Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in the hot seat. He finally is having to answer for his failures.
And Pete Buttigieg was just EXPOSED by the last person he ever expected.
Almost two months ago, the United States had one of the worst chemical disasters in our history.
A train carrying highly toxic chemicals derailed and started leaking near East Palestine, Ohio.
Instead of cleaning up the mess, there was a controlled burn of the substances, which released hydrogen chloride and phosgene gas, causing many residents to experience headaches and their pets dying.
The extent of the disaster will likely never be known, but what we do know is that Pete Buttigieg – the man responsible for this – sat on his hands and did nothing.
And Ted Cruz didn’t mince words with the Transportation Secretary.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) used a congressional hearing on Wednesday to blast Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s response to the Norfolk Southern train incident in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month.
The Texas Republican stated that the Biden administration’s “delayed and disjointed response” has not allayed the fears of local citizens who are afraid of the health and environmental risks posed by the so-called controlled burn of deadly chemicals spilled from tanker vehicles.
“It took Secretary Buttigieg 10 days to even acknowledge the derailment,” Cruz said. “After he was called out, he did a 180 and tried to sell a slew of big government regulatory proposals, desperate to disguise the failure of the administration to act sooner.”
It took 10 days for Pete Buttigieg to even acknowledge the East Palestine derailment.
And when he finally said something, he only tried to distract from his own failures and push regulations which have little to no connection to the East Palestine derailment. pic.twitter.com/1YtTGJtW0T
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) March 22, 2023
According to Cruz, blunders followed, citing the secretary’s mention of a specific withdrawn brake rule as an example of why the Transportation Department faced “constraints.”
Cruz pointed out that the Biden administration’s own chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, had to explain how it was “FALSE” to say it would have prevented the East Palestine train derailment.
“Undeterred, Secretary Buttigieg then released a laundry list of regulatory proposals, many of which had little to no connection to the East Palestine derailment,” Cruz added.
“In an effort to further distract from his own failed response, Secretary Buttigieg has suggested that President Trump was responsible for the derailment in East Palestine,” the senator said.
“I know that’s a frequent playbook of this administration, blaming every problem on President Trump, but not even The Washington Post fact-checker who usually goes out of his way to back Democrat claims, bought this claim,” Cruz continued before citing a passage from the publication’s analysis.
The remarks were delivered during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on increasing rail safety in the aftermath of the East Palestine tragedy. Cruz is the panel’s senior member.
Buttigieg has described his failure to speak out sooner about the train derailment as a “lesson learned.” “I was focused on just making sure that our folks on the ground were all set, but could have spoken sooner about how strongly I felt about this incident,” he told CBS News.
The secretary visited the site in late February, but only after former President Donald Trump visited the day before.
Cruz praised two of the witnesses, Senators. J.D. Vance and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Republican and a Democrat, for their efforts to bring attention to supporting people affected by the disaster at the end of his opening remarks on Wednesday.
“I look forward to continuing to work closely with both of you and with the chairwoman on a bipartisan, serious rail safety package,” Cruz concluded.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
