Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) turned the congressional hearing from this past Wednesday into a battleground so he can give voice to the copious number of criticisms targeting the response from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to the Norfolk Southern train derailment disaster that took place this past month in East Palestine, Ohio.
The Texas Republican made the argument about how a “delayed and disjointed response by the Biden administration” has not at all alleviated any concerns for the local populace that are terrified by the extreme health and environmental threats posted by the so-called controlled burn of extremely toxic chemicals which poured out of tanker cars.
“It took Secretary Buttigieg 10 days to even acknowledge the derailment,” stated Cruz. “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
Things were sorely mishandled, explained Cruz, who made note of the secretary’s mention of one particular withdrawn brake rule being a prime example of why the Transportation Department dealt with “constraints.” Cruz spotlighted the issue with that statement that Jennifer Homendy, the Biden administration’s own chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, had to make an appearance and then go explain just how it was “FALSE” to state that it would have stopped the derailment incident in East Palestine.
“Undeterred, Secretary Buttigieg then released a laundry list of regulatory proposals, many of which had little to no connection to the East Palestine derailment,” stated Cruz.
“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,” stated the Senator.
“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 went on prior to quoting a passage from the analysis issued by the publication.
The comments were issued during a hearing hosted by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that was centered around improving rail safety in the wake of the East Palestine disaster. Cruz sits as the ranking member of said panel.
Buttigieg has spoken out to state that his choice to not address the train derailment issue personally much sooner was a “lesson learned” for himself. “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 stated to CBS News.
