COLUMBIANA COUNTY, Ohio (WTOV) \u2014 Former President Donald Trump lauded the people of East Palestine and criticized the response of the current presidential administration during a stop Wednesday afternoon at the village\u2019s fire station.
\nFlanked by local, state, and national officials, Trump said the nation has been watching the events surrounding the Feb. 3 train derailment, which left residents of the village and surrounding areas concerned for their well-being.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re in East Palestine to show our love for our fellow Americans,\u201d said Trump, who was joined at the podium by Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio.
\nTrump expressed his admiration for first responders involved in the derailment and said railroad workers have \u201cgone beyond the call of duty\u201d in helping clean up the area.
\nThe 45th president, who has announced his intentions to be on the ballot for a third time in 2024, said Norfolk Southern needs to be held accountable for the disaster.
\nWhat this community needs now are not excuses,\u201d Trump said. \u201cNorfolk Southern needs to fulfill their obligations. It means the affected communities beyond [East Palestine\u2019s] borders will be taken care of.
\n\u201cIf they don\u2019t come back and give you the treatment you need, we\u2019ll be back.\u201d
\nTrump criticized the Biden administration\u2019s slow response to the incident and said the president’s decision to visit Ukraine and not East Palestine sent a strong message.
\nBiden and FEMA said they would not send federal aid to East Palestine under any circumstances,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI worked with FEMA for four years and they were great. They were doing nothing for you, and they intended to not do anything for you.
\n\u201cWhen they announced I was coming, they changed their tune.\u201d
\nEPA Administrator Michael Regan has spent time in East Palestine this week and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is expected to visit the area Thursday. Noted environmental activist Erin Brockovich has a town hall planned\u2002for Friday.
\nTrump brought \u201cthousands of bottles\u201d of drinking water with him, along with \u201cthousands and thousands of gallons\u201d of cleaning supplies donated by a private company.
\n\u201cThis is America right here,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThis is America.\u201d
\nVance, nearly two months into his first term, thanks Trump for visiting and vowed to keep the heat on all involved to make East Palestine right again.
\nI think the most important thing we can take from this is we can\u2019t forget about the people of East Palestine,\u201d Vance said. \u201cEveryone has come together to make sure the people of East Palestine are taken care of.
\nEast Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway thanked Trump for his help and emphasized the main goal he has.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re a small community,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t like the media attention. We just want it to go back to the way it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katu<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1atrump, biden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLUMBIANA COUNTY, Ohio (WTOV) \u2014 Former President Donald Trump lauded the people of East Palestine and criticized the response of the current presidential administration during a stop Wednesday afternoon at the village\u2019s fire station. Flanked by local, state, and national officials, Trump said the nation has been watching the events surrounding the Feb. 3 train derailment, which left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[2554,1255,1230],"class_list":["post-6325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-east","tag-people","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6327,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6325\/revisions\/6327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}