Pete Buttigieg is frustrated and everyone is picking on him.
Three people in Buttigieg’s orbit admit to being exasperated by the furor, saying nobody asked him about the derailment in any of the 23 media interviews he conducted during the first 10 days after the accident.
Buttigieg first tweeted about the disaster on Feb. 13, when he said he continued to be “concerned about the impacts” to those living in the area. He pledged to use all “relevant authorities to ensure accountability and continue to support safety.”
This is from an article in Politico, a liberal site that is trying to defend Buttigieg.
Buttigieg may have be a diversity hire because he seems like a non-threatening gay guy with middle-class values or it may have been a quid pro quo to get his support for Biden’s presidential run. Clearly, Buttigieg didn’t think a patronage job required him to actually be accountable.
As the head of the Department of Transportation, Buttigieg expects reporters to ask him about East Palestine. Yeah, that’s leadership.
Waiting a week to even Tweet about it, and expecting that people really need to hear that he is concerned, is patronizing. People expect leaders to do something.
I’m not a big fan of politicians rushing to disaster sites. Those visits can interfere with people actually doing their jobs. However, Buttigieg could have done a press conference the next day explaining what is known, what is being done and assuring people that experts are onsite.
Trump, showing up faster and with supplies, did a fantastic job of showing that he cares. Sure, it might just be symbolic, but symbolism matters. Buttigieg appears to be in way over his head, generally incompetent, and possibly not caring about conservative communities.