Pete Buttigieg Says He’s Finally Going To Ohio, 18 Days After Toxic Train Derailment

Pete Buttigieg revealed on Tuesday that he will go to East Palestine, Ohio, after intense backlash when he did not visit, and President Joe Biden instead headed to Ukraine after a train derailment released hazardous materials in community.

East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway stormed President Joe Biden’s trip to Ukraine amid the derailment, claiming his refusal to focus on internal affairs and instead parading in the war-torn Eastern European country it was a “slap”. ‘

Buttigieg, however, downplayed the need for an administration official to come survey the damage and visit the community disrupted by the toxic derailment.

He also suggested that former President Donald Trump’s upcoming trip to Ohio on Wednesday is just a photo op as part of his 2024 campaign that again seeks to take the helm at the White House.

The derailment earlier this month spewed toxic chemicals into the community, prompting residents to complain of headaches and other symptoms.

Transportation Secretary Buttigieg said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the agency responsible for investigating civilian transportation accidents, should be able to work independently to address the mishap without his presence.

“I’m planning to go and our people were on the ground from the early hours,” he insisted to Good Morning America on Tuesday when asked why he had not visited eastern Palestine in the 18 days since the derailment.

He did not give a timetable for when he will arrive at the disaster site.

Buttigieg has called for higher maximum fines for rail safety violations, but has yet to visit the small town that is still reeling from the consequences of toxic chemicals seeping into the air, soil and water.

He wrote a letter Sunday to the president and CEO of Norfolk Southern, which owns and operates the train that derailed with the hazardous material.

“Norfolk Southern must honor its commitments to the people of East Palestine,” Buttigieg wrote in an Instagram post Monday along with images of the letter.

“And as USDOT continues to do its own job, I wrote NS to set expectations clear: The pattern of industry resistance to safety regulations must change,” he continued.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan was at the Ohio-Pennsylvania border last week, 13 days after a Norfolk Southern train was diverted on February 3.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued an evacuation order on February 5.

“I want to emphasize that the NTSB must be able to do its job independently,” he added in his interview with GMA. “But when I’m gone, the focus will be on the action.”

Mayor Conaway takes a different view, claiming that Biden visited the Ukraine before coming to his town to assess the damage, and talking to the community about what could help get them back shows that his priorities are abroad and not at home.

“That was the biggest slap in the face,” Conaway told Fox News on Monday night. ‘That tells you that right now he doesn’t care about us.’

“You can send to all the agencies you want, but I found out this morning at one of the briefings that you were in the Ukraine giving millions of dollars to the people there and not to us and I’m furious,” the mayor added.

“On President’s Day in our country, he’s in the Ukraine, so that tells you what kind of person he is.”

Buttigieg, who was once the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said the administration only wants significant travel.

“Look, I was mayor of my hometown for eight years,” Buttigieg said in his interview with Good Morning America host George Stephanapoulos. “We are faced with many disasters, natural and man-made.”

“One of the things I noticed very quickly is that there are two types of people who show up when you have that kind of disaster experience: people who are there because they have a specific job to do and are there to do something, and people who are there to look good and take a picture,” he said.

Trump announced last week that he will visit East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday to speak with the community and its leaders after the derailment.

“When I leave, it’s going to be about actions on rail safety, like the actions that we’re asking Congress to help us with, that we’re asking the industry to take, and that we’re committing as a department to help make sure that these types of things don’t happen in the future.

Buttigieg announced he will visit the crash site more than two weeks after the derailment and after a wave of pressure from politicians for the transportation chief to inspect the damage.

Ohio Republican Rep. Warren Davidson on Friday called for Buttigieg’s removal over the matter.

‘Wait [Buttigieg] he resigns, and if he doesn’t, there’s a long list of impeachment criteria,” the lawmaker told the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice. “I would never have thought that we would get to a point where we would have to remove a Secretary of Transportation, but damn it, how many failures have to occur during his tenure before we call him?”

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is also among those calling for Buttigieg’s resignation, amid complaints about the pacing of federal resources.

Under fire, the Biden Administration hosted a briefing on Friday to defend the response, but without allowing officials to speak officially.