January 30th, 2025

On Thursday’s Mark Levin Show, Democrats in Congress are more upset with what President Trump said about DEI than the crash that happened near Reagan National Airport. Accidents like this happen when the government wastes trillions of dollars on their left-wing woke demands instead of dealing with a staffing shortage at the air traffic control towers. The ideology of the left is killing people. If the government is going to run air traffic, they better do it right. Why do we believe that when government does something it’s better than the private sector? Also, stop using the phrase big pharma; we all sound like Marxists. Little pharma can’t produce the medicine you’re taking. Many of us wouldn’t be alive but for big pharma. If we break them up, then nobody going to invest in the medicines we need. Can you imagine the disaster if the government was in charge? Afterward, Sen Thom Tillis convinced Pete Hegseth’s ex-sister-in-law to come out against Hegseth to convince Republicans Senators to vote no on his nomination. Thankfully, it backfired. Why did Tillis vote for Hegseth after he tried to do all this damage? Now, those in North Carolina know who he really is. Finally, Rep James Comer calls in to discuss his investigation into sanctuary cities and his new book, All the President’s Money: Investigating the Secret Foreign Schemes That Made the Biden Family Rich.

Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/ U.S. Coast Guard

The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.

Rough transcription of Hour 1

Segment 1
Hello America. Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. I note the Democrats in Congress and we’re upset over what Donald Trump said and what actually happened. And I’m quite serious about this. Quite serious about this. We want off the air. Just a few minutes after this horrific event occurred. Mr. Producer. Without having known, of course, that it occurred. And I’m off the air and I say, What the hell is this? And I watched the video several times on TV with my wife. From a camera, apparently on the roof of the Kennedy Center. And I said, wait a minute, that the helicopter hit the plane. Had they held the helicopter, hit the plane. The helicopter went all the way across the river and hit the plane. Because they keep saying that the plane collided with the helicopter. No, the helicopter collided with the plane. I’m not blaming anyone. I’m just talking about what I saw with my own two eyes. And then I said to her, Nobody survived that. Nobody. There’s no way. There’s no way it was a fireball that just fell into the ocean. Excuse me? Fell into the river. I don’t even want to get into details. You can imagine the. The massive blades. There’s four of them on the helicopter. Cut through that first fuselage like a knife through butter. I mean, it must have been absolutely quick but horrendous. Really? I’m so sad. And same with the the individuals in the in the helicopter. These men are trained. They’re good. They’re military. They’re army. They didn’t just fly in in an airplane because they flew in an airplane. Something happened. Something happened. We will find out. I think a lot of these experts are. I’m pretty correct about what’s but took place. The ones we’re talking about. They think the crew and the helicopter had a bead on the wrong plane. My wife point that pointed that out to me immediately when we’re watching the video, she said, wait a minute, there’s a plane that just took off. Maybe that had something to do with it. I mean, it was you can see the plane taking off, moving up. The plane that was destroyed. I mean, you’re 400 feet off the ground. There’s not a lot you can do. There’s not a lot of maneuvering you can do to avoid a hit. But it’s not even clear that they saw anything. And apparently these these devices that warn you about a potential. Not crash, but a continual hit with something under a thousand feet. They don’t alert you. Why? Because there’s not a lot you can do about it. That’s why I’m no expert. But I’m listening to these guys. Some experts make more sense to me than others. I’m just using my noggin. What would cause a helicopter to fly into an airplane that’s 400 feet off the ground? The answer is they didn’t see it. There weren’t devices or technology for it. The answer is they didn’t see it. And the tower told them to get behind the aircraft. Which aircraft? It didn’t say. And everything happened in a very truncated period of time. So there wasn’t a lot of time to do anything at that point. But that plane that was taking off. I’m sure they saw that one at the right side. And that’s where they probably said all we’re behind that plane and then bang! Of nobody even knew what that all happened. That’s my guess. Which isn’t worth anything, but I’m just telling it from looking at it. But now we’re learning a few other things, and this is the way it’ll be. God rest those souls. I can only imagine how many of us have been on planes. You’ve almost landed. You’re getting ready to turn on your phone. Are you? Just turn on your phone to tell your loved one you’re here. They’re there to pick you up. Or that you’re on the other end of the flight and you’re getting ready to call or text and let them know that you’ve landed safely when you’re 400 feet off the tarmac and you’re literally about the land, you figure, hey, you know, flight is over. And you’re hit by helicopter. They talk about the amount of traffic there. There’s a lot of traffic there. But there haven’t been accidents