President Biden avoided going to survey the train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, again, electing to travel to Baltimore, Maryland, for the House Democrat retreat instead.
On Wednesday, the president trekked not too far down the road from Washington, D.C., to Charm City to deliver an address to the assembled House Democrats on their retreat.
Biden’s travel to Baltimore comes as East Palestine, Ohio, still reels from a Norfolk Southern train derailment and toxic chemical spill last month that saw a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride that was released.
WALTZ, HOUSE REPUBLICANS DROP RESOLUTION CONDEMNING BUTTIGIEG AND SAYING HE ‘SHOULD RESIGN’
Fox News Digital asked the White House if Biden was planning to travel to East Palestine to survey the train derailment and toxic chemical spill, and, if he was, when the president would be going to Ohio.
The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Biden will reportedly “discuss how to keep bringing jobs back to America at an historic rate, keep lowering costs like prescription drugs and energy, and further cutting the deficit by having rich special interests pay their fair share,” according to a White House official who spoke with Punchbowl News.
“He will reiterate his promise to release his budget to the American public, and his call on Republicans to do the same,” the official said. “He will also highlight that congressional Republicans are now threatening to trigger a catastrophic default if they are unable to take health coverage away from millions of families.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg traveled to East Palestine last week to survey the toxic chemical spill after weeks of staying away.
Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., alongside several of his fellow House Republicans, introduced a resolution on Tuesday condemning Buttigieg and demanding he resign from his Cabinet post.
The resolution, obtained by Fox News Digital, blasts Buttigieg as having “failed to mitigate or effectively respond to multiple national crises” and that his “ineptitude has jeopardized the safety and prosperity of the American people.”
The lawmakers highlighted several controversies in Buttigieg’s career as transportation secretary, such as the secretary being “absent during a historical supply chain crisis when United States ports faced a record backlog of ships stranded off of United States coasts,” as well as the “more than 15,000 flights” canceled under his watch in “the worst and most costly single airline operational disruption in the history of United States aviation.”
GOP REP. COLLINS BLASTS BUTTIGIEG FOR OHIO RESPONSE, SAYS IMPEACHMENT NOT OFF THE TABLE
Republican Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., a freshman Republican who is on Waltz’ resolution, called on the secretary to resign in an opinion piece and blasted Buttigieg’s response to the crisis in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Collins said, “They should have shown up immediately” and that “any time we have a problem, as far as small businesses are concerned, you get right to the scene and see exactly what’s going on, so you can assess the problem” and “figure out what the solution is.”
“Yeah, they sent people up there, but… this thing was a major catastrophe and something like that garners the head of the department showing up,” Collins said.
“And, you know, he just was bent on not going,” the congressman continued. “And there’s reasons why he did that.”
“That’s just another, in my opinion, another clear example of this agency and the fact that they have got their sights set on stuff other than trying to improve the infrastructure of this country,” Collins said. “And that’s the woke culture that this guy is promoting.”
Collins said that whether it’s a train derailment, “planes almost landing on top of each other,” or “some person deleting a file that shuts down a whole industry, there’s something else that is going on besides what you see,” calling them “results of an administration that is pushing a woke culture.”
The Georgia Republican also said he does not “think anything is off the table” when it comes to impeaching Buttigieg, should he not step down.