The United States continues to be "absent without leadership" under President Biden, former Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News on Wednesday.
Pence said on "The Story" the president failed Midwesterners in his response to the ongoing crisis centered around the toxic repercussions of a Norfolk-Southern freight train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border earlier this month in the same way he has broken the economy in the region.
A train carrying at least one severely toxic substance – vinyl oxide – derailed February 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, which led to temporary evacuations in both states and continued concerns over toxicity of air and drinking water and the effect on the local economy and standard of living.
Pence said President Biden, who visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week, should have gone to Ohio before visiting Kyiv.
BUTTIGIEG POINTS FINGER AT RAIL INDUSTRY AFTER OHIO TRAIN DERAILMENT
"It really is remarkable when you think about the fact that it's going to be three weeks since that train derailment and all the hardship that those families in East Palestine have faced before," he said, while referencing how Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has similarly not yet visited the site. (Buttigieg told a reporter who confronted him on a Washington, DC street that he would visit East Palestine, Ohio soon.)
"This is one more example of ‘absent without leadership’ in the Biden administration," Pence told anchor Martha MacCallum. "The truth is, Biden's policies on this economy derailed the economy of East Palestine long before that train came through -- I mean, this is coal country in eastern Ohio, Martha, and the record inflation that people have faced, the war on energy people have faced, has presented an incredible hardship."
Biden's neglect to properly address the crisis affecting Ohio and Pennsylvania also shows more "failed leadership" out of the White House, he said, pointing to the southern border in particular and saying the president's behavior undermines confidence in the United States.
BIDEN CHALLENGES PUTIN TO END THE WAR IN UKRAINE
Pence however underlined the importance of supporting Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, saying that Vladimir Putin seeks to reconstitute the old Soviet bloc, and will not stop if he is able to "roll over" Ukraine.
"I was glad President Biden went to Kiev, but he should have gone to East Palestine first," Pence later added.
The Norfolk-Southern spill also disrupted rail traffic for several days, including on Amtrak's Capitol Limited between Washington and Chicago.
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and U.S. EPA Administration Michael Regan recently visited a home to assure residents the drinking water was safe, sampling tap water themselves.
Across the state line, Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro announced a "criminal referral" in regard to the derailment, while high-profile State Senate Emergency Preparedness Committee Chairman Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, visited affected areas on his side of the border, and videotaped how disturbing earth along a creekbed appeared to release "chemical" discolorations and a "butane smell."