as a result of the traffic and that 1982 disaster that took place, that was because of the the de-icing. Over time needed more de-icing. And the plane flew into the river was too heavy, had nothing to do with the amount of traffic air traffic. So you can have a lot of people talking about solutions that have nothing to do with the problem. But here’s a problem that existed. And you have to ask yourself this and I’m serious, this government. Has more money. Then one could even imagine. And they got $2 trillion more for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. And when you take trillions of dollars and you piss it away on stupid stuff. And you lose your focus and you lose your prioritisation. Bad things happen when Donald Trump’s going off about this DUI stuff. And I went back and looked. Can you imagine people in a tower who are hard of hearing, who have side issues? They go on and on and on. In other words, it was a long list of the left woke demands. And yet apparently the FAA didn’t have enough staff at the Reagan National Airport. New York Times. This came out about 3 hours ago, actually two and a half hours ago, staffing at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport, quote, was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic, unquote. According to an internal preliminary FAA safety report about the collision that was reviewed by The New York Times. The controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways. Those jobs typically are assigned to controllers rather than one. Now, part of the reason for that is and I don’t know if they get to it later here, I’ll read it to you. But there are two different communication frequencies commercial flights and military flight. The increase. This increases the workload for the air traffic controller and can complicate the job. One reason is that the controllers here you go can use different radio frequencies to communicate with pilots flying planes and pilots flying helicopters while the controllers communicating with the pilots. So the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other. Like most of the country’s air traffic control facilities, the tower. Reagan has been understaffed for years. The tower there was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels. The targets set by the FAA and the controllers union calls for 30 while nice. They weren’t even close. Everything this guy Bush touches turns to crap crap. What the hell was he doing as transportation secretary? Not just this, but in so many ways. The EV charging station I’m in. I go on and on and on. This guy. Which is why Trump is fed up with him today. Trump knows more than we do. He’s been briefed on all aspects of this. No question about it. The shortage caused by years of employee turnover and tight budgets. And they put it that way, too. So you don’t hold Biden and Bush responsible or the Democrats in Congress who are busy screaming at Donald Trump and take no responsibility for anything. Nothing. Has forced many controllers to work up to six days a week and 10 hours a day. The FAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Understaffed. Now, I understand many of these government unions, you know, there’s never enough people anywhere and so forth and so on. But the FAA. Look, if the government is going to run air traffic control, they better do it right. And that’s why I tell you all the time and you know this instinctively anyway. Why do we believe that when the government does something, it’s going to be better than the private sector? Why do we believe that? There’s been a lot of debate over the years, mostly under the radar, about privatizing the FAA, not just handing it out to Joe Schmo, who just opened shop on the corner now to very experienced. People who used to work in towers, pilots and so forth and so on. Now, that’s too dangerous. That’s too dangerous. Of course, Trump comes in. He’s furious about all this. He sees it. And by the way, he’s extremely humane and he gets very upset when he sees these kinds of tragedies. He absolutely does. People being kidnapped, it upsets him to no end. Meanwhile, the Democrats in the Senate, what are they busy doing? Trying to make sure that these major departments that have a significant role over whether people live or die. Safety and health and so forth, They want control over these areas, the bureaucracy. They’ve got it. And the Democrats, they want the government running us. They’ve got it. And then when it comes to having cabinet members. They have an entire dark. Plan of a saboteur to try and prevent Donald Trump from getting the people in these cabinet positions that he wants. And they did the same thing to him in 2016. And I’m going to talk about this and expose this extensively on Saturday nights. Life, liberty and Livin. I’m doing the research now. Shocking. Horrible. You know, you’ve got these figure skaters, you’ve got these kids on the plane, you’ve got you’ve got these wonderful flight attendants and the pilots and. The heroes are in the helicopter. They’re all gone. 60 7 a.m. just like that. In a split second, they’re all gone. There was never any hope. Couldn’t survive in that water more than 10 minutes. But with those chopper blades and the explosion and the plummeting into the river and it just just horrendous, horrendous. And they were almost there. They were they’re seconds away, seconds away. And we can’t just blame it on systems anymore. People are in positions of power, people in positions where they demand