It was "amazing" how quickly the Biden administration started responding to the aftermath of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, after former President Donald Trump traveled to the eastern Ohio community, Rep. Warren Davidson said on Newsmax Saturday.
"I'm glad that the whole country is finally paying attention, because it's a really important story. And it took a lot to get everyone to pay attention, including our federal government," the Ohio Republican told Newsmax's "The Count." "It was amazing how quickly they started responding once people like President Trump started paying attention, and you see how well he was received."
While Trump was visiting Ohio, President Joe Biden was in Europe — including a surprise stop in Ukraine. Davidson said he hopes Biden is paying attention to more than what's going on in Ukraine, as "we've got plenty of issues going on here in our country."
Biden said, in an interview with ABC News, that he can't "recall" speaking with East Palestine's mayor and that he has no plans to travel to the community.
"Here you show the president paying attention to the situation in Ukraine and not paying attention to really much more pressing things for the people in Ohio right now," said Davidson. "I will say that finally the federal resources are flowing, and it took some effort from our governor and a united front from all our representatives and both of our senators."
Davidson also criticized Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who did not visit Ohio until Thursday, the day after Trump's visit.
"He's clearly not the right guy to be secretary of Transportation," said Davidson. "He's wanted to focus on anything and everything but transportation. He really wanted a job that he thought was going to be no drama and just a high-profile cabinet position, but it hasn't turned out to be that way. There's been a lot of problems on his watch, and it's really a failure in leadership on his part."
He also criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for not coming until people in the community were being told it was safe for them to return home.
"How do you not have somebody that's out there right away on the scene?" asked Davidson. "One of my fire chiefs went from my side of the state as part of the hazmat response, so people were there dealing with the hazardous situation. You would think that the federal EPA and the Department of Transportation would be some of those first responders."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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