President Joe Biden is facing criticism for visiting Ukraine before the Ohio town where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed.
East Palestine, Ohio, Mayor Trent Conaway appeared on Fox News on Monday and was asked by host Jesse Watters what he thought about the president’s trip to Ukraine.
“That was the biggest slap in the face. That tells you right now he doesn’t care about us,” Conaway insisted.
He went on, “So … he can send every agency he wants to, but I found that out this morning that he was in the Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there, not to us, and I’m furious.”
The mayor added, “Yeah, [on] Presidents Day in our country, he’s … over in Ukraine. So that tells you what kind of guy he is.”
Watch the video below:
East Palestine, Ohio, Mayor Trent Conaway on Biden going to Ukraine:
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 21, 2023
"That was the biggest slap in the face. That tells you right now he doesn't care about us." pic.twitter.com/vfbYdpK09x
On Monday, Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion, IJR reported.
The trip was kept closely guarded due to security reasons and had reportedly been in the works for months. And it was seen as a boost for Ukraine’s government. Biden also used the opportunity to announce the U.S. would send Ukraine $500 million more in military aid.
However, he faced criticism for making the trip before he had traveled to Ohio after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed there earlier this month.
After the derailment, officials conducted a “controlled release” of vinyl chloride — a carcinogenic chemical.
Since then, there have been reports of 3,500 dead fish in local waterways. There have also been reports of chickens dying.
On its face, the optics are bad. Why would the president choose to travel across the ocean to a foreign country and announce millions of dollars of new spending there, while residents of a town in Ohio are facing an ecological disaster?
The trip to Ukraine took months to plan and put together. And it came at a symbolically important time: days ahead of the war’s first anniversary and as Russia is preparing a major offensive.
It was a dramatic display of Russia’s failure to accomplish its original goal in its invasion, the impact the West’s assistance has had, and Ukrainians’ resilience that nearly a year later, the president of the United States was able to walk around Kyiv.
If Biden had canceled the visit, and it leaked, it would have been a blow to the Ukrainians — and some conservatives probably would have found a reason to criticize him anyways.
However, it has been almost a month since the train derailed in East Palestine. And for a president who has spoken a lot about the country’s infrastructure and trains, it would have been reassuring to the residents of this small town to have the president visit and assure them they will not be forgotten.
