Buttigieg failed to mention Ohio derailment in 19 interviews

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sat for 19 media interviews and attended a swanky White House dinner in the first eight days after a toxic train derailment Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio — but didn’t bother to address the disaster until Feb. 13, according to a public copy of his schedule.

Buttigieg, 41, spent the intervening days touting his supposed leadership on infrastructure issues in a series of sitdowns with local outlets as well as the Sunday morning news programs on ABC, NBC, and CNN.

Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, also discussed his own political future in some of those interviews — telling outlets that he had no plans for a 2024 run to represent Michigan in the US Senate.

On Feb. 9, six days after the derailment on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, Buttigieg traveled to the opposite side of the country, touting part of the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending plan on a new bridge in Lake Charles, La., and the conversion of an abandoned railyard in Port Arthur, Texas.

Two days later, on Feb. 11, Buttigieg was in attendance at a black-tie dinner given for Republican and Democratic state governors at the executive mansion.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Buttigieg also failed to mention the train accident when he gave a speech on Feb. 13 at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., remarks which included a stale joke about Chinese spy balloons.

Later that night, he expressed concern for the first time about the Ohio disaster.

“I continue to be concerned about the impacts of the Feb. 3 derailment near East Palestine, OH, and the effects on families in the ten days since their lives were upended through no fault of their own,” Buttigieg wrote on Twitter.

He also sent a scathing letter to the president of Norfolk Southern on Feb. 19 that urged the company to step up support for the Ohio town’s residents, despite having not yet visited the crash site himself.

Buttigieg’s delay provided a political opening for former President Donald Trump, who accused President Biden of having “betrayed” residents during a visit to East Palestine on Feb. 22.

Buttigieg and his media representative lashed out at members of the press in the lead-up to his Feb. 23 visit. He snapped at a Daily Caller reporter two days before the trip for allegedly invading his “personal time” by asking questions about the East Palestine crisis while out for a walk with his husband, Chasten.

While on the ground in Ohio, Department of Transportation press secretary Kerry Arndt refused to answer any questions on his behalf while being filmed, and called one reporter “aggressive” before stepping away from the media scrum.

After Buttigieg arrived in Ohio, he told reporters that waiting ten days to put out any statement was a mistake, saying: “I felt strongly about this and could have expressed that sooner.”

The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., added that his attempt to strike a “balance” caused the delay.

“What I tried to do was balance two things,” Buttigieg said during a tense and awkward press 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,” he added.

“Secretary Buttigieg continues to be inconsistent in his responses to multiple crises, and the American taxpayers demand more,” Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, told The Post Tuesday. “In the wake of the East Palestine rail derailment, Buttigieg delayed his response, only visiting after mounting pressure and scrutiny.

“Instead of tacking real transportation issues, Buttigieg continues to prioritize his media profile instead,” Sutherland added.

The Transportation Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Biden told reporters on Friday that he has no plans to visit East Palestine, saying he has yet to be invited.

The derailment triggered a brief evacuation order for thousands of residents as officials burned away train cars full of hazardous chemical materials to avoid the risk of explosion, sending an apocalyptic black cloud into the sky.