Final 12 months after a practice derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling poisonous chemical compounds, Joe Biden blew it off saying that he would go to there in some unspecified time in the future.
Nearly a 12 months later, Biden has still not visited.
Trump went there nearly instantly and instructed the folks there that they weren’t forgotten. He talked with residents and introduced clear water. He met with the mayor. And this, in keeping with one author, was the second that sealed future.
Selena Zito is among the few columnists in America who understood the MAGA phenomenon lengthy earlier than different folks in her trade.
She writes on the Washington Examiner:
Trump’s observe to victory started when practice derailed
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The sleet and rain had been unforgiving right here on Feb. 22, 2023, the day former President Donald Trump got here to this small Columbiana County village. Regardless of the climate and issues about what was within the air or what sort of chemical was lurking within the swimming pools of mud they had been strolling in, people by the a whole lot lined up alongside Primary Road as Trump’s motorcade crammed with state and native regulation enforcement sirened its approach into city.
Women and men, younger and outdated, youngsters, youngsters, and a few dozen Amish households all waited within the icy rain alongside the designated route in anticipation of Trump displaying as much as their city, slightly below a month after a 38-car Norfolk Southern practice dumped toxic residue into the air…
In the event you had visited right here for weeks — as I had, reporting concerning the catastrophe — you understood, greater than the rest, that the folks right here needed to know that these in energy would assist them. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), simply weeks submit swearing-in, was right here a number of occasions. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) additionally got here. Nonetheless, the individual with essentially the most energy, President Joe Biden, had not come, nor would he ever.
Vance instructed me that Trump did an incredible service to the residents of East Palestine by forcing the political class to care about them.
“His go to stuffed the management vacuum left behind by Joe Biden’s indifference towards this catastrophe,” he stated. “It despatched a transparent message to the remainder of the nation that these persons are our fellow People and we will’t go away them behind.”
Zito makes a wonderful commentary about all of this and reveals that she nonetheless will get Trump higher than most journalists.
“Within the fixed post-mortem of what different candidates obtained unsuitable we overlook to speak about what Trump obtained proper & this was a type of moments that had been pivotal that individuals have missed”
Trumps inflection level started the place nobody was wanting; East Palestinehttps://t.co/7AOnQA74ql pic.twitter.com/ugAxLWyTij— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) January 22, 2024
Biden events with Hollywood celebs whereas Trump visits locations like East Palestine. The selection couldn’t be extra clear.