On his Fox News show Monday evening, Tucker Carlson interviewed Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, about the unfolding disaster that began when a Norfolk Southern Railway train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, a small town on the border with Pennsylvania. Carlson said Democrats “talk a lot about the environment and environmental racism, but this seems like an actual environmental disaster,” adding: “And I don’t detect any urgency from the EPA or Washington at all. Is it because these are not their voters?”
Vance replied: “I think that’s a big part of it. I think that the entire country, the media complex, the leaders of this country, have decided to disregard the people of East Palestine.”
Carlson and Vance were not so subtly making the disaster the fault of Democrats, even though the facts leading up to the derailment and the subsequent fire show the responsibility isn’t so easily divided between red and blue.
After the Feb. 3 derailment, and three days later a controlled burn that Norfolk Southern carried out to avoid an explosion’s releasing toxins into the air and water, there was relative silence on both sides of the aisle. Vance himself didn’t release a statement until 10 days later. The same goes for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Carlson and Vance were making the disaster the fault of Democrats, even though the facts leading up to the derailment show the responsibility isn’t so easily divided between red and blue.
Now residents are complaining of burning eyes, labored breathing, rashes and migraine headaches, and thousands of fish are dead. It’s becoming clear this disaster was a result of, yes, politics but also a total and complete capitalistic systemic failure — and partisan mudslinging isn’t going to shield people from future medical and economic devastation.
Before we get to the right-wing dishonesty of it all, let’s start with this truth: President Joe Biden’s administration has been slow to…
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