"Too Little, Too Late": Biden's East Palestine Drive-By

Biden is finally visiting East Palestine, Ohio — 378 days after a toxic train disaster roiled the community.

His visit — a Friday afternoon drive-by before he heads to his beach house for the weekend — is “too little, too late” for area residents.

"I've had several people call me and ask me if I could block the entrance of the town so that he can't come," says one East Palestine, Ohio, business owner on Biden's visit today — 378 days late.

"It's been over a year — and now he wants to come because it's election time." pic.twitter.com/KIzSVJHDag

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 16, 2024

Biden and his administration botched the disaster from the very beginning; it took Biden weeks to so much as tweet about it. Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg’s initial message was “happens all the time.”

By March, Biden had promised he would visit the community “at some point.” Since then, however, Biden and his team used excuse after excuse to explain why Biden was basically everywhere but East Palestine — even after President Trump’s visit in the immediate aftermath.

Many community members aren’t buying Biden’s photo op:

• “It’s too little, too late,” says East Palestine resident Misti Allison. “You should’ve been here February of last year, not February of this year.”
• “It’s been over a year — and now he wants to come because it’s election time,” says local resident Garry Allison.
• “If we were a blue state, Biden would've been here initially,” says one East Palestine resident.
• “I’m sure it doesn’t sit right with anybody,” says local resident Travis Newman.
• “If he’s not coming here to take action, then why come?” asks East Palestine resident Jami Wallace.
• “Down here, blue-collar America, it seems that's always the way it is — we're forgotten,” says one East Palestine resident.

Biden simply does not care about East Palestine — and he’s given its residents no reason for them to trust him.

Their reaction to Biden’s drive-by sums it all up.