Three weeks after the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio created an environmental disaster for the working-class residents in town, the leftists on ABC's This Week are finally getting around to second-guessing whether their ally President Joe Biden made a mistake in not visiting and touring the damage and comforting the people who are suffering with the aftermath of the disaster. Of course, the focus of the debate is not on the well-being of the people in East Palestine who are overwhelmingly white working-class Trump supporters. Instead, their only concern is Biden's reputation.
During the panel discussion, a worried Martha Raddatz who was Sunday's co-moderator of This Week asked if it was a "mistake for him not to go."
"Should he go now? Is it too late?" Raddatz asked while turning to senior national correspondent Terry Moran.
"He should go," Moran replied bluntly. "This is an extraordinary event not just for the people of East Palestine, but it has come to stand for something bigger in the country and Democrats do have something to say to large forces, large corporate forces exploiting people in rural America."
Moran fretted that Democrats are "losing on the cultural issues, but as Bernie Sanders and some others have demonstrated, they can connect on that."
More concerning for Moran and his fellow leftists was that Biden left the East Palestine visit "on the table for Donald Trump to come in and say, I'm your guy even though it was the Trump administration which changed the regulations which helped perhaps to contribute to this event."
Of course, Moran had to add the comment about Trump's deregulatory policies which helped lead to one of the strongest economies since the Reagan administration. If the deregulation of the train companies was so terrible, why didn't Biden reinstate them? He's had over two years to do so.
But Moran's larger point was not that Biden spent three weeks snubbing the people of East Palestine, he's just angry that Trump decided to go and in the process made Biden look heartless or uncaring.
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To read the relevant transcript, click "expand":
ABC’s This Week
2/26/2023
9:45:53 a.m. EasternMARTHA RADDATZ: Speaking of connecting, I want to go back to the train derailment in East Palestine. Mistake for him not to go? Should he go now? Is it too late?
TERRY MORAN: He should go. This is an extraordinary event not just for the people of East Palestine, but it has come to stand for something bigger in the country and Democrats do have something to say to large forces, large corporate forces exploiting people in rural America. They're losing on the cultural issues, but as Bernie Sanders and some others have demonstrated, they can connect on that, and he left that trick on the table for Donald Trump to come in and say, I'm your guy even though it was the Trump administration which changed the regulations which helped perhaps to contribute to this event. It came to stand for something big in the country and we look to presidents for leadership on that.
