Joe Biden’s pick for Secretary of Transportation is turning into one of the biggest messes he’s managed to create.
Pete Buttigieg’s ability to never be available when major disasters occur is becoming a massive problem for the Biden administration.
And now Buttigieg just fessed up—and what he’s admitted is making Joe Biden look even worse than usual.
After failing to comment on a toxic train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio for nearly two weeks, Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally started conducting some belated damage control.
Pete Buttigieg is still performing damage control after taking nearly two weeks to comment on a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio that spilled toxic chemicals in the air, ground and water.
Buttigieg’s effort to dig himself out of trouble is going about as well as the administration’s attempt to clean up the disaster affecting the air, ground, and water in East Palestine.
Nexstar’s Reshad Hudson was interviewing Buttigieg when the Biden admin cabinet member confessed his response to the disaster was slow.
“What’s your message to people who are concerned that the department was late to speak out on this issue?” Hudson queried.
Initially, Buttigieg tried to claim the administration was all over the issue as soon as the derailed train caught fire.
“Well, to be clear, our department was on the ground within hours helping with the response and the investigation,” Buttigieg said.
“Again, I respect the separate role of NTSB, but we have been on the ground literally from day one to make sure that we’re doing our part to support,” he continued.
But Buttigieg was forced to admit his response was far too slow.
“I do think that it’s important to speak out about that and I could have spoken out sooner and I’m making sure that we are focused on the actions that are gonna make a difference,” Buttigieg added.
He followed that up with going on ABC’s Good Morning America where he then tried to claim his trip to the disaster site was delayed because he wanted to ensure it included meaningful action.
“I am planning to go, and our folks were on the ground from the first hours,” Buttigieg argued. “I do wanna stress that the NTSB needs to be able to do its work independently, but when I go, the focus is gonna be on action.”
“When I go, it will be about action on rail safety, like the actions that we are calling on Congress to help us with. That we’re calling on industry to take and that we are undertaking ourselves as a department to help make sure that these kinds of things don’t happen in the future,” Buttigieg noted.
In other words, he had no interest in going there to figure out how to solve the problem.
Instead, any effort he makes needs to be part of some political grandstanding.
Buttigieg’s comments about rail safety also raised questions about what he may have known about rail safety issues before the accident.
If he’s all fired up to tear into Congress pushing rail safety measures, then why didn’t they get after it over the past two years?
If he wasn’t aware of a potential problem, why didn’t he drop everything and instantly hightail it to Ohio to figure out what was going on?
Buttigieg’s time in office has been punctuated by one disaster after the next.
Buttigieg is constantly behind when it comes to dealing with anything—an issue that started when he was on paternity leave during a nationwide supply chain crisis after he and his husband adopted children.
Then there was the Southwest Airlines melt down in December when an FAA software error led to thousands of canceled flights.
Now one of the worst environmental disasters in history happened with Buttigieg hinting there was a rail safety issue in play he didn’t bother to deal with in time.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
