Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has called on Donald Trump to do something meaningful to boost rail safety. That, of course, is beyond turning up in East Palestine, Ohio, to hand out bottles of Trump Water.
Buttigieg traveled to the region yesterday, a day after former President Trump turned up. Both showed up to visit the site of a train derailment that led to toxic contamination.
Buttigieg took the opportunity to highlight railway deregulations introduced during the Trump era. The Biden administration wants to roll these back to improve rail safety.
“One thing he can do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch,” Buttigieg said during his visit.
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“I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration. So, if he had nothing to do with it and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he can come out and say that he supports us moving in a different direction.”
Buttigieg: One thing Trump can do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it. So if he had nothing to do with it.. pic.twitter.com/GclGYPOm3l
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 23, 2023
Related: Marco Rubio just learned the hard way why you should never start a Twitter spat with Pete Buttigieg
The White House has previously highlighted a letter sent by Republican Senators in 2021. It urged the Federal Railroad Administration to expand the use of automated track inspection, instead of using actual staff.
Politico also says the Trump administration withdrew an Obama-era proposal to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials and mothballed a rule requiring freight trains to have at least two crew members.
Buttigieg said that if Trump really cared about rail safety, he’d voice support for the White House plans.
“I’ve got to think that him indicating that this is something that everybody, no matter how much you disagree on politics and presidential campaigns, can get behind — higher fines, tougher regulations on safety, Congress untying our hands on breaking rules, all the other things that go with that — that would be a nice thing for him to do,” Buttigieg said.
“Ironic”
Buttigieg repeated the message in an interview with MSNBC. Buttigieg said it was “ironic” for Trump to show up at the site.
“It was definitely an ironic thing to do. You water down regulations, you weaken the power of the administration to deal with freight railroad companies, and then you show up wanting to be a great friend of the people who have been impacted by a rail disaster.”
Buttigieg on MSNBC on irony of Trump going to East Palestine: “You water down regulations, you weaken the power of the administration to deal with freight railroad companies, & then you show up wanting to be a great friend of the people who have been impacted by a rail disaster.” pic.twitter.com/vh0s3ylnVe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 24, 2023
Lauren Boebert and Don Jr. wade in
Buttigieg has faced sustained criticism over the Ohio derailment. He has conceded he should have publicly said something about the derailment sooner. This week, he went on the offensive, getting into Twitter spats with GOP lawmakers Marco Rubio and Rick Scott over his handling of the incident.
Another GOP figure fond of criticizing Buttigieg is Rep. Lauren Boebert. She has criticized him for not doing enough to address the Ohio situation. Instead, she has questioned him recently discussing the lack of ethnic minority workers in the construction industry.
Just another white, male construction worker 🙄 https://t.co/iQ5t6NOw1S
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 23, 2023
On the subject of Trump’s visit to Ohio, his son, Donald Trump Jr. made a bold claim yesterday. He said his father’s visit to the area was more dangerous than President Biden’s visit to Kyiv, Ukraine earlier this week, “given the chemicals around”.
Junior says it took more bravery and courage for his dad to go to Ohio than for Biden to go to Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/HHzOOr9E3O
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) February 23, 2023
Donald Trump Sr. yesterday followed up his Ohio visit by posting about the social media reach his trip generated.
Trump posted ratings results for East Palestine train disaster visit. pic.twitter.com/YonyjqQ1ik
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) February 24, 2023
Yesterday, the National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) released its preliminary report into the Ohio derailment. It said it was due to a wheel bearing severely overheating on one of the carriages. Track sensors picked up the overheating and the train applied its brakes, but it was too late to avert the derailment. The agency says there is no evidence the train’s crew did anything wrong.
CNY1983
don jr…..what a basket case. does anyone actually listen to his drug-addled bullshit?
ShaverC
Buttigieg is not being truthful.
The following quote is from tweets by the Biden appointed National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy: “Some are saying the ECP (electronically controlled pneumatic) brake rule (the regulation the Trump admin removed), if implemented, would’ve prevented this derailment. FALSE—here’s why,” Homendy wrote. “The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars. This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn’t have had ECP brakes.”
dbmcvey
The Trump administration did deregulate. But the previous administrations Obama, Bush, Clinton and further back all should have done more to make the rail lines safe.
thebaddestbabby
Buttigieg is not being truthful. Also, why is he getting into a pissing contest with Trump? Trump is out of office. Buttigieg is an current politician with actual political power.
On the one hand, Trump and the Republicans are ghouls. On the other hand, we need to have at least one party (i.e., the Democrats) that can stand up to corporate negligence and the LITERAL POISONING OF THE EARTH AND WATER.
