Duffy follows through, heads should roll. The American public deserves a transportation system run by the best and brightest—not by people who needed an inside track to pass a test. And if that offends the woke crowd, so be it. Because when it comes to air traffic control, we don’t need “equity.” We need competence.
