Former President Donald Trump is planning to travel to East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday to assess the damage done to the small community after a massive chemical spill and fire followed the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train earlier this month.
According to reports, after the Feb. 3 derailment, local and state authorities took action to evacuate all residents living within a one-mile radius of the incident. They also initiated a controlled burn of the industrial chemicals on the train to minimize the risk of an explosion, which could have endangered the entire town.
The train derailment resulted in five cars emitting vinyl chloride, a hazardous substance commonly used in PVC production, in the form of large, dark plumes of smoke. Now there are increased concerns about the potential impact on air and water quality for the millions of individuals who reside in the Ohio River Basin, reports noted.
As part of his third bid for the presidency, he is anticipated to highlight President Joe Biden’s lack of response to the disaster, as well as the limited attention paid to the crisis by the appropriate senior officials in the administration, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has said he will go to the town but hasn’t released a date yet.
Thus far, the highest-ranking Biden representative to visit East Palestine has been the EPA Administrator, Michael Regan. But he had to cancel a climate change initiative to Africa that he was scheduled to lead with celebrity couple Idris and Sabrina Elba due to his agency’s focus on addressing the fallout from the disaster, which has led to concerning health issues for both humans and livestock.
As for Buttigieg, he hasn’t been to the city but he nevertheless appeared at the National Association of Counties Conference to comment on matters such as racial equity in the construction sector. On Monday, Buttigieg said he would visit East Palestine “when the time is right.”
On Monday, Biden traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, as his administration provided over $113 billion in aid to the war-torn nation amidst the ongoing Russian invasion. In the meantime, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved a request for aid to East Palestine only after Trump announced his intention to visit the small town with a population of 4,700 residents. Trump made this known on his social media platform, Truth Social, and it prompted FEMA’s response.
“Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine. As soon as I announced that I’m going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there. This is good news because we got them to ‘move.’ The people of East Palestine need help,” Trump wrote. “I’ll see you on Wednesday!”
Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine, called Biden’s Ukraine visit a “slap in the face” during an interview with Fox News. “He doesn’t care about us,” the official said.
Likewise, other potential Republican candidates for the presidency have also accused Biden of ignoring East Palestine while traveling to Ukraine.
For instance, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared on Fox News and criticized the president for neglecting domestic issues, saying that “we have a lot of problems accumulating here in our own country that he is neglecting.” DeSantis also characterized the administration’s approach to the Ukraine invasion as a “blank-check policy.”
