East Palestine, Ohio Mayor Trent Conaway got up in front of the RNC and told a whopper about the Biden administration’s response to the catastrophic derailment in his village:
CONAWAY: For the longest time the White House was silent, and we never heard a word. I guess we weren't their type of folks. No Hollywood elites or Wall Street billionaires live in East Palestine. Just hardworking Americans.
Maybe Conaway thought nobody would fact check that statement because lies obviously don’t matter to Trump fans. If so, Conaway was mistaken.
Here’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine telling the public that President Biden called him after the derailment, offering “anything you need” but that nothing was needed.
It turns out Conaway has been BSing about this for over a year. In February, 2023, he whined that “it was “the biggest slap in the face” for President Biden to visit Ukraine while Ohio deals with chemical fallout from the train derailment.
But on Feb. 17, 2023, he told MSNBC’s Katy Tur that the EPA arrived on the scene the day after the derailment. He complained about a lack of response “higher in the federal government,” but without saying who or what agency had failed. Then, when pushed by Tur to specify what federal response was missing, Conaway said, “I think if the president came it was actually just – it would be more harm than good” because all the security would “be a burden.”
It's pretty ironic for Conaway to suggest that fat cat Trump or J.D. Vance care more about working class Americans than “Scranton Joe.” It couldn’t be clearer that Trump, Vance and their Project 2025 pals want to give more tax breaks to their very wealthy cronies and force the rest of us to pay for them.
Even more ironic is that some of Conaway’s own constituents feel like their needs are being ignored while he ran off to hobnob with the elites at the RNC. Residents have complained he has refused to meet with individuals or concerned groups, according to NewsNation. “Some say he does not have the community’s interests at heart,” the outlet reported.
