Biden’s no-show gives Trump an opening in Ohio
Trent Conaway is our Vladimir Zelenskyy.
Conaway, the hefty mayor of East Palestine, Ohio stood up to Joe Biden the way Zelenskyy took on Vladimir Putin.
Conaway is at the center over the row over the lack of adequate federal concern and assistance in the wake of the massive railroad derailment spillover that wrecked his small town, population 4,761.
Asked about the federal handling of the disaster that leaked dangerous chemicals in the air, water and ground in relation to Biden’s visit to Kiev, Conaway said, “That was the biggest slap in the face. That tells you right now (that) he doesn’t care about us.
“I found out this morning that he was in Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there and not to us, so I’m furious.”
This was in relation to Biden’s surprise visit to Kiev last week where he announced that he was providing another $500 million in aid, plus $2 billion more to follow. It goes along with the billions he has already sent Zelenskyy to help the country ward of the ruthless Russian invasion.
We are not there to win, though, but only to keep the Ukrainians in the war until the last Ukrainian soldier dies.
Conaway, who had difficulty in getting Biden or Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to visit the site, ought to have asked the media savvy Zelenskyy to visit. Who more than Zelenskyy knows about the destruction of villages?
Better still, Conaway could have gone to Kiev himself and asked Zelenskyy for a small piece of the $500 million that Biden gave him. That way Conaway could help restore his village and make whole the people who have suffered as a result of the toxic chemical disaster. And it would have been a good public relations hit for the Z as well.
Perhaps Biden, confused and jet lagged in Poland, mixed up East Palestine with Palestine, balked at the imaginary idea of flying to the Near East to visit Palestinian visit and upsetting Israel.
At any rate, Biden promised to defend “every inch” of NATO territory from Russian aggression which includes member nations Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia Bulgaria and Albania.
Ukraine, like East Palestine, is not a member of NATO but Biden is defending it too.
“The president has been very clear about this,” Karine JeanPierre, his press secretary would have said. “So, let me be clear about this too. The president has never confused East Palestine with Palestine. Is that clear?”
Biden originally wanted to send Buttigieg to East Palestine but could not find him.
But you could not fault Buttigieg for not showing up until three weeks after the derailment.
You never know what kind of toxic elements were in the air, water and soil stemming from the derailment of railroad cars carrying all that hazardous material.
The Norfolk Southern Corp., which run the trains, listed five toxic chemicals that may have contaminated the air, soil and water surrounding the crash site and the village. They are vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, methylphenyl acrylate, isobutylene and ethylene glycol aminobutyl.
A good-looking guy like Buttigieg could have caught a severe case of acne.
But when Buttigieg finally did show up on Thursday it was anti-climatic.
And that is because he followed an appearance by former President Donald Trump.
Being the fastidious germaphobe that he is, it took more courage for Trump to show up in East Palestine than it did for Biden to go to Kiev. You at least get air raid warnings in Kiev. Nobody tells you when a freight train is going off the tracks.
Trump came into town in a motorcade similar to the motorcades that took him around when he was president He also brought with him pallets of bottled water and cleaning supplies. He also took credit for forcing Buttigieg to finally visit the site.
While the visit had all the earmarks of a campaign event, in which he took a few jabs at Biden, Trump at least showed up. Biden didn’t.
One woman said to Trump. “Thank you for not forgetting us.”
And that’s what it’s all about.