Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hinted that former president Donald Trump was to blame for the East Palestine train derailment.
During an appearance Thursday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Buttigieg said it was “ironic” Trump visited East Palestine following the aftermath of the hazardous materials because he took “down regulations.”
Host Joy Reid asked: “You know, the sort of theatrics of Donald Trump being in Palestine were odd, but this is a community that voted overwhelmingly for him. The county that Palestine is in voted 71/29 for Donald Trump. I want you to reflect on the irony. In 2016, it was 68/26. This is a Trump county. What do you make of the fact he went there despite the fact the regulations he rolled back were partly responsible for this tragedy?”
Pete Buttigieg said, “It was definitely an ironic thing to do. You take down regulations, you water down regulations, you weaken the power of the administration to deal with freight railroad companies, and then you show up wanting to be a great friend of the people who have been impacted by a rail disaster.”
He continued:
“You know, this is somebody who, as far as I know, never went to a derailment site when one of those happens on his watch.”
“And there were thousands — even ones with fatalities. Never even sent his Transportation Secretary to go. Now that it’s campaign season, I guess things are different. We were there to work. We were there to get things done,” Buttigieg added.
Watch
BUTTIGIEG: “It’s ironic — Trump watered down regulations, and he never went to a derailment site when he was in office… and there were THOUSANDS.” #EastPalestineOhio #NorfolkSouthernDerailment pic.twitter.com/qi6DdjT0bN
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) February 24, 2023
However, the Ohio train derailment disaster exposed how useless Pete Buttigieg is as transportation secretary.
Buttigieg visited the East Palestine site 20 days after the train derailment, even admitting he should have spoken out sooner.
The transportation secretary failed to address the issue until ten days after it occurred.
“I was focused on just making sure that our folks on the ground were all set, but could have spoken sooner about how strongly I felt about this incident, and that’s a lesson learned for me,” he told CBS News on Tuesday.
As The Daily Fetched reported earlier this week, Buttigieg faced questions from a Daily Caller reporter Jennie Taer, who asked about the train disaster.
Buttigieg refused to answer Taer’s questions, telling her to check the “dozen” interviews he had already given
When Taer continued pressuring Buttigieg on East Palestine, he said he was “taking some personal time.”
Then something odd happened.
Buttigieg creepily took a picture of Taer with his smartphone without explanation.
READ MORE: Joy Behar Suggests East Palestine Residents Had It Coming after Voting for Trump