The View’s Joy Behar suggested the residents of East Palestine deserved the environmental disaster for supporting 45th President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, President Trump arrived in East Palestine, Ohio, to help provide residents with food, clean water, and other crucial supplies, after the devastating effects from the train derailment earlier this month.
Speaking on The View on Thursday, Behar attacked Republicans for being “obsessed with this notion of the free market,” and being against highly regulated industries, arguing that only those with stringent regulations, such as airlines, can ever be safe.
She turned her ire to the residents of East Palestine. “I don’t know why they would ever vote for him, for somebody who, by the way, he placed someone with deep ties to the chemical industry in charge of the EPA’s chemical safety office. That’s who you voted for in that district,” she said, eliciting audible gasps from the audience. “Donald Trump, who reduces all safety.”
Behar suggested that because Trump was being welcomed with open arms by the East Palestine residents, they were being taken in by his charm. “They need to look past the photo-ops these people,” she said. “Forget about the photo-ops.”
Fellow host Sunny Hostin said she was “disgusted” by the fact that Trump had turned up to East Palestine and bantered with employees at the local McDonald’s, suggesting that he knew the menu “better than they did.”
Trump was surrounded by grateful locals at the East Palestine restaurant on Wednesday, giving out free MAGA hats to everyone who wanted one, before delivering “cases” of Big Mac sandwiches to those in need in the area.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally visited East Palestine on Thursday, a day after President Trump had arrived, dodging questions from independent media reporters. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say if Joe Biden would ever actually turn up himself.
Speaking to reporters, Jean-Pierre tried to highlight that the EPA was allegedly on the ground “within hours… taking charge, and dealing with what was occurring in East Palestine.” She added that “very early on,” Biden had “reached out to both governors of Pennsylvania and Ohio… [and] offered the federal assistance and also directed his team to stay on top of this as long as it took.”
However, crucial federal government support, such as assistance from FEMA, was not directed to residents early on, with FEMA only turning up to the Ohio town after Trump said he would visit.
This news and commentary by Jack Hadfield originally appeared on Valiant News.
