Pete Buttigieg avoids questions about late visit to East Palestine, Ohio

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wasted little time Thursday sticking his foot in his mouth as he visited the Ohio village where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed nearly three weeks ago — telling reporters he was trying to strike a “balance” by not showing up sooner. 

“What I tried to do was balance two things,” the 41-year-old Buttigieg told reporters during an awkward news conference. “My desire to be involved and engaged and on the ground, which is how I am generally wired to act, and my desire to follow the norm of transportation secretaries, allowing NTSB to really lead the initial stages of the public-facing work.

“I’ll do some thinking about whether I got that balance right,” added Buttigieg, who didn’t make any public statement on the disaster until Feb. 13. 

When asked about that lag time, the former South Bend, Ind. mayor admitted he waited too long to weigh in, saying, ” I felt strongly about this and could have expressed that sooner” but insisting that he didn’t want discussions about “process” to distract from “fundamental questions of rail safety regulation and accountability.”

At other points, Buttigieg appeared overwhelmed by the onslaught of questions — at one point saying, “I lost my train of thought.”

Buttigieg’s arrival in East Palestine came one day after a visit from former President Donald Trump, who slammed the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate for not showing up sooner.

The transportation secretary fired back Thursday, saying the 76-year-old former president should “express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch.”

Buttigieg also attacked the rail industry, accusing them of blocking efforts to “hold them accountable … for their safety record. 

“What we’ve seen is the industry goes to Washington and gets their way,” he added. 

Advertisement

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told The Post Thursday that it was “about time” Buttigieg visited his state’s disaster zone.

“It’s interesting that someone who is not in government like President Trump got there before the secretary of transportation. That sort of says it all,” Jordan said. “This administration is way too focused on all of the politically correct woke stuff and not focused on serving the American people — I think that’s the takeaway.”

Jordan added that “of course” Buttigieg visited East Palestine because of Trump’s visit, claiming “It wouldn’t have happened” otherwise.

Buttigieg came under fire in recent weeks over his slow response to the derailment, with critics claiming the Democrat appeared to be blowing off the village’s residents when he said he would visit the accident site “when the time is right.”

The embattled transportation secretary snapped when questioned by a reporter Tuesday about when he would visit East Palestine, telling her he was on “personal time.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who like Jordan is a member of the House Oversight Committee, told The Post that those comments by Buttigieg were “so outrageous.”

“We have a transportation secretary that can’t seem to find transportation to get him to a crisis point — the indifference that he has, the insensitivity that he has,” Biggs said. “He is way late in trying to rectify a situation. He’s trying to control political fallout as opposed to trying to help.”

The Biden White House has defended its response to the train derailment, saying officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the transportation safety board and other agencies were at the rural site within hours of the derailment. The White House says it has also offered federal assistance and FEMA has been coordinating with the state emergency operations center and other partners.

Heather Bable, who lives two blocks from the derailment site, said she’s relieved the government’s top brass is finally showing up.

“We need that attention because we weren’t getting it. They should have been here all along,” said Bable, who was among the throngs of residents lining the streets in pouring rain to welcome Trump on Wednesday.

The reception for Buttigieg was decidedly more muted, with little fanfare around the village of just under 5,000 residents. Trump won nearly 72% of the vote in this heavily Republican region in the 2020 election.

With Post wires