President Joe Biden said Friday he doesn’t have plans to visit East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailment three weeks ago led to a toxic chemical spill that’s endangered residents and wildlife for miles.
“At this moment [I’m] not,” Biden told reporters at the White House when asked whether he planned to visit the town near the border with Pennsylvania.
“The answer is that I had a long meeting with my team and what they’re doing. You know, we were there within two hours that the train went down, two hours.”
The Biden administration has faced harsh criticism from congressional Republicans, as well as residents of the town, over its response to the derailment, with some arguing that the president should have prioritized travel to East Palestine over making a surprise visit to Ukraine earlier this week.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday visited East Palestine and vowed that his department will work with the administration and Congress to prevent future disasters similar to the Feb. 3 train derailment.
Biden on Friday disputed that his administration was not engaged with the response from authorities, telling reporters that he is “keeping very close tabs” on the effort.
Former President Donald Trump, joined by GOP Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and other local Republicans, made a campaign stop in East Palestine on Wednesday, where he criticized Biden’s handling of the crisis.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
