Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has now joined those who are criticizing former President Donald Trump for his visit to East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday, Fox News reports. 

Buttigieg did so on Thursday during an appearance on MSNBC's The ReidOut. 

Background

Buttigieg's MSNBC interview came after both he and Trump made trips to East Palestine, the site of the recent train derailment.

Trump made his trip first on Wednesday. There, he gave a speech criticizing Buttigieg and the administration of President Joe Biden for its lackluster response to the train derailment. Trump also purchased food for emergency responders and distributed bottled water to residents of the area.

Buttigieg finally made his trip to the crash site on Thursday, after receiving much criticism for not doing more, as the secretary of the Department of Transportation, to address the crash.

It's Trump's fault

After his trip, Buttigieg participated in an interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC. There, Reid, like many other leftists, attempted to place blame for the disaster on Trump.

Reid said:

You know, the sort of theatrics of Donald Trump being in Palestine were odd, but this is a community that voted overwhelmingly for him. The county that Palestine is in voted 71/29 for Donald Trump. I want you to reflect on the irony. In 2016, it was 68/26. This is a Trump county. What do you make of the fact he went there despite the fact the regulations he rolled back were partly responsible for this tragedy?

Buttigieg agreed that it was an "ironic" thing for Trump to do.

He said:

It was definitely an ironic thing to do. You take down regulations, you water down regulations, you weaken the power of the administration to deal with freight railroad companies, and then you show up wanting to be a great friend of the people who have been impacted by a rail disaster.

Buttigieg concluded by arguing that Trump's trip to East Palestine was little more than a "campaign" event.

The false narrative

The Washington Examiner reports that this narrative being pushed by Reid, Buttigieg, and many others on the political left is "complete nonsense."

To support this position, the Examiner quotes the New York Times, which is clearly not an ally of Trump.

The Times reports:

Since the Feb. 3 derailment in Ohio, some lawmakers and activists have pointed to a 2015 safety regulation adopted by the Obama administration as an example of the changes that they say are needed to make railroads safer. … But after lobbying by the railroad industry, the Trump administration repealed the rule in 2018. Had the rule remained in effect, it would not have applied to the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine.

In other words, the narrative being pushed by Buttigieg and others is false.