more money and so forth than okay. We expect them to step up now. To step up to do their jobs. Mistakes are made. Mistakes are made. But when you have a tower like this in a very busy airport. Very busy airport. It’s a small airport. One of the first airports. Then you make sure it’s staff properly in the Secretary of Transportation. But a judge. The Biden regime did not. But they made sure that they were pushing their radical left agenda. Whatever. You do not discriminate against anybody for any reason. We’re not even talking about race here. We’re talking about physicality. It’s the. Pressing. It’s very upsetting because again, we all project we’ve all been on planes, we’ve all had family members on planes. You think of that call that’s made the dread. You’re there at the airport, you’re all excited to meet them. And this. This happens. It’s not a perfect world. I get it. But it needs to be more perfect. There’s no reason when a government is spending trillions and trillions on crap. A left wing cause is a left wing organization’s just crap. They don’t have the money to make sure these towers are fully. You know, fully staffed. That. Is so horrendous. You look at the border. The amount of money we spend in this government. Look at the border. In the past, administration that didn’t secure the border wouldn’t secure the border, lied to us about it being secure, then lied about it when they said we need bipartisan legislation. They know where these murders were. They knew where these pedophiles were. They knew where these Venezuelan gang members were. They knew where these rapists were. They know what’s going on in the border, the fentanyl coming into the country, the women being sold into slavery, their children being sold in the sex slavery. And they did not lift a finger. They could have rounded up these people. They could have deported them. But they did not. They let them in. That’s why you have an angry president of the United States and Donald Trump, he looks at this. And what are the media? Do they attack him because the media sucked. That’s why. I’ll be right back.

Segment 2
22 Senate Democrats voted against the confirmation of Sean Duffy as secretary of Transportation. They delayed his confirmation for no reason whatsoever, just part of the strategy. To try and make Trump look bad and try and usurp and undermine and sabotage the Trump agenda. 22 Democrats. That’s a lot. And they had absolutely no reason to vote against him. None far more qualified than Buddha, George, for anything. No controversies? Nothing. And they dragged it on. They dragged it on. They made the Republicans stay at night work overtime. They used the Democrats every. Parliamentary trick in the book. And they’re doing this with every single nominee. They did it with Ratcliffe over at the CIA. They almost took out Seth. I mean, they like Rubio fly through. So they could say, look at us, we’re a bipartisan. But this is what they’re doing. And let me tell you something. They don’t give a damn about your health and safety anymore than they did when they wouldn’t secure the border back. The cops. I’ll be right back.

Segment 3
All right. Let’s hear some of what President Trump had to say today. Cut one must reduce or go to work has now shifted to a recovery mission. Sadly, there are no survivors. This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital, then in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions. As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so sadly. And we are a country of really we are in mourning. Is this really shaken? A lot of people, including people very sadly, from other nations who were on the flight for the family members back in Wichita, Kansas, here in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States and in Russia, where we have a Russian contingent. Some very talented people, unfortunately, were on that plane. Very, very, very sorry about that, whose loved ones were aboard the passenger jet. We can only begin to imagine the agony that you’re all feeling. Nothing worse. On behalf of the first lady myself and 340 million Americans, our hearts are shattered alongside yours. And our prayers are with you now. And in the days to come, we’ll be working very, very diligently in the days to come. We’re here for you to wipe away the tears and to offer you are a devotional love, and our support is great support. In moments like this, the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations. We are one family and today we are all heartbroken. We’re all searching for answers. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Cut to go. You must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. You remember that only the highest aptitude have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. That was not so prior to getting there. When I arrived in 2016. I made that change very early on because I always felt this was a job that and other jobs do. But this was a job that had to be superior intelligence. And we didn’t really have that and we had it. And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. And I want to stop you. And he praised himself and he celebrated it and they published on their website. It’s probably not there any longer. Of course, all the types of people who are going to now qualify for these positions. And it had almost nothing to do with qualifications at all. It’s this all this woke stuff. And yes, this stuff. Go ahead. First, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse. So, as you