I’m tired of Donald Trump. It brings me no joy to hear Pete Buttigieg “calling out” Donald Trump. I just want to live in a country where our elected and appointed officials do their actual jobs (in this case, REGULATION). If Pete can’t do his job now, he is not getting my vote when he runs again at the national level.
LumpyPillows
So, even the law that Trump and his de-regulation acolytes blocked would not have been enough, based on this. That is not an endorsement of Trump. I’ll also wait for the results of the investigation before passing judgment, but clearly Trump and people like him are exactly the kind of politicians you don’t want in office if you want to protect citizens.
Clearly, Trump showing up to grandstand was just a show. Instead of throwing paper towels he used it as an opportunity to promote his brand. I wonder what chemicals are in Trump water…likely imported from China.
Den
What is at base here, and which both parties bear some responsibility for is the power of lobbyists, and the presence of corporate money in elections. The railroads pour huge amounts of money into owning politicians. They have maximized their profits by cutting employee numbers and resisting necessary upgrades. Between 2016 and 2022 the railroads reduced their workforce by 30%, resulting in inadequate overworked personnel on board and not enough inspectors and mechanics to keep things in working order.
Most of this is the result of Republicans being in bed with corporate rail interests, but the Democratic party shares some of the guilt. We need politicians with the guts to force corporations to care as much about the safety and sustainability of the products and services they provide as they do about the quarterly return to shareholders! And that is only going to come from the more progressive side of the Democratic party. Buttigieg, though bright, articulate quick thinking and more ethical than many STILL stands more with the corporate Democrats than the progressives.
mastik8
The corporate coup is over and they won. We don’t have two parties anymore, we have two sides of the same corporate owned coin. Our government is now a corporate oligarchy. We’re kept distracted over social issues while they pick our pockets and rewrite our laws to benefit them. That’s why a liberal dem President throws railway workers under the bus over seven days of sick, that’s why a liberal dem transportation secretary allow airlines to sell seats for flights they themselves know they don’t have crews for, when with a stroke of a pen he could stop it, it’s why a liberal dem state senator won’t allow a bill to come to the floor for a vote because it would interrupt her and her husband’s investment strategy. The other side does the same thing in their own way. Both Tucker Carlson and Rachel Maddow’s own lawyers said that their shows aren’t news, they’re entertainment.
Ronbo
Mastic8 is on to something. When Buttigieg worked with McKinsey assisting Blue Cross/Blue shield, the insurance company cut the workforce by 10% and rewarded the top staff with the cost savings. Twenty percent of low-levels workers were cut and rehired as lower paid contractors… that’s McKessin/neoliberalism. Instead of making nearly 300% more than staff, the management increased their incomes by over 2,000%! Guess who was their McKinsey consultant (Buttigieg). McKinsey is famous for cuts at the bottom to benefit the top management. Read the Guardian’s article, to get a better view of neoliberalism in action; everything gets better for the top management while the bottom sinks further into poverty and job insecurity.
We don’t need a gay person pushing neoliberal philosophy into government. Neoliberals won’t even fight for workers or their safety – it’s all about pushing profits to the top. Secretary Buttigieg had two years to fix the problems that he had no intentions and was never going to fix. Make strikes illegal is what he supported. That is pure neoliberalism in action. Norfolk Southern made billions and that is all that matters to neoliberals.
Just because Pete is a smart, gay person – did not make him the workers friend. Please don’t buy into identity politics. Support people who have ideas and experience helping the people who do the work and pay the ultimate price for the top to profit.
thebaddestbabby
“The Federal Railroad Administration’s mission is to promote rail safety,” said John Risch, a retired railroad worker and former legislative director of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transport Workers union, referring to an agency within the Transportation Department. “If they believe that ECP brakes are essential to rail safety, they could require ECP brakes on certain trains or whatever they want to do.”
Risch added that nothing prevents Buttigieg from using his existing rulemaking authority to expand the definition of a “high-hazard flammable train” to cover trains like the one in Ohio.
LumpyPillows
You really don’t know how it works. You’ve been schooled on this before. It is not that easy, and actually may not be within their authority to do so. Why? Because if it was, wouldn’t you think Pete would be doing just that? Wouldn’t that be a great political coupe?
thebaddestbabby
you still haven’t explained why you think Buttigieg has effectively no regulatory power in this scenario. Multiple experts have said that he could do more. I have not “been schooled on this” — you just keep avoiding the facts I’m bringing to the conversation.
At the end of the day, I think Pete is just ideologically committed to deregulation
LumpyPillows
I never said he had no authority, I said the authority of any federal agency is limited. The department of transportation could attempt to issue new safety guidelines. There are a bunch of things they need to do before this can be done. Pete just can’t wave a magic wand.
