Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
GOP slams Biden for not visiting site of train derailment
WASHINGTON — Republicans are continuing to criticize President Joe Biden for not visiting East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic, cancer-causing chemicals derailed Feb. 3.
Biden has yet to make a trip to the area, sending Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and federal officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency to the disaster site in his stead.
Biden’s visit to Ukraine last week was “the biggest slap in the face,” East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, a Republican, told Fox News. “That tells you right now, he doesn’t care about us,” Conaway added, saying he was “furious” the president was in Ukraine “giving millions of dollars away to people over there, not to us.”
Biden said Friday that he has no plans to visit the village, but emphasized that he has been in close contact with elected officials there.
“The idea that we are not engaged is just simply not there,” Biden said. “Initially, there was not a request for me to go out even before I was heading over to Kyiv. I am keeping very close tabs on it. We are doing all we can.”
On Friday, House Republicans launched an oversight investigation into the Department of Transportation’s handling of the disaster. The Biden administration has insisted that disaster response is about more than the president appearing on scene.
Biden has received multiple briefings on the disaster over the past several weeks, dispatched high-level officials including the head of the EPA to the town, and talked to the governors of Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania while visiting Eastern Europe this past week, White House officials note.
GOP criticism of Biden’s response to the disaster mounted after former President Donald Trump stopped by the village last week to distribute Trump-branded water and campaign hats to residents. Trump, who is running for president, criticized the government’s handling of the disaster, which he characterized as “indifference and betrayal.”
As president, Trump worked to deregulate the freight railroad industry, and scrapped several Obama-era safety protocols.