know, last week, long before the crash, I signed an executive order restoring our highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs throughout the country. So it was very interesting. About a week ago, almost upon entering office, I signed something last week that was an executive order, a very powerful one, restoring the high standards of air traffic controllers and others, by the way. And my administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety. We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are matters intellect, talent, the word talent. They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. You can’t have regular people doing their job. They won’t be able to do it. Cut three ago, a week before I entered office, they put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program. And then another article, the Federal Aviation Administration. This was before I got to office recently. Second term, the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website. Can you imagine? These are people that are I mean, actually their lives are shortened because of the stress that they have. Brilliant people have to be in those positions and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming in to one target and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it. Hmm. It’s a very important what’s taken place here. You know what the president is saying? It’s very important. He has the guts to say it. He has the guts to say you look at the fires in California that the people there just went through, the nation just witnessed. I mean, you can’t stop fires. There’s Mother Nature. But that aside, you can try and ameliorate the situation. All the failures, all the lies. The ideology getting in in front of. Of actually getting the work done. He needed to protect people. We talked at length about that. You look at the border. A horrific human disaster in every respect on both sides of the border. And as a result of Biden and Democrat policies, you look at our cities. Crime through the roof. With liberal judges. Liberal prosecutors. The ferry to enforce. Lawfully passed statutes to protect the citizenry. You look at the school system again, particularly the teachers unions that have destroyed our schools. Not all, but a lot of them. And it’s aiming to remain high for all of them. You look at what takes place when ideology, their ideology. Rules. Look at it. That’s a disaster. Now, Mark, are you blaming that on what took place? No, I’m not blaming that on what took place. I am blaming it on what’s happened on the border. I am blaming it on how the fires got completely out of control in California. I am blaming it on why we have such horrendous crime in our streets, including by illegal alien criminals. And the fact that that tower wasn’t properly staffed. Yes, I’m blaming that on them. It’s on their watch. And that’s what accountability is all about. You’re going to push these radical left wing agendas and prioritize them over the people in California when it comes to dealing with forests and potential fire disasters and water shortages and energy and so forth. That’s right. You’re responsible when the border all the horrendous slavery and. And it’s almost unspeakable the kids that are missing and everything. Yeah. When you’re when you’re responsible for it, you’re to be held account to account. And when when you look at the cities, the the the rabbit crime and I love won’t be much not going up well then go move into the inner cities where there’s high crime and tell us it’s not going up. They don’t and they won’t. And if you don’t properly. Man. Our airport towers. And you’re not seeking the proper individuals. None of that may have had an effect directly here in terms of the proper individuals, in terms of it not being properly manned. Yes, that’s a problem. Then you’re to be held to account. You want massive government, You want massive spending. You want massive debt. You defend it to the end. Then you’re responsible for things that take place. You can’t just blow it off. Cut for Mr. Producer. Go. I understand that. That’s why I’m trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash, because I have common sense. Okay. And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level. When you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of. Time and they’re all coming in different directions. And you’re dealing with very high level computer computer work and very complex computers. And one of the other things I will tell you is that the systems that were built, I was going to rebuild the entire system. And then we had an election that didn’t turn out the way it should have, but they didn’t build the systems properly. They spent a lot of money renovating a system, spending much more money than they would have spent if they bought a new system for air traffic controllers, meaning the computerized systems. There are certain companies that do a very good job. They didn’t use those companies. They used companies that should not have been doing it. So I think I think this I think it’s very important to understand that for some jobs and not only this, but air traffic controllers, they have to be at the highest level of genius. And what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with him stating, I don’t understand this whole DUI thing? The Democrats defend it, they promote it. They instead institute it. They seek to enshrine it. And then when you criticize it, you’re called a racist for pointing it out. Now, which