President Biden still has no plans to visit residents of East Palestine, Ohio, after a toxic chemical spill there caused by a train derailment nearly three weeks ago, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday — one day after former President Donald Trump traveled to the state.
In response to repeated questions, Jean-Pierre reiterated that Biden, 80, has made no travel arrangements, but is “getting briefed pretty regularly” and taking the situation “very seriously.”
“He offered federal assistance and directed his team to stay on top of this,” the press secretary said. “At this time, I don’t have anything to read out or announce on travel to Ohio.”
Biden was criticized by Republicans and East Palestine’s mayor earlier this week for traveling to Ukraine to mark the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of that country rather than visiting the site of the domestic disaster.
Trump, 76, went to East Palestine on Wednesday to meet with residents affected by the Feb. 3 derailment, handing out thousands of bottles of “Trump Water” and saying the community had been “betrayed” by the Biden administration.
“You are not forgotten,” he told a crowd assembled at a local firehouse. “You’re going to have plenty of water for a long time.”
The former president later treated first responders in the village near the Pennsylvania line to free meals at McDonald’s.
Jean-Pierre also claimed during the briefing that a Thursday visit to East Palestine by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was not done at the behest of the president. Buttigieg admitted to reporters on the ground that he had waited too long before personally addressing the derailment.
The 41-year-old also said that by not traveling to East Palestine right away, he was trying to strike a “balance” between his “desire to be involved” and following the “norm of transportation secretaries.”
“I’ll do some thinking about whether I got that balance right,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg and his press secretary both laid into reporters this week for asking questions about his delayed response to the crisis.
“I’m going to refer you to the comments I made to the press because right now I’m taking some personal time and I’m walking down the street,” Buttigieg told Daily Caller reporter Jennie Taer on Tuesday.
“I do not want to be on camera,” Press Secretary Kerry Arndt told reporters on Thursday, before calling one of them “aggressive” for attempting to film her response.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited the Ohio spill site this week and took a moment to gulp down some East Palestine water with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, in an effort to assure skeptical residents that their tap water was safe to drink.
A Transportation Department spokesperson told The Post Thursday that Buttigieg had waited to visit until it was “appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts.”
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