Senator Marco Rubio has a message for President Biden – a request for the “immediate resignation” of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The reason given is that he has “downplayed crisis after crisis while prioritizing topics of little relevance to our nation’s transportation system.”
Rubio is right. The latest example of Buttigieg shrugging off a crisis is the train derailment in southern Ohio and the chemical spills that contaminated the area. Buttigieg has not made a trip to East Palestine, Ohio to get a firsthand view of what is happening and to answer questions from the residents who have had their lives turned upside down. Joe Biden has not addressed the crisis, either. FEMA will not be on the ground in East Palestine to help the people there. The administration says the train derailment does not qualify for FEMA assistance.
It’s Trump country and the residents are mostly low-income so the train derailment doesn’t get a lot of attention now that we are almost two weeks out from the event. Fox News still covers it and interviews people directly affected by the situation. But, you know the drill, if it’s a bad story for the administration, most networks don’t follow the story. The reaction and response by the administration to the people in Ohio have been one that lacks any urgency at all. The EPA director and Buttigieg have been relying on Governor Mike DeWine to handle the questions and day-to-day response. The mayor of East Palestine only heard from the White House a couple of days ago. The message is a common one from this administration – you’re on your own. The EPA director was in East Palestine yesterday.
Not that there was any doubt, but Buttigieg blames the train derailment on Trump. He does that by referencing a braking rule that was implemented in 2015. Trump was not in office then. Obama and Biden were in office in 2015. He claims the Trump administration withdrew that rule in 2018. So, if it was bad to do so, why didn’t his department reverse that decision? Petey has declared his passion for trains, shouldn’t he be curious about such rules if he doesn’t agree with them?
Two days after the incident, residents near the site were ordered to evacuate following the controlled release of a toxic chemical to prevent an explosion, CNN has reported. Officials now say the area is safe but have urged people to drink bottled water as a precaution.
Buttigieg has not appeared in the area since the incident occurred. He said on Tuesday that his Department was “constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation,” referring to a braking rule that the Donald Trump administration withdrew in 2018.
Other federal agencies including the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, while Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan was on the ground in East Palestine on Thursday, vowing that the Biden administration would “get to the bottom” of the incident, NBC News is reporting.
As you might have thought by now, the braking rule had nothing to do with the derailment. Nice try, Pete. The stench of incompetence coming off this guy reeks to high heaven.
There is no reason for Buttigieg to not at least make a visit to the area. Why didn’t he go with the EPA director? Better late than never. People are scared and want some kind of assurance that they are not being forgotten. They don’t have the personal resources to move into hotels until tests are conducted on their water wells or the air is proven to be safe to breathe. Their small businesses are closed. People are not going about their normal lives. They want to know what comes next.
Rubio and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) wrote to Buttigieg on Wednesday, requesting information about how the Department of Transportation oversees the nation’s freight system.
In his letter calling for Biden to fire Buttigieg, Rubio said that, while the Transportation Secretary has acknowledged the situation in East Palestine, “he continues to deflect any accountability for the safety of our nation’s rail system,” adding, “This is part of a two-year long pattern.”
“For two years, the transparency and accountability that you promised to obsessively uphold during your inauguration have been nowhere to be found,” Rubio writes in his letter to President Biden. “The incompetence and failure within your administration cannot continue to be ignored when Americans’ health and safety are at risk.”
We know nothing will change. Mayor Pete has his job for as long as he wants it. He needs it on his resume for his next presidential run. Democrats don’t seem concerned that he’s inept and botching responses to the crises he faces. Just as long as Democrats are in the White House, everything is fine. It’s ridiculous.
I feel for those people in East Palestine. They did nothing wrong. The railroad company is responsible to make them whole. The federal government has essentially abandoned them. I hope the state will rise to the occasion and take care of their needs and provide some peace of mind.