is it? Is it a valuable tool? Is it a valuable tool or is it something that you don’t accuse somebody of being appointed under? Which is it? They’re not going to get it both ways because Americans aren’t afraid of speaking out anymore. They’re just not. Because if you don’t speak out, it’s going to cost lives. It’s going to it’s going to be horrendous situation. Everybody should have a for equal shake. That used to be the battle. Equality. It’s a colorblind society. That used to be the battle. Martin Luther King. Merritt They used to be something that we that we praise in support other than just in sports. I mean, what about the rest of the society? And look at the the true racism of those who say that people of all backgrounds and creeds and colors and religions and whatever can’t compete with their brains, they can’t compete. What does that mean? What are they telling us? And then finally, for our purposes anyway. Caitlin Collins is a is is a true nasty. Unintelligent. Sort of cheap. Drama journalist at CNN, and that’s how she’s gotten her promotion. And so there she is at the White House. Cat five. Go president yet know the names of the 67 people were killed and you are blaming Democrats and DUI policies and air traffic control. Let’s stop right now. See, there’s a report out now that I read here. It’s in the New York Times. AP has that. They all have it. Somebody put it out. And I’m glad they did about the the lack of staff in that tower. At Reagan and they got one person is hand the helicopters and the planes in this particular situation, which is really an impossibility. Two different frequencies and all the rest to people are supposed to handle it, but they don’t have enough people. And they’ve been told this for at least since I think it was 2022. And Kaitlan Collins, just how do you know that this is DEA? How do you know And what is Trump’s? Because I’m not stupid. That’s how I know. But notice her job there isn’t viewed as getting information or, you know, it’s fighting Donald Trump. That’s what a fight. Trump no matter what he says, fight them, fight them, fight them. Even when people are dead in the river, fight Trump. Start at the top. Cut five. Go, please. President yet know the names of the 67 people were killed and you are blaming Democrats and die policies. What is the what is the connection between knowing the names of the 67 people who were killed? And he actually probably did. And the statement that he made Mr. Putin. I don’t even understand what she’s saying to you. One has nothing to do with the other. But go ahead. Like the member of the U.S. military who was flying that Blackhawk helicopter. Don’t you think you’re getting ahead of the investigation right now? I don’t think so at all. I don’t think. Were the names of the people. You mean the names of the people that are on the plane? You think that’s going to make a difference? They are. They are a group of people that have lost their lives. If you want a list of the names we can give you that we’ll be giving that very soon. In coordination with American Airlines. We’re in coordination very strongly, obviously, with the military. But I think that’s not a very smart question. I’m surprised coming from you. And she’s asking question of where she’s talking over him. She sort of. Jim Acosta in a dress. And at CNN, they think this is journalism. They think this is what you want to hear. They don’t care about their ratings. They’re owned by a massive conglomerate, an international corporation. And they just keep doing this sort of they should just get a promotion. And they consider this reporting, you know, catcalls, interruption, speaking over the person. You’re asking questions, not letting them finish their answers, not really pursuing information, but trying to get argumentative. That’s how they view their role and that’s their problem. And that is the problem. I’ll be right back.

Segment 4
Chuck Schumer was very upset about what Trump said. More upset about what Trump said than the fact. Of what happened because this is what the Democrats do. Cut seven, Go. I just watched President Trump’s news conference. Listen, it’s one thing for Internet pundits to spew off kind of way reads this off of no cards or piece of paper. He can’t even speak for himself here. He’s got some staffer who writes this stuff. Listen, it’s one thing. For Internet pundits to spew off conspiracies. Go ahead. It’s another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families are still notified. It just turns your stomach. It doesn’t it sound like a stomach has turned, Mr. Petition? This guy really is. He’s is the worst of the demagogues. Really put it on MSNBC’s He could follow. Joy Reid. You were the Democrat. Senate Leader Schumer. When you pass trillions of dollars in inflationary spending and massively increased our debt. Did you know what was going on at the FAA? Did you know they were understaffed? Did you know that they were understaffed at Reagan Airport? Right across the river from where you’re standing and smearing Donald Trump. Did you know any of that? If not, why not? You controlled the committees. You control the committee that oversees the Transportation Department. Why did you delay the nomination or the confirmation of Sean Duffy? Why did you do that? We can go on and on about Schumer. Schumer. No different than Biden in terms of the safety, health, the violence. These guys don’t do a damn thing about it. Then when they’re called out, they get angry. Too damn bad. I’ll be right back.