Glenn Youngkin savaged Joe Biden over his perceived performance in handling and following up on the train derailment disaster that continues to affect residents near and around East Palestine, Ohio.
The Virginia governor, who rode a massive red wave to a stunning upset victory just a few years ago, was critical of the president for ignoring Americans at a time they needed him and the services of the federal government most.
“He should go to Ohio,” Youngkin told hosts Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer during an appearance on their weekday show America’s Newsroom.
“When there is Americans in need, and they’re in need of leadership, our president should show up, and what he’s demonstrating is he’s going to choose politics over people.”
For days and weeks after the initial disaster, the Democrat-led White House was mostly silent on the toxic spill that has left groundwater and the surrounding air contaminated. Eventually, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg made an in-person visit to the community, but this came weeks after everything had transpired. His visit was widely seen as a response to former president Donald Trump showing up and delivering water, buying McDonald’s for residents and first responders, and bringing his positive attitude.
Youngkin continued hammering the point home that Biden was unfit for leadership, calling him a “follower” rather than a real leader. It is moments like what happened in East Palestine that call and reveal real leaders, and unfortunately, Biden failed spectacularly.
“You have to lead when you’re president, and he is a follower,” Youngkin said. “And unfortunately, the Ohio situation particularly screams for leadership. He has not done it.”
“The challenge we’ve got is Joe Biden would rather try to divide us as a nation and try to put people in this box or that box as opposed to right now, bring us together and recognize that we have to have unity against China,” he added.
Rather than address the concerns of residents in the rural, pro-Trump town of East Palestine, Biden provided really bad optics by first flying to Eastern Europe in a surprise visit before later traveling to Virginia Beach to criticize “MAGA Republicans” while discussing so-called affordable health care.
“There are an awful lot of really good Republicans, but the MAGA Republicans are a different breed of cat. Now, they’re not bad or good, they’re just very different. There’s kind of like, in my view, sort of two Republican parties,” said Biden, walking back an earlier speech in which he essentially called MAGA Republicans domestic terrorists.
“But there’s no question,” Biden began in a September appearance dubbed his ‘Soul of America’ speech, “that the Republican party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the Maga Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
“For a long time,” he continued, “we told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it’s not. We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.
Continuing on America’s Newsroom, Glenn Youngkin continued to point out that Biden was in his home state because they were “rocking and rolling” under Republican stewardship, but that residents in East Palestine are the ones who really needed his attention. He expanded the conversation beyond just the Ohio disaster and also looked at other issues affecting the nation.
“That’s what Chuck Schumer said. We, in fact, need unity on the border because we must fix this border, and it’s a national security crisis where we’re seeing not only people’s lives put in jeopardy, but we’re seeing the free flow of fentanyl poisoning people all over America.”
"*" indicates required fields