Ronbo
Lumpy, it doesn’t take a magic wand for the Secretary of Transportation to address rail safety, health and job security issues. It’s his JOB. Instead of supporting the neoliberal concept of making their strike “illegal”, Pete could have listened to the workers, not the top management who make most of the money. That is the training he got at McKinsey. You’ve read about McKinsey and his time with McKinsey working at BC/BS when they fired 10% of workers at the bottom and rewarded the top management with 2000% INCREASE in pay. Right? You do research your candidates, don’t you?
Search “guardian, Mckinsey, Buttigieg” and open your eyes to just another neoliberal – an identity politician who is so smart that he can fool most of the people most of the time. Research your politicians for MORE than just their sexual orientation; their work history is much, Much, MUCH more important. Sometimes politicians conceal their political philosophy. I heard about one politician who said she was LGBTQ friendly, but, she adamently supported DOMA, DADT and NAFTA.
Identity politics can be a smokescreen. Do your homework.
Rambeaux
I know that Trump is no longer in office and is a nobody, but he can still scream a narrative that makes who he is screaming about, look incompetent.
This is what he did to Pete.
Pete and/or his people should have seen this coming and gotten in front of it.
thebaddestbabby
yes, they should have gotten in front of it by a) re-instating rules requiring trains carrying hazardous materials to have updated breaks; and b) expanding the category of trains that needed updated breaks.
LumpyPillows
See above, baby.
Thom238
You Can’t expect Biden to unfuk everything Trump fuked up for four years, in2 years.
thebaddestbabby
why not? that is exactly what I expect of Biden and his administration
abfab
Drivin’ that train
High on cocaine
Casey Jones you better
Watch your speed
thebaddestbabby
“Buttigieg took the opportunity to highlight railway deregulations introduced during the Trump era. The Biden administration wants to roll these back to improve rail safety.”
These two sentences are confusing. You “roll back” regulations. You do not “roll back” deregulations. Deregulating is the process of rolling back regulations.
The Biden administration is in fact (or at least was) considering rolling back regulations to “reduce the frequency of brake testing on freight cars equipped with an electronic inspection-tracking system.”
To sum up:
– Obama admin implemented new rules on updated breaks; these rules were weakened by lobbyists
– Trump admin got rid of these rules; Congress made them harder to re-instate
– Biden admin (with its transport sec Pete Buttigieg) did not re-instate the Obama-era rules, altho it totally could do so
– Biden admin is considering further deregulating trains w/ hazardous material
– related: Biden admin helped break a strike by rail workers which was partly over hazardous conditions
– Pete does twitter and media stuff
LumpyPillows
You really are trying too hard. You know this is terrible for Trump. Simply awful. Trump did actually harm safety regulations. The most you have on Pete is that he did not fix Trump’s crimes against citizen safety. Take as nap, baby.
Kangol2
You wrote: “related: Biden admin helped break a strike by rail workers which was partly over hazardous conditions.” Actually, Biden’s administration negotiated a deal between most RAIL WORKER UNIONS, getting them more pay and better benefits, and the rail companies.
The one sticking point was sick days, which the rail companies did not want to provide. So several unions, not all of them, threatened to strike. Biden, with Congress, halted the potential strike.
As it turns out, some of the rail companies have now agreed to provide more sick days, though this should have been in the original agreement or in a law that Congress passed. There was no strike, however, at least not this time.
thebaddestbabby
neither of you can argue around the fundamental lack of action on the part of Democrats here. Yes, Trump and the Republicans are way worse. But as Den put it above, “Buttigieg, though bright, articulate quick thinking and more ethical than many STILL stands more with the corporate Democrats than the progressives.”
Ronbo
Plese keep in mind that our beloved extremists love to scream “Witch” to try to further push people into their extremist positions. If you aren’t with them, Witch! Witch! Witch!
While both D and R politicians hold responsibility for poor regulation and what happened, extremists scream “witch” if you voice the truth. Biden even sided with NS restricting lawsuits – in an actual current Supreme Court case! Amy Goodman does a great breakdown of our neoliberal basis for these ongoing scandals (which rarely get headlines or attention – corporate media is owned and entwined in those same corporations).
Neoliberals have infested both the Republican and Democratic parties. I’m not voting for someone whose who support the 19th-century ideas of unlimited free-market capitalism including privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, monetarism, austerity, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society.
Corporations are not people and should not have advantages over voters. As a former small business owner, I saw how big corporations owned politicians of both parties.
Kangol2, Biden prevented the strike by making it illegal. So I guess you are right, no strike for health, welfare and worker safety. Yea?!?
