EAST PALESTINE, Ohio—Vice President JD Vance said his return to the village of East Palestine on the second anniversary of the explosive train derailment was about more than just showing up.
“I think showing up is important, but there is action behind it,” he said in an interview with the Washington Examiner after a roundtable with local stakeholders, first responders, and community businessowners.
“So when people say we want to rebuild here, we also want to have confidence long term that it’s safe and environmentally sound,“ Vance said. ”Well, the only way you can do that is by actually sending people like the [Environmental Protection Agency] continuously to finish the cleanup, to do the testing, and not just do it for a year or two years but to do it for the next 10 to 15 years.”
Vance said during his press conference inside the garage of the East Palestine Fire Department that people have to be confident that “they can build a business here, that they can raise a family here.”
“That’s going to take the long-term commitment of the Environmental Protection Agency but also the whole administration,” he said. “And that’s certainly something that people here can expect.”
For emphasis on that priority, he introduced them to new EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who was attending his first stop in the role.
“I know how much of a priority this is for Vice President Vance. And because it is such a priority for him, I will make sure that for the EPA, it is our highest priority day in, day out to do everything in our power to make sure this is completed as quickly as possible,” Zeldin told the crowd.
Vance told the Examiner that it is important that the people in the village have faith that they can rebuild their town’s sense of stability and know the administration will have their back along the way.
“That is what I think is a core part of giving people confidence they can really rebuild, is that it’s safe, that the air is clean, that the water’s clean, and so forth,” he said.
He pointed to the work of local leaders such as Trent Conaway, the village’s mayor, as people who lead by example with grit and grace.
Conaway, along with Keith Drabick, who is the village’s fire chief, Zeldin, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), and Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Jon Husted (R-Ohio), joined Vance and the village’s firefighters for the day’s events.
“So, yeah, I think showing up is important. But you show up to say, ‘Look, we’re going to do the things necessary environmentally to give you confidence you can actually rebuild this town,’” Vance said.
“And that is the biggest thing. I mean, you talk about heart, right? So we did the roundtable beforehand, and every single business to a person said, ‘We have lost a lot of revenue compared to where we were two years ago. We know the town is economically struggling,’ but to a person, they all said, ‘We don’t want to move. This is our home.’
“They told me, ‘This is where I raised my kids,’ or ‘This is where I raise my grandkids,’ or ‘This is where I want to raise my kids,’ and we just have to really give them that opportunity to rebuild. And if we do that, then we’ll have done a good job.”
As a senator, Vance personally pushed the Biden administration hard to do baseline testing so residents could track their health annually to see whether there had been any effect.
It fell on deaf ears. But Vance said he hasn’t given up on the proposal.
“It would’ve been better if it had been started early, but I actually had the conversation with my team this morning. We still want it to happen, and it’ll still be helpful scientifically for it to happen. And now, obviously, we have the whole administration at our disposal,” he said.
“I feel very confident we’re going to be able to make it happen. They’re actually negotiating one of the settlements with Norfolk Southern (Railway) to help pay for this. I really wish it had started 18 months ago, but we are where we are.”
Vance said the thing people here worry about the most is the long-term impact, not about dropping dead from drinking water.
“If you talk about rebuilding East Palestine, you want to give people the confidence that they can raise a family in this community. That’s the thing you have to do because that’s what people are most worried about,” the vice president said.
Vance said coming here was personally meaningful.
“It felt great. I love this place. It became like a second home, really,” said Vance, who was joined by his wife, Usha.
Vance told the press and community stakeholders gathered at the East Palestine Fire Department headquarters that the Trump administration would be honest and transparent about how much longer that cleanup process would take.
“I’m not saying everything’s going to go perfect, because it never does. But we’re always going to be honest and transparent with the people here,” Vance continued.
The fire hall was packed with more than 45 journalists from Cincinnati, Youngstown, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and throughout northeastern Ohio. Outside, people gathered from all over town to catch a glimpse of their former senator, who visited this village multiple times during his short term.
One year ago today, Vance pulled up in his white pickup truck juggling two boxes of Oram’s donuts that he had picked up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He would bring them to residents he was meeting at a local church to mark the first anniversary of the train derailment that set off a massive fire and a billowing cloud of toxic smoke rolling over the community.
That derailment was followed days later by a toxic “controlled burn” meant to prevent an even larger explosion, a series of events that changed this Appalachian village for at least a generation.
Vance had been in the Senate for a little less than three weeks when he received a late-night call from his state director that there had been a significant train derailment in East Palestine. Two days and one massive toxic explosion later, he was on the ground raising concerns about the chemicals in the air and in the waterways.
Vance told me a year ago the moment was a trial by fire. He told his staff that egos could be checked at the door and all hands on deck were necessary, recalling to me that if they screwed up, they were to “own it, move on, and figure out how to help people.”
Vance, a son of Appalachia, joined then-presidential candidate Donald Trump here two weeks after the derailment on a sleet-filled day when few had any answers about what lingered in the air or what kind of chemical was lurking in the pools of mud they were walking in.
Vance told me last year on the first anniversary that Trump did a great service to the residents of East Palestine by forcing the political class to see them.
“His visit filled the leadership vacuum left behind by Joe Biden’s indifference toward this disaster,” he said. “It sent a clear message to the rest of the country that these people are our fellow Americans and we can’t leave them behind.”
“You are not forgotten,” Trump said at that press conference two years ago.
Flanked by Vance, Conaway, and other local elected officials, Trump added, “In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal.”
On Feb. 10, Conaway told reporters outside the East Palestine Fire Department, where Vance held his roundtable, that he was happy that Trump and Vance had never forgotten them.
“I am hopeful,” Conaway said. “The Trump administration has our back. Trump has had our back from day one.”
