Six Months Later: Biden Still Has Not Visited East Palestine After Promising to Go “At Some Point”

Six months after promising he would visit East Palestine, Ohio, “at some point,” President Joe Biden had not visited. He had not rescheduled. He had not offered a new timeline. He had not, by any public account, said another word about it. The promise had simply evaporated, left behind like the toxic chemicals that were still contaminating the soil and water in the small Ohio town where a Norfolk Southern freight train had derailed on February 3, 2023.

The six-month milestone, reached in early August 2023, was a marker that turned a vague promise into a conspicuous absence. “At some point” had become “never,” and the residents of East Palestine were left to draw their own conclusions about how much the President of the United States cared about their community.

The Original Promise

Biden’s promise to visit East Palestine was itself a product of political pressure rather than initiative. In the days and weeks following the February 3 derailment, the Biden administration’s response was widely criticized as slow and inadequate. Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine on February 22, 2023, delivering supplies and meeting with residents while Biden had yet to acknowledge the disaster with any urgency.

Facing growing criticism and unfavorable comparisons to Trump’s visit, Biden eventually stated that he would go to East Palestine “at some point.” The phrasing was deliberately noncommittal. It contained no date, no timeline, and no sense of urgency. It was a promise designed to provide a response to critics while creating no actual obligation to follow through.

The language itself was telling. Presidents who intend to visit disaster sites do not say “at some point.” They say “next week” or “as soon as possible” or “I’ve directed my team to arrange it.” “At some point” is the language of indefinite postponement, and that is exactly what it turned out to be.

What Happened in East Palestine

The disaster Biden was avoiding was not a minor incident. The Norfolk Southern derailment involved approximately 50 railcars, including 11 carrying hazardous materials. Among the chemicals released were vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen; butyl acrylate; ethylhexyl acrylate; and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether.

On February 6, three days after the derailment, authorities conducted a “controlled release” of vinyl chloride from five tanker cars to prevent an uncontrolled explosion. The controlled burn sent a massive plume of black smoke into the air, visible from miles away, and raised immediate concerns about air quality and long-term health effects.

In the days that followed, residents reported dead fish floating in local creeks, unusual chemical odors, and a variety of health symptoms including headaches, nausea, skin irritation, and respiratory problems. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimated that approximately 3,500 fish were killed in streams near the derailment. The EPA detected chemicals in the soil and waterways surrounding the site.

For the 4,700 residents of East Palestine, the derailment was not a news story that faded after a few days of coverage. It was an ongoing crisis that affected their health, their property values, their drinking water, and their sense of security about the community where they had chosen to live.

The Six Months Between

The period between Biden’s “at some point” promise and the six-month anniversary was filled with events that illustrated where the president’s attention actually went.

Biden traveled to Ukraine in late February 2023, making a surprise visit to Kyiv to demonstrate support for President Zelensky. The visit required extensive security planning and represented a genuine presidential priority. That Biden could coordinate a secret trip to an active war zone but could not arrange a visit to a town in Ohio was a comparison that his critics made repeatedly.

Biden also made numerous trips to his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, throughout the spring and summer of 2023. These weekend getaways were a regular feature of Biden’s schedule and involved significant logistical operations. Each trip demonstrated that the president had available time in his schedule for travel — just not to East Palestine.

Biden attended fundraising events, hosted state dinners, made foreign trips, and maintained a full schedule of official duties. The argument that he simply could not find time to visit East Palestine was undermined by the observable evidence of how he was spending his time.

What a Presidential Visit Means

A presidential visit to a disaster site serves several important functions beyond symbolism. It focuses federal resources and attention on the affected community. It signals to federal agencies that the president is personally invested in the response. It provides residents with a direct opportunity to communicate their concerns to the highest-ranking official in the country. And it creates media attention that helps keep public pressure on responsible parties like Norfolk Southern.

When presidents skip disaster visits, the message is the opposite: the affected community is not a priority. Federal agencies, while still doing their jobs, do not receive the same signal of urgency from above. Media attention fades more quickly. And the affected residents feel abandoned.

Biden’s predecessors had generally understood this dynamic. Presidents of both parties had made disaster visits a standard part of their response to major incidents. George W. Bush was criticized for his slow response to Hurricane Katrina, and the political damage from that failure informed subsequent presidential behavior. Barack Obama visited disaster sites regularly. Trump visited East Palestine specifically to capitalize on Biden’s absence.

Norfolk Southern and Accountability

While Biden stayed away, the questions about accountability for the derailment continued. Norfolk Southern faced congressional hearings, EPA enforcement actions, and lawsuits from residents. The company’s CEO, Alan Shaw, testified before Senate committees and faced bipartisan criticism.

Investigations revealed that the train had not been classified as a “high-hazard flammable train” under federal regulations, even though it carried substantial quantities of hazardous materials. This classification would have required additional safety measures, including electronic braking systems. Norfolk Southern and other railroads had lobbied against expanded high-hazard classification rules during the Obama and Trump administrations.

The regulatory failure was systemic, spanning multiple administrations and both parties. However, the Biden administration’s Transportation Department bore responsibility for the current state of rail safety regulation, and Biden’s personal absence from East Palestine undermined his ability to project leadership on the issue.

The Political Dimension

East Palestine is located in Columbiana County, Ohio, which Trump won by approximately 45 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election. Biden’s critics suggested that the overwhelmingly Republican character of the community influenced the administration’s decision about resource allocation and presidential attention.

Whether political geography actually factored into the White House’s calculus is impossible to confirm. But the perception that Biden was ignoring a community because it had voted against him was politically damaging, particularly when combined with his administration’s emphasis on equity and environmental justice. If environmental justice meant anything, critics argued, it should mean that communities affected by toxic contamination receive equal attention regardless of how they voted.

The Eventual Visit

Biden did not visit East Palestine until approximately one year after the derailment, in February 2024. By that time, the visit was widely seen as a campaign-season gesture rather than a genuine response to the community’s needs. The residents who had waited a year for presidential attention had already drawn their conclusions about their place in Biden’s priorities.

The “at some point” promise remained one of the most memorable examples of Biden’s tendency to make vague commitments under pressure and then fail to follow through. Six months was long enough to turn the broken promise into a talking point. A year was long enough to turn it into a narrative.

Key Takeaways

• Six months after Biden promised to visit East Palestine, Ohio, “at some point” following the Norfolk Southern train derailment, he had not visited, rescheduled, or publicly addressed the promise again.
• The February 3, 2023, derailment released hazardous chemicals including vinyl chloride into the community of approximately 4,700 people, causing health concerns and environmental contamination.
• During the six months following his promise, Biden traveled to Ukraine, made numerous trips to his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, and maintained a full schedule that did not include East Palestine.
• Former President Trump had visited East Palestine less than three weeks after the derailment, creating an unfavorable contrast with Biden’s absence.
• Biden eventually visited approximately one year after the derailment, in February 2024, by which time the visit was widely seen as a campaign-related gesture rather than a genuine response to the community’s ongoing crisis.