Pete Buttigieg finally went to East Palestine on Thursday, and as expected, he thoroughly embarrassed himself. While reporters were asking valid questions about the performance of the Biden administration, the failed transportation secretary used them to launch ridiculous partisan attacks on people who haven’t been in power for years.
Here’s one such example, but there have been others over the weeks, with Buttigieg repeatedly citing supposed deregulation as a cause of the devastating derailment.
I don’t know about you, but watching this absolute mediocrity of a public official smugly make his way through a press conference, appearing to be holding back laughter at times, was frustrating at best. Buttigieg managed to blame Donald Trump for supposed deregulation when Donald Trump hasn’t been in office for over two years. Besides, if deregulation was a problem, why did Buttigieg never mention it until now? Where was his public lobbying effort to change the rules? Or was he too busy on his seven-month-long paternity leave?
But I digress, Buttigieg’s pathetic musings were picked up by hacks like Jake Tapper. The CNN talking head ran into a brick wall, though, when the NTSB Chair he was interviewing decided to educate him.
Here was Tapper’s dishonest framing (Breitbart) before we get to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy’s answer.
Host Jake Tapper asked, “[E]ven with the 20 cars with toxic materials, under current safety rules, that train still did not qualify for designation as a high-hazard flammable train, which would have gotten it — or required at least, a newer, safer braking system. So, that rule as it stands right now clearly was inadequate for the citizens of East Palestine. Why not add the newer braking system to any train carrying hazardous material, not just those with more than 20 cars of hazardous material?”
Tapper decided to push this narrative about insufficient braking systems causing the crash after the NTSB report was released showing that had nothing to do with it. Homenday, who apparently has some actual integrity, a rare occurrence in the Biden administration, shut that falsehood down.
Homendy answered, “The NTSB has looked at electronically controlled pneumatic braking for a number of years and we did some testing as well. Certainly, it would improve safety. But for this investigation and for this derailment, ECP brakes would not have prevented the derailment. The wheel bearing failed on car number 23, so even with ECP brakes, the derailment would have occurred, the fire would have ensued, and the five vinyl chloride tank cars would still have to be vented and burned. What it could have done was maybe reduced damage where a couple of cars could have remained on the tracks, but we’re going to do some modeling along with the Federal Railroad Administration to determine just that.”
Just like that, all the lies being spewed by the left about what happened have been blown up by the absolute authority on the matter. Donald Trump did not cause the crash in East Palestine, and regulations dealing with ECP brakes were not a factor. At the end of the day, the bearings failed, causing an axle to break and the train to derail. And because Buttigieg has been stressing the independence of the NTSB lately, he has no choice but to sit there and take their correction of his partisan talking points.
Was this accident someone’s fault? I don’t know. Sometimes, things are just out of anyone’s control. What I do know is that the Biden administration looks absolutely pathetic trying to deflect blame.
