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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Thursday called for the immediate resignation of U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg after the Ohio train derailment, expressing doubts about Buttigieg’s ability to ensure public safety among other issues.
In a Feb. 16 letter to President Joe Biden, Rubio accused Buttigieg of repeatedly demonstrating a “gross level of incompetence and apathy” that puts the safety and prosperity of the American people at risk.
Rubio pointed to the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and several other examples of crises and issues within the transportation system that Buttigieg has allegedly downplayed or ignored.
“It is painfully clear to the American people that Secretary Buttigieg has little regard for the duties of the Secretary of Transportation,” Rubio wrote (pdf).
“At no time has that been more apparent than the past two weeks. Secretary Buttigieg refused to acknowledge the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, until his intentional ignorance was no longer tenable,” he continued. “Even after acknowledging the tragedy, he continues to deflect any accountability for the safety of our nation’s rail system.”
On Thursday, responding to footage from a town hall meeting in East Palestine in the aftermath of the derailment, Buttigieg said the DOT is standing ready for the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation into the Ohio derailment.
“Look, rail safety is something that has evolved a lot over the years, but there’s clearly more that needs to be done because while this horrible situation has gotten a particularly high amount of attention, there are roughly 1,000 cases a year of a train derailing,” Buttigieg told Yahoo.
“Obviously, they have levels of severity, but where all of that points us to is a need to continue to raise the bar on rail safety. And that’s especially true when it comes to rail that involves hazardous materials,” he continued. “Now this train was subject to certain enhanced requirements because of hazardous materials on board. But obviously, none of that prevented what happened in East Palestine.
