Former President Donald J. Trump’s visit to East Palestine, Ohio while President Joe Biden has so far snubbed the site of the unfolding environmental disaster has drawn strong criticism from conservatives over his priorities, but the deeply unpopular leader has one defender in Fox News’s Brit Hume.
On Wednesday, Trump’s visit with beleaguered Ohioans on the front lines of what some have referred to as an “American Chernobyl” was a stark contrast to Biden’s galivanting across the pond where he presented himself as the savior of Europe and posed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a photo-op in Kyiv.
(Video: Fox News)
Residents near the site of the derailment of a train carrying hazardous materials and subsequent call to burn off chemicals that sent plumes of toxic fumes into the air had been practically ignored by the Biden regime before mounting political pressure forced Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to finally announce a belated visit this week.
Hume, the conservative news network’s chief political analyst rejected critics of Biden’s European junket as he strongly defended the man whom some have mockingly referred to as the “president of Ukraine” during Wednesday’s “Special Report” on Fox News.
“There were train derailments in the Trump administration that actually had fatalities that didn’t have a visit by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao,” anchor Bret Baier said. “But this seems to have some momentum about the administration and its reaction to this derailment in particular.”
Such visits were merely “political gestures,” scoffed Hume.
“The key thing always is, what if anything is the administration obliged to do when something like this happens?” Hume said. “Visits by officials are nice, but they’re essentially political gestures. I mean, I don’t think the administration’s policies or actions toward East Palestine would be any different if more officials had gone there.”
Hume also lashed out at critics of Biden’s dissing of suffering Americans to suck up to Zelenskyy.
“I completely reject the parallel that’s been drawn between his going to Ukraine and not going – so far, at least – to East Palestine,” he said. “The federal government – preeminently – has a responsibility for our national defense. There’s no private sector involvement in that except [in] the sense that they make weapons and there’s no state and local government involved in that. It is the federal government’s job. And when the president is doing that job, he’s doing it the key and foremost task of his presidency.”
Hume’s colleague Bret Baier also stuck up for Biden, agreeing with a Politico report seeking to spin away the current president’s Ohio absenteeism with more of the usual whataboutism that Trump and officials from his administration didn’t visit sites of train derailments during his presidency.
“There is this political moment and there is a lot of criticism of the Transportation Secretary,” Baier said during the “Special Report” segment. “Politico pointing out that Secretary Buttigieg will visit there… Quote, ‘He’s also expected to meet with DOT officials who arrived on the ground within hours of the derailment.’ They point out, ‘It is exceedingly rare for a transportation secretary to visit the site of a train derailment, especially one that resulted in no fatalities.’”
The Fox News anchor said that Politico’s reportage was “fair” and “accurate.”
What Politico – and Baier – leave out is that none of the derailments during Trump’s time in the White House were anywhere near as catastrophic in terms of potential environmental damage than that of the Norfolk Southern Railroad accident in East Palestine, especially when considering the Biden regime’s relentless advancement of the Green New Deal agenda.
No matter how much the media covers for Biden, the perception that he cares more about foreigners than his own people has already been established, and the contrast between himself and Trump – his possible 2024 opponent – couldn’t be more clear in the minds of many.
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