A lifelong resident of East Palestine, Ohio, the site of last year’s devastating toxic train derailment, implied that President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to the area is probably too little and too late — and a little too transparent — since the photo op is likely just a form of electioneering.
When the “Fox & Friends” crew asked DJ Yokley on Wednesday what Biden might say to the community upon his arrival, the Ohio man, who also runs a business in the disaster-stricken village, responded, “I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s gonna be any more confused than we are of why he’s showing up a year later.”
Yokley suggested that it’s all about election year politics and that under the circumstances, Biden “better have a wagon full of answers and a wagon full of good news for us because otherwise why are you coming at this point? Why are showing your face if not just to try to sway votes and try to get back in office?”
“It’s a scenario where we know what he’s doing. The American people see it, and now it’s, ‘Hey, we have to go visit East Palestine because we haven’t done that yet, and check it off the books,’” he declared.
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Yokley indicated that it’s a frustrating situation in that Joe Biden seems more interested in what’s going on overseas, “but as American citizens, we understand that there’s nothing that he’s done for us and nothing that this administration has done for us other than say that he’ll be coming.”
Biden’s dismal polling numbers may have convinced his handlers to, at long last, schedule a visit, although Ohio is likely to go Republican anyway, at least at the presidential level. That perhaps may have also been the reason for the administration’s seeming lack of interest following the catastrophe.
Now that Biden is in the middle of a campaign in election 2024 and the White House might be desperate for any bit of good press, he’s headed there.
Did Joe Biden handle the crisis in East Palestine correctly?
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As an aside, co-host Brian Kilmeade mentioned during the interview that Sen. Sherrod Brown, a far-left Democrat, is also facing a tough 2024 re-election battle in the Buckeye State.
Yokley also recalled how former President Donald Trump came to area and brought supplies with him shortly after the derailment.
“The American people have awakened to realize that our — the leader of our country did not show up to the greatest catastrophe of 2023. And now he’s gonna show up because it is an election year, and obviously, the polls show that President Trump came and supported us when he didn’t have to, and I think we saw right through it from the beginning,” he said.
In addition to the resilience of East Palestine residents themselves, “it’s the resilience of the American people that has kept East Palestine moving forward and moving the chains, and we can’t thank them enough,” Yokley said.
Yokley lamented that some East Palestine residents and business owners have reluctantly left the area because they don’t feel safe there anymore — apparently out of concerns over the residual or long-term effects of the hazardous chemical spill.
In this context, he implied that in contrast to state and local help, and just ordinary Americans making donations, the federal government apparently has provided lackluster support.
“That’s the scary part,” he explained about the feelings of those in East Palestine. “There’s still a lot of unanswered questions. And again, people can feel safe or they can not feel safe. That’s up to them, and there’s a lot of people that are riding that fence right now, but the trouble is that the leaders, the people that we vote into office, the people that we rely on, the people that we look to for answers have not given us any.”
Biden will see a lot of empty storefronts, as part of “the new normal,” when he gets there, Yokley said.
“We had to move. It was either adapt or die, and the thing that you learn as a competitor in sports and in business is you have to adapt, and we could not wait for Joe Biden to show up in East Palestine and help us, in order to continue our business.”
Yokley emphasized, however, “I will support any president that serves our country because otherwise it’s like … rooting against your favorite team’s quarterback just to see the backup.”
In another football reference, Yokley said,”It’s funny to us that Dan Campbell for not kicking a field goal gets way more hate thrown at him than Joe Biden for not visiting one of the biggest, biggest disasters of 2023.”
East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway told Fox News that Biden is always welcome, but quipped that in “my personal opinion the best time for him to come would be February of 2025 when he is on his book tour.”
President Trump is also fundamentally unimpressed with the planned Biden visit to northeastern Ohio.
“With the World blowing up around us, with the Middle East on FIRE, Biden has finally decided to visit East Palestine, Ohio, a year late, and only to develop some political credibility because EVERYTHING else he has done has been such a DISASTER. I know those great people, I was there when it counted, and his reception won’t be a warm one. Worst President in History!” the former president wrote in his unique style on Truth Social.
