JOE BIDEN: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.
That should be Joe Biden’s campaign bumper sticker as he prepares to visit East Palestine, Ohio.
The belated visit by the President comes one year after a Norfolk Southern train derailment saturated the town’s air, water and soil with 700,000 pounds of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen.
Fires broke out and created huge bomb-like plumes of black toxic smoke over the small town, population 5,000, that sits on the border with Pennsylvania.
Fearful residents of the town are still dealing with health, environmental and economic challenges from the disaster.
Biden, who promised to visit the town shortly after the Feb. 3, 2023 disaster, came under sharp criticism for failing to do so.
Critics said that the reason Biden did not visit was because the region was considered working class Donald Trump MAGA (Make America Great Again) country.
Biden several months earlier, in a dark and controversial speech, called Trump’s MAGA supporters—who make up half the country, including East Palestine– “‘extremists” and “semi-fascists” who were out to destroy democracy.”
That no doubt came as news to the patriotic conservatives of East Palestine, as it did to Trump supporters elsewhere.
And while Biden stayed away from East Palestine, Donald Trump did not.
The former president was on the scene two weeks after the disaster, bringing with him pallets of bottled water and MAGA hats. He met with local officials, firefighters, cops and residents, contrasting himself to the absent Joe Biden.
“You are not forgotten,” Trump told the East Palestinians. “We stand with you. We pray for you. And we will stand with you and your fight to ensure the accountability that you deserve.
“The community has shown the tough and resilient heart of America. And that’s what it is. This is really America right here. We’re standing in America.”
Biden at the time of Trump’s visit was in Poland en route to Ukraine by train to meet in Kiev with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The photo op in Kiev with Zelenskyy beat anything he could have gotten in East Palestine.
But it irked East Palestinians. Mayor Trent Conway, a Republican, said, “That was the biggest slap in the face that tells you right now he doesn’t care for us. I found that out this morning in one of the briefings that he was in Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there and not to us and I’m furious.”
Asked last week what he thought of Biden’s plans to finally visit East Palestine sometime in February, the nonplussed Conway said, “The best time for him to come would be February of 2025 when he is on his book tour.”
He added, “That being said, I don’t know what he would do here now.”
One thing he could do is shore up support for Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is up for re-election and faces stiff Republican opposition.
Another thing Biden could do is approve the state’s request for a federal disaster declaration, thereby allowing the state to receive more federal resources over and above the assistance it has already received.
That aside, it is curious why Biden would agree to make the visit now when most of the country—but not the people of East Palestine, of course, —have forgotten about the disaster.
Yes, it is an election year and Biden is behind Trump in the public opinion polls, so a well-orchestrated visit to the still stricken community might help, even if it took Biden a year to come around and make the visit.
It is inevitable that campaign watchers will compare Biden’s reception, which is expected to be cool, to the warm and friendly reception granted Trump a year ago.
They remember how Biden snubbed them in their hour of need while Trump showed up.
And while Trump may have only brought water, the way he was received you might have thought it was wine.
Now Biden is playing catch-up
Joe Biden: Better late than never.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
