Pete Buttigieg visits East Palestine 20 days after train derailment as he admits he should have spoken sooner

Pete Buttigieg is visiting East Palestine in Ohio 20 days after the train derailment that released hazardous chemicals as he admits he should have spoken sooner.

The train cars that derailed almost three weeks ago carried chemical dangerous to both the environment and to people, such as vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene, CBS News noted.

The train company, Norfolk Southern, has said that the train was carrying at least 15,000 pounds of soil and 1.1 million gallons of water. Area residents have shared their outrage and frustration at the incident and at the response, specifically the federal government’s response time in providing health and humanitarian services.

The transportation secretary didn’t speak about the issue until 10 days after it occurred, something he now says should have been done more quickly.

“I was focused on just making sure that our folks on the ground were all set, but could have spoken sooner about how strongly I felt about this incident, and that’s a lesson learned for me,” he told CBS News on Tuesday.

On Thursday morning, Mr Buttigieg was on the scene of the derailment.

More follows...