Former President Donald Trump made a visit to East Palestine, Ohio, which is something Joe Biden hasn’t done. He got a warm welcome on Wednesday, February 22. He also toured sites affected in neighboring Pennsylvania, including Little Beaver Creek, an Ohio River tributary. “You are not forgotten,” he assured.
Trump brings welcome relief
Former President Donald Trump took a detailed tour of the affected disaster area in East Palestine, Ohio and Beaver County, Pennsylvania. That’s something Joe Biden seems afraid to do.
Pete Buttigieg hasn’t been there yet, either. He has plans to show up Thursday. Our Transportation Minister plans to be gone before Erin Brockovich shows up on Friday. He brought 13 pallets of bottled water and cleanup supplies with him.
Donald Trump isn’t the only one criticizing Joe Biden for not showing up. “That was the biggest slap in the face that tells you right now he doesn’t care about us,” East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway declares.
LFG Joe!!! It shouldn’t take 3 weeks for our leaders to bother with their constituents. The people I met today in EP, Ohio are what America is all about. What they’ve done & gone through in the past 19 days is incredible & they keep going strong!pic.twitter.com/emFK0D0bQn
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 22, 2023
“I found that out this morning in one of the briefings that he was in the Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there and not to us and I’m furious.”
Trump visited a site along Little Beaver Creek together with a small group of local officials, including first responders and Republican Senator J.D. Vance.
He announced it was “terrible” that Biden has not yet visited the site but assured everyone, “you are not forgotten.” Even FEMA tried to give them the shaft, ducking responsibility by passing the buck over to the EPA.
While I’ve criticized Trump on personnel, few people have ever connected with the American people on an emotional level like Donald Trump.
His visit was heartfelt.
The people of East Palestine needed this.
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) February 22, 2023
FEMA better late than never
At first, the Federal Emergency Management Agency refused aid to the toxic disaster site. A Biden spokesperson noted on Friday that “FEMA, the agency that usually provides relief to communities hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters, isn’t best equipped to support the state’s current needs.”
As soon as Donald Trump announced he was going to visit, “hours later, FEMA reversed its decision, and announced Friday night it would deploy federal assistance to East Palestine.”
The derailed Norfolk Southern train cars were full of toxic vinyl chloride which got even nastier when it was intentionally burned away to prevent an unintentional and massive explosion. Since the February 7 disaster, residents “have reported severe symptoms from toxins and chemicals that have seeped into the air and waterways.”
Trump is on the ground in Ohio forcing the federal govt to act. Joe Biden is in Ukraine spending your taxpayer dollars to make the military industrial complex rich & making corrupt Ukrainian officials richer, & transportation sect Mayor Pete can’t be bothered yet… 19 days later. pic.twitter.com/iO4my2IKfC
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 22, 2023
During the visit Trump noted, FEMA should have come “two weeks earlier, or at least a week earlier. If they don’t come back and give you the treatment that you need, we will come back.”
All the former president had to do was tell the public he was coming and suddenly, everyone was scrambling to get there.
“Since Trump announced the trip, the EPA administrator changed his schedule and went [to East Palestine], all the sudden FEMA changes course and provides federal help – enough things have happened that we’ve already accomplished a lot of what we had hoped before even being on the ground,” a Trump staffer related.
