The Democrats botched the Ohio disaster response – and handed Trump a victory | Michael Massing

The failure of Pete Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportion, to appear for nearly three weeks recalls the incompetence of Fema during Hurricane Katrina

Where's Pete Buttigieg?" someone shouted at a February 15 town hall meeting in East Palestine, Ohio. I don't know," Mayor Trent Conaway replied.

Twelve days earlier, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals had derailed near the town. Three days later, the company announced it was going to carry out a controlled burn of vinyl chloride that would send dangerous gasses into the air, forcing many of East Palestine's 4,700 residents to evacuate. They returned after receiving assurances that the air and water were safe, but a strong chemical odor clung to the town, and many continued to complain of headaches, nausea, and burning throats. And so several hundred residents had crowded into a local school to demand answers. Conaway said that two weeks had passed before anyone at the White House had contacted him, and the US secretary of transportation still hadn't materialized.

Michael Massing is the author most recently of Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind