Jon Stewart Shreds JD Vance And Tucker Carlson for ‘Baloney’ Reaction to Ohio Train Disaster: ‘They Play Act This Concern For Working People’

Jon Stewart blasted both Tucker Carlson and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance’s reaction to the Ohio train derailment— arguing that although both were outraged, their actions do little to support the people impacted.

On the Wednesday edition of The Problem with Jon Stewart, Stewart was joined by writers Alexa Loftus and Henrik Blix for a discussion largely focused on the media’s response to the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, OH which caused various toxic chemicals to spill. The possible effects of the chemicals are now a major concern for many Ohio residents.

Stewart has showcased his passion for such issues in the past, using his platform to advocate for military veterans who had medical repercussions from open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan that contained toxic materials.

During the conversation on his podcast, Stewart said, “Here’s the thing, the toughest part, it’s that view on the ground of those folks. The people who live in that town who are like, ‘We don’t know what to do. There are so many — when you think about the general emergencies that hit places, there is a sense of, ‘Oh, there’s a protocol for this. I understand what to do. We understand the devastation, we know how to clean it up. We know how to rebuild, we know how to rebound.’ With this, it’s the uncertainty where they’re just sitting there like, ‘Can I eat the food?'” Stewart said.

“Yeah,” agreed Loftus. “And I think with that uncertainty, the default that people go to, whether it’s leadership or the people on the ground, is like, it’s better if we just decide it’s okay.”

“You know, like, this isn’t that big a deal. And like maybe it’ll be cheaper if we just decide that it’s over. But where I feel like if we all just could agree on like the worst case scenario that would actually — I don’t know,” Loftus said.

“Why don’t we all just assume that this is terrible for people and act accordingly,” Stewart added.

“Like, listen, ‘We tested the — my guess is it’s not going to seep into your produce, so carry on. And, because the reason is the things that this will cause you won’t see for maybe, years. Right. You know, and so by then, who the fuck knows where we’ll be? So why bother?'” Stewart said.

Stewart and his guests agreed that the overreactions and outrage only comes for things that could bring us into war, like the various balloons that have been shot down across the United States.

“I’m so annoyed at, you know, you’ve got some of these like very on the Right populist figures talking about how we’ve gotta fix this. Meanwhile, these are the motherfuckers that would never spend money on infrastructure that always shoot those budgets down, that make it impossible for any government to regulate anything,” Stewart said.

“And they’re out there, you know, J.D. Vance is out there, ‘This infrastructure bill doesn’t do that. And the working people–‘ Well tell your fucking judges! Tell all the people you appoint then, to put some teeth into the regulatory state that can force these rail companies to make the changes that they need to make, to make these safe for workers and safe for the middle class people that are living in these towns,” he added.

“Man, they get up on that high horse, ‘The Biden administration,’ and they’re — ‘This, inflation reduction act won’t fix it.’ Well, you know what caused it in the first place? Your fucking policies. Man, that drives me nuts,” Stewart said.

“Vance is a venture capitalist. What side of this do you think he comes down on? The hedge funds that own this or the people in these small town,” Blix said.

“He and and Tucker go on and they play act. They play act this concern for working people and populism. Meanwhile, everything that they put in place politically in their infrastructure is against regulatory improvements and help for working class people. It’s baloney,” Stewart said.

Vance, a freshman Senator, has taken heat in recent days for what some are branding a “delayed” response to the train disaster in his state. Although he commented on the event on Twitter on Feb. 4, he did not release an official statement until nine days later.

Vance eventually appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show on Feb. 13 to talk about the disaster, blasting Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for caring more about having “too many white men in construction jobs” than “ensuring we have a viable transportation infrastructure.”

Listen above via The Problem with Jon Stewart.