US President Donald Trump -- speaking as the bodies of 67 people were being pulled from Washington's Potomac River -- launched an extraordinary political attack Thursday, blaming diversity hires for the midair collision between an airliner and a military helicopter.

The Republican confirmed the deaths of all those aboard both aircraft, and also cited pilot error on the helicopter in the nighttime crash.

But he chiefly used a press conference to open fire at what he said were left-wing diversity practices under his predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama that he said kept out good employees at the Federal Aviation Administration.

"I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first," Trump said. "They actually came out with a directive: 'too white.' And we want the people that are competent."

As Trump spoke in the White House, police divers searched for more bodies in the water.

Wreckage of the Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary protruded from the surface, surrounded by emergency........

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