U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg Thursday traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, to visit the scene of the Norfolk Southern train derailment.
The attacks in recent months against Secretary Buttigieg by Republicans and right-wing media figures have been almost relentless.
Within hours of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) inspectors arrived at the scene. Also within hours the Biden administration sent officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Dept. of Transportation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been coordinating with Ohio as well as federal officials. President Joe Biden spoke with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, offering assistance and support – which the Republican governor rejected.
Governor DeWine, up until just one week ago, had rejected additional federal assistance, and refused to declare the area a disaster. In fact, it was only after Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio issued a statement demanding Governor DeWine “officially declare a disaster in East Palestine and seek the full support of the federal government to bolster the state of Ohio’s ongoing clean-up efforts,” did the GOP governor do so.
Just one day earlier Gov. DeWine told MSNBC he did not see a need for additional federal assistance, even though President Biden had called him and offered it.
One day after Gov. DeWine finally requested federal assistance, the White House in a statement said, “the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced they are deploying a team of medical personnel and toxicologists to conduct public health testing and assessments. The team will support Federal, state, and local officials already on the ground to evaluate individuals who were exposed or potentially exposed to chemicals and help ensure timely communications to the public.”
President Biden again called Governor DeWine this week, from Poland, just after delivering a speech in Warsaw.
Despite all these efforts from the Biden administration and wider federal government, high-profile elected Republicans and right-wing media critics have gone so far as to attack Secretary Buttigieg. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has repeatedly attacked Buttigieg, even calling on him to resign over the Norfolk Southern train derailment. U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) called for Buttigieg to be impeached, simply for not going to the scene of the accident.
MSNBC‘s Steve Benen earlier his week, reporting that there are around 1000 train derailments annually, noted that “politicians have not generally responded to any of these modern derailments by going after the U.S. secretary of Transportation, but in the wake of the Norfolk Southern freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month, a striking number of Republicans have decided to blame the disaster on Pete Buttigieg.”
Indeed, perhaps the most critical has been Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson, who has repeatedly attacked Buttigieg over the Norfolk Southern train derailment. In this one short clip Carlson falsely claimed the water was not being tested (it was and is), made homophobic remarks – calling Buttigieg “flamboyantly incompetent” – and almost “evil.”
But even Fox News‘ morning crew, ahead of his visit to East Palestine this morning, defended Transportation Secretary Buttigieg – at least somewhat – by admitting that not once during her four years as Trump’s Secretary of Transportation did Elaine Chao ever visit the scene of an accident.
“During the Trump administration apparently even when there were derailments, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao never visited the sites,” Fox News host Steve Doocy pointed out. Moments later, Brian Kilmeade claimed, “There was nothing that equated to this during the Trump administration.”
And earlier in the program Kilmeade, a top Trump supporter and top Biden critic, admitted he was “stunned” by the number of train derailments, previously “knew nothing” about them, and called for regulations – regulations that the Obama administration put in place that the Trump administration removed. Donald Trump personally bragged about removing regulations.
On Tuesday, another Fox News host, Bret Baier, also pointed out the discrepancy in how Republicans are attacking Buttigieg for not going to the derailment site earlier.
“There is this political moment and there is a lot of criticism of the Transportation Secretary,” Baier said, as Mediate reports. “Politico pointing out that Secretary Buttigieg will visit there… Quote, ‘He’s also expected to meet with DOT officials who arrived on the ground within hours of the derailment.’ They point out, ‘It is exceedingly rare for a transportation secretary to visit the site of a train derailment, especially one that resulted in no fatalities.’”
“There were train derailments in the Trump administration that actually had fatalities that didn’t have a visit by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao,” Baier said. “But this seems to have some momentum about the administration and its reaction to this derailment in particular.”
Mediate notes that “Hume added that Biden’s trip to Ukraine is more than justified because it involves the security of the U.S. He said that ‘substantively, it doesn’t make much difference’ whether Biden visits the derailment site.”
Just this week Gizmodo published a list of “America’s Worst Toxic Train Disasters,” and a December 2020 accident in Washington made the list. That was during the Trump administration, and Elaine Chao was the Transportation Secretary.
This article has been updated to add reporting from Mediaite.