Chris Cuomo Pillories Biden For Neglecting Ohio Town Ravaged By Toxic Chemical Spill

NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo anchored a special edition of his show Tuesday from East Palestine, Ohio, where he accused President Joe Biden of “literally flying over” the area instead of addressing citizens’ concerns.

Nearly eight months ago, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed, burst into flames, and spilled its toxic cargo, forcing 5,000 people to evacuate the town. Many, like Cuomo, accused the Biden administration of not going far enough to protect residents from the toxic chemicals.

“The President had signed an executive order that directs certain resources, but he has an emergency declaration on his desk. The governor here, [Mike] DeWine (R-OH) still wants the emergency declaration,” Cuomo said, continuing:

Now all these people play politics. They told Biden not to come — “Listen, save it for situations that we’re making up so that we can have artificial divisions. This is a real problem.”

There’s an emergency declaration. [Biden] should be offering reasons that he’s acting or that he’s not acting. Okay, that’s something that could be done. The president literally flew over this place on his way to Detroit — not saying it was wrong to go to Detroit. I’m saying he could have come here. He chose not to, to go to San Francisco to raise money.

I get the realities of politics. Believe me, I grew up in it. But if you want people to know that you’re the president of everybody in this country, it shouldn’t matter if you think you’re gonna get their vote. What you should be getting is their trust.

Biden’s emergency declaration issued Sept. 20, said his administration will continue to hold Norfolk Southern “accountable for this disaster, to address any of the disaster’s long-term effects, and to ensure federal assistance is available to affected communities should needs develop that are not met by Norfolk Southern.”

However, “Concern also remains regarding ongoing costs that might develop but have yet to be identified,” according to a news release from DeWine’s office.

Watch the clip above via NewsNation.