Joy Reid Asks Buttigieg to ‘Reflect on the Irony’ of Trump Visiting Ohio Derailment He Is ‘Partially Responsible’ For

MSNBC host Joy Reid interviewed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday after his visit to the site of the derailed Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, Ohio. She asked him about former president Donald Trump and other Republicans’ criticism of his handling of a disaster she argued they helped cause.

Before the interview, Reid reviewed Trump’s own visit to the site on Wednesday, and argued his administration helped create the conditions that led to the derailment disaster — reiterating what she said earlier this week.

Showing clips of Trump talking about distributing water to residents and stopping at a nearby McDonald’s, Reid described Trump’s visit as a “bit of theater” where he “denied his administration had anything to do with regulatory changes that contributed to the disaster.”

“But it was him,” Reid said. “It was Donald Trump and his administration who gave the rail industry and Norfolk southern exactly what they wanted, fewer and looser rules around rail safety. Trump conveniently forgot to tell his most loyal supporters how Norfolk southern lobbied heavily for laxer safety rules and how receptive the Trump administration was to their arguments on rolling back the rules.”

Reid then introduced Buttigieg and said, “You know, the sort of theatrics of Donald Trump being in [East] Palestine were odd, but this is a community that voted overwhelmingly for him. The county that Palestine is in voted 71/29 for Donald Trump. I want you to reflect on the irony. In 2016, it was 68/26. This is a Trump county. What do you make of the fact he went there despite the fact the regulations he rolled back were partly responsible for this tragedy?

Buttigieg replied: “It was definitely an ironic thing to do. You take down regulations, you water down regulations, you weaken the power of the administration to deal with freight railroad companies, and then you show up wanting to be a great friend of the people who have been impacted by a rail disaster.”

He continued criticizing Trump, saying, “You know, this is somebody who as far as I know never went to a derailment site when one of those happens on his watch. And there were thousands. Even ones with fatalities. Never even sent his transportation secretary to go. Now that it’s campaign season, I guess things are different. We were there to work. We were there to get things done. And I’m really glad I had the opportunity to be there.”

Questions about the environmental safety of the area have intensified since a controlled detonation of remaining chemicals left at the derailed train took place earlier this month. At a televised town hall on Wednesday, local officials and Norfolk Southern officials were grilled by local residents for answers about their response.

As Reid went on to mention during her interview, Buttigieg has been subject to significant scrutiny and calls for his resignation as a result of the response to the derailment. On Wednesday, Buttigieg took a photo of a Daily Caller reporter that tried to ask him questions about the government’s response.

Reid joins The View hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin as other media figures to point out the fact that most East Palestine residents voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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