Iain Dale ordered Kurt Schlichter to be taken off air after the US columnist supported Donald Trump’s ludicrous claim that diversity hiring was to blame for a tragic plane crash in DC
LBC’s Iain Dale hangs up on American journalist Kurt Schlichter
An LBC presenter dramatically kicked an American journalist off his radio show after he supported Donald Trump’s ludicrous claim that diversity hiring is to blame for a tragic plane crash in the US.
Iain Dale branded Kurt Schlichter a “numbskull” and ordered for him to be taken off air after the columnist, who is also a trial lawyer and a retired Army infantry colonel, ranted about the unevidenced theory.
The radio presenter said he “never” wanted to talk to the American again and said he was the sort of person that makes the US look “ridiculous” on the world stage. The pair have since been publicly arguing on social media platform Twitter/X, where Dale called Schlichter an “obnoxious, rude, offensive” bigot.
It follows Mr Trump last night heavily suggesting that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes were to blame for a plane crash in Washington DC that killed 67 people on Wednesday. At a press conference, the US President went on a long tirade about diversity hiring programmes – which seek to hire qualified people from a wide range of backgrounds into organisations that had previously been heavily skewed towards white men. He suggested the tragic crash may have been caused by DEI programmes hiring people to be air traffic controllers who were not qualified for the “genius” level position.
Speaking on LBC radio on Thursday night, Schlichter hit out at diversity programmes as being a tick-box exercise. He said: “When you choose people because you’re checking blocks, whether colour or sex or, for God’s sake, severe psychological disability, you’re going to get losers.”
After being repeatedly grilled, he at one point was forced to admit there was no evidence that the pilots or anyone at the airport control tower was from a diverse background. Yet he still continued to support Mr Trump’s theories.
Dale told him: “Do you think it’s appropriate for the President of the United States, within 24 hours, when you have 67 families grieving – is it really appropriate to indulge in this unevidenced speculation, when, surely what he should be doing is encouraging the flight investigators to get to the truth?”
Schlichter hit out at the suggestion that flight investigators “need to be encouraged to go get the truth” and said he’d like to “see the memo” saying when the timing is right to speculate on the causes of the crash. He then proceeded to rant about how within 40 seconds of a shooting spree by a “psychotic leftist murderer”, people call for guns to be banned in the US.
He said: “I get told I need to disarm myself, because me being able to defend myself from criminals and tyrants, along with tens of millions of other Americans, is the cause of yet another crime. So I’m going to need to know what the rule is.”
A furious Dale cut him off and started calling to a staff member off-screen: “Can you get this numbskull off our programme please. I never want to speak to him again. He is the kind of person that makes America look ridiculous on the world stage.”
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Schlichter responded on Twitter/X: “I got asked on British channel LBC to talk about Donald Trump and I guess I was too real… The host booted me off the air – ‘Never have him on again!’ I refused to back down on the President’s DEI attack and rejected the idea that the President should not criticize the uncriticizable. The host guy was most upset. Can’t wait to share the clips. I guess I’m lucky I didn’t get arrested for criminal wrongthink! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Dale hit back promptly: “You got booted off because you were shouting, obnoxious, rude, offensive and I don’t like bigots on my show. Very happy to have Trump supporting guests on my show but you sir bring shame on your proud country. Be ashamed of yourself for the hurt you and your president have inflicted on perfectly innocent people with disabilities.”
And he posted the clip of him booting Schlichter off his show later, with the caption: “This is the 4 minutes that provoked me to throw this deranged, bigoted Trump supporter off my show last night. It doesn’t happen often, and no doubt some think I should’ve let him continue with his awful bullshit, but I’ve absolutely no regrets.”