Fahd
These attacks against Buttigieg are based in fear. Buttigieg would melt the Count of Monte Crisco in any upcoming election.
abfab
And he’s got that Maltese fire in his balls. Speaks 5 or 6 languages and he never complained of bone spurs. He went!
ShaverC
Fahd: No one is attacking Buttigieg. We’re just pointing out a big failure. Hopefully he’ll do better going forward. A concern or criticism is not an “attack”.
Ronbo
Shaver, anyone reading Fahd know that you are to be called a “witch” if you stray from 100% agreement. Notice his nice buckled shoes and capotain? Even little girls can see that you are a witch and they are firing up the stakes to protect us from others… you know witches!
Kangol2
The federal regulations that Don the Con stripped away and that GQP have made tighter to enforce go beyond the braking system.
From ABCNews:
Democrats, however, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, sought to place some blame on Trump and for the train derailment because his administration withdrew regulations connected to “high hazard” trains, along with other EPA regulations related to harmful toxins and emissions. Buttigieg has also called also for a reduction of “constraints on the USDOT,” when it comes to rail safety, asking Congress and rail companies to stop resisting necessary regulations.
thebaddestbabby
well good, I hope that he can get that to happen
Ronbo
Kangol isn’t aware that Biden recently made the rail strike “illegal” and has NOT reimplemented the safety rules called for by the unions. Politicians of all brands like corporate donations.
Polish up those shoe buckles and grab your hats pilgrims there’s witches among us!
Creamsicle
There’s plenty of blame to go around. Trump rolled back safety regulations that are specifically pertinent to this accident. The White House and Congress broke a rail worker strike a couple months ago where adequate paid sick time and more time for safety inspections were at the top of their list of demands.
This is an example of both sides of the duopoloy putting corporate profits over safety. Neither side is talking about making Norfolk Southern pay for the environmental remediation work needed to ensure that these contaminants are dissipated in a safe way. It’s just been a game of hot potato in Washington, and both sides trying to convince the public that East Palestine is safe to live in, even though residents are consistently reporting eye and nose irritation, dead wildlife, and dead domestic animals.
Openminded
I love Pete, but do you really expect ANYTHING to get done in Washington? This isn’t a Pete problem, it’s an across the line problem with how Washington DOESN’T WORK. We’ve gone from a gov’t that used to could meet in the middle somewhat to a gov’t that only survives to bash the other side. The people in charge don’t have a clue what living in the real world is like because they never see or experience the real world. To them, this literal train wreck is of no concern, same as cost of living, medical care, etc.
Ronbo
Could it be that corporations donate just a bit more to the campaigns of neoliberals who do their bidding or sit on their hands doing nothing at all? Maybe the problem is pay to play corruption. Thank God our team is pulling in the big bucks now! The horse race is neck and neck. Who will cave for the least?
Brody
Just because the man’s a gay icon doesn’t mean he’s infallible.
He’s been MIA on other transportation issues too, and is hurting his future political career by being ineffective and projecting blame.
Caddy4J
I wish everyone would stop the BS And stop playing tit for tat on who’s to blame. These innocent people of Ohio don’t want to hear you trying to score political points, they need help, and they need help now. Let’s think of what we can do to help these people and not worry about the next office you’re out to seek. There is plenty of blame to go around, but let’s make sure the citizens have safe drinking water and plenty of food.
abfab
While we talk amounst ourselves and shoot the shit and kvetch and share concerns, there’s this! I get your anger, believe me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from smart union dot org~~~~~~~~~~~
The community needs all the help they can get,” SMART Transportation Division Ohio State Legislative Director Clyde Whitaker said. “These are citizens of our state, our neighbors and they need some help. Let’s show everyone what we can do.”
Here are the various community outreach programs available:
Brightside Project, 483 E Pershing St. Salem OH Phone: 234-320-4005 is offering food and personal care products from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb 7-9.
First United Methodist Church, 244 S. Broadway, Salem, OH Phone: 330-337-9351 is distributing clothes 9 a.m.-noon.
The Way Station is offering food, personal care products, diapers and clothing. Collection times at 769 Springfield Rd, Columbiana OH are 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Monday – Friday. And from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at 125 W. 5th St., East Liverpool.
Donations of non-perishable food items and personal care products can be dropped off at either location during the hours listed.
Angels for Animals is providing assistance with pet care — 330-502-5352
Norfolk Southern has opened a family assistance center that has set up at the Abundant Life Fellowship Church in New Waterford 46469 Route 46, New Waterford, OH.
johncp56
The republicans and the tRump family have nothing better the reach at anything like the time lapse, it took to get to the site, and the fact is his rumps administration and he pulled back rules for the rail!! this should not go unnoticed! funny the rail industry needs to be held to the fire for this also