After nearly three weeks, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg showed up to East Palestine to assess the catastrophic train derailment that happened before the catastrophic -intentional- chemical explosion over the small rural Ohio town. When he was there he took the opportunity to get in front of the cameras and mispresent himself and the disastrous Democrat administration of Joe Biden.
Just one month ago, Buttigieg was criticized for his slow and ineffective response to an airline crisis:
“There was a glitch in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) system Wednesday, leading to thousands of flight delays across the United States. Transportation Secretary and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg says it is up to his department to clean things up,” local news WIBC reported on Jan. 11 about Buttigieg, adding:
“When there’s a problem with a government system, we’re going to own it, we’re going to find it, and we’re going to fix it,” said Buttigieg shortly after the system was fully restored and travel resumed its normal operations.
Buttigieg, who is famous for taking paternity leave to ‘chest feed’ his adopted child, was busy earlier in the week taking ‘personal time’ for a casual stroll when an independent journalist caught up with him to ask him about going to the Ohio town where people were desperate for some answers.
Jennie Taer, who recorded an exchange between herself and the Biden official, asked Buttigieg when he would visit Ohio and check the air and water quality after what the government calls a “controlled burn.”
News reports identified that “Buttigieg saw the car that had been carrying butyl acrylate, a compound that was likely the cause of a foul smell that hung over East Palestine in the days following the derailment, as well as a car that had been carrying ethylhexyl acrylate.”
But there has been no investigation into what the mysterious compounds that were burned were, much to the frustration of the townspeople.
The frustration has been building since the train wreck, for three weeks, and Buttigieg, a former mayor who prides himself on his emergency response to small towns, was sort of taking his sweet time getting to the area to help.
In the video, Buttigieg refuses to answer any questions about his plans for addressing his duties to serve the American people. The video of this exchange went viral and left the American people in outrage at the apparent disdain he had for working:
“I asked Secretary Buttigieg about the crisis in East Palestine and I guess he didn’t like that so he took a pic of me. Im just doing my job, sir, “Taer reported, tagging the Daily Caller.
I asked Secretary Buttigieg about the crisis in East Palestine and I guess he didn’t like that so he took a pic of me. Im just doing my job, sir. @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/HjKNgF25FJ
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) February 22, 2023
That seems to have been enough to pressure the reluctant civil servant to get out to the job site sooner than he planned. So on Thursday, Buttigieg finally appeared on the ground in Ohio.
WATCH:
BREAKING: After almost three weeks Pete Buttigieg has finally arrived on the ground in East Palestine
— Savanah Hernandez (@sav_says_) February 23, 2023
According to Weirton Daily Times:
Buttigieg spent the morning in East Palestine, using his visit to highlight a need for more safety regulations for the rail industry. At the same time, he reassured the village that Norfolk Southern would be held accountable for the accident that led to the release of hazardous materials into the air, water and soil and upended village residents’ lives.
Buttigieg spent about an hour in the early morning navigating the mud and wreckage alongside the tracks where the Feb. 3 derailment happened. As he toured the site, he talked with staff from the National Transportation Safety Board and USDOT’s Federal Railroad Administration and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Those who are familiar with the derailment and its aftermath gave Buttigieg an overview of the incident and the cars involved, including the 11 cars carrying hazardous materials. In total, the train was transporting 20 cars with hazardous materials, but nine were not involved in the derailment.
Real America’s Voice reporter Savanah Hernandez confronted Buttigieg about his late response to the East Palestine disaster.
“Why did it take you an entire two-and-a-half weeks to respond to East Palestine? Will you apologize to the residents of this city for the slow response?” Hernandez asked.
“Do you have any apology?”
Our friends as We Love Trump reported on the details of the exchange:
“Pete Buttigieg ignored Hernandez’s questions.
However, his “press person” offered to assist Hernandez.
That’s how it goes with the Biden administration.
They refuse to speak with the American people and cower behind their mainstream media lapdogs.”
WATCH:
WLT continued:
As a reminder, it took a visit from President Trump to force the Biden administration to finally act in response to the train derailment and release of highly-toxic chemicals.
Buttigieg later had the nerve to claim they’ve been here “from the first hours of the incident as an administration.”
WATCH:
