Team Trump officials say the moment that “put the campaign on track for victory” was the day President-elect Donald Trump arrived in Columbiana County, Ohio, to investigate the East Palestine train derailment. Ta.
“The ripples from that day don’t get enough attention,” said White House communications director-designate Stephen Chan, who retweeted an op-ed on X (formerly Twitter) that made that claim.
In February 2023, a Norfolk-Southern train transporting caustic industrial chemicals, including vinyl chloride, derailed in a small area near the Pennsylvania state line, causing immediate chaos and widespread, long-term damage to the area. I did.
A controlled combustion immediately following the derailment released toxic phosgene into the air.
Whistleblower alleges errors in initial response to East Palestine disaster
Stephen Chan (inset) and Donald Trump. (Getty)
February 23 – Ash Wednesday – Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance welcomes President Trump to the venue, where the former and future president highlights the American people who have been “forgotten” by President Joe Biden. President Biden still hadn’t shown up and wasn’t scheduled to visit for several days for another few months.
The Republican bigwig handed out Trump-branded water and met with local officials. Meanwhile, officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania were also clearly working to hold the railroads accountable.
In his tweet, Chan was responding to an op-ed by Celina Zito, a Pittsburgh-based Washington Examiner reporter who covered the crisis at the time.
Zito said Trump’s inauguration comes at a political nadir for the Republican Party, amid a close presidential primary race against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis following his defeat in the 2022 midterm elections. I wrote it.
She said in a tweet that it was Vance, a future vice presidential candidate, who brought him to the scene.
Mr. Zito wrote that Mr. Trump’s “you are not forgotten” mantra to people in the Rust Belt, who are too often forgotten by Washington, helped change regional attitudes. “I changed political parties because I appealed to him directly,” he quoted a local resident as saying. ”
“Since then, I have voted for him both times,” said a woman who owns a farm in East Palestine.
Trump visits East Palestine, distributes Trump water: ‘We stand with you’
Former President Donald Trump greets supporters and tours Little Beaver Creek water pumps during a visit to East Palestine, Ohio, before departing with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). (Javin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty)
“In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance have been met with indifference and betrayal,” Trump told residents that day.
The column went on to say that the divergence between President Trump’s eagerness to “appear” and President Biden’s apparent postponement of a visit to East Palestine helped to shift the tide in favor of the Republicans.
“100%,” Chung wrote in a tweet.
Trump’s former vice presidential candidate, Mike Pence, also criticized Biden at the time, calling him “incompetent” and telling Fox News that the Delaware Democrat’s policies “derailed East Palestine’s economy long before the train came through.” made a statement.
On the Pennsylvania side, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his gubernatorial opponent at the time, state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg), also responded quickly to the derailment.
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Mr. Shapiro applied for criminal referral at the time, and Mr. Mastriano led a hearing that included affected residents along the Ohio state line, but Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw was conspicuously absent.
“I am very sorry to hear about these delays and failures in response, especially as the people of my district in East Palestine, Ohio, and here in Pennsylvania have been dealing with the aftermath of this derailment for over a year. “We’ve done it,” state Sen. Elder Vogel Jr. told Fox News Digital at the time, after a whistleblower spoke out about Biden’s mishandling of the Environmental Protection Agency, which said the agency objected to.
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduate of Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
