Sen. Marco Rubio urged President Biden Thursday to request the 'immediate resignation' of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling him incompetent and disengaged.
In a letter to Mr. Biden, the Florida Republican wrote that Mr. Buttigieg has repeatedly demonstrated a “gross level of incompetence and apathy” that harms the “safety and prosperity” of the American people.
Mr. Rubio accused Mr. Buttigieg of downplaying and ignoring national emergencies related to the country’s transportation system while “prioritizing topics of little relevance” to his job. Authorities ordered the chemicals to be burned at the derailment site, which caused a plume of heavy smoke to envelop the region. Residents, their livestock, pets and wildlife started to become ill despite reassurances from the Environmental Protection Agency that the drinking water and the air quality were safe.
“USDOT has been supporting the investigation led by the National Transportation Safety Board . Our Federal Rail Administration and Pipelines and Hazardous Materials teams were onsite within hours of the initial incident and continue to be actively engaged,” he said. “We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation , but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe,” he said.
“The circumstances leading up to the derailment point to a clear lack of oversight and demand engagement by our nation’s top transportation official,” Mr. Rubio said and it is part of a “two-year long pattern” of the Transportation Secretary.
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