KJP: Biden “Will Travel” to East Palestine but Has No Date — Five Months After Train Derailment

On July 5, 2023, more than five months after the catastrophic Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a reporter pressed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on two pointed questions: would Biden grant Governor DeWine’s request to declare East Palestine a “major disaster area,” and why had the President still not visited? Jean-Pierre’s answers — that FEMA would “expeditiously review” the disaster request and that Biden “will go” but she had no date to share — encapsulated the administration’s strategy of making open-ended promises while indefinitely deferring action.

Governor DeWine’s Disaster Declaration Request

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, had formally requested that Biden declare East Palestine a “major disaster area” under the Stafford Act, which would unlock additional federal resources for the community’s recovery. DeWine sent the letter to the President on July 3, 2023, the Monday before the briefing.

A reporter asked: “Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is asking the President to declare East Palestine a ‘major disaster area’ after the train derailment. He sent the President a letter on Monday. Is the President considering and will he fulfill that request?”

Jean-Pierre’s response was carefully noncommittal: “So I can say this: As it does with all of its requests, FEMA — it will expeditiously review the request — this particular request from the governor of Ohio, as well.”

The phrase “expeditiously review” was bureaucratic language that committed the administration to nothing. A review could take days, weeks, or months and could result in approval, denial, or a request for additional information. By routing the question through FEMA’s standard process, Jean-Pierre avoided saying whether Biden supported the declaration or was inclined to grant it.

A major disaster declaration would have significant practical and political implications. It would trigger federal funding for individual assistance, public infrastructure repair, and hazard mitigation. It would also constitute a formal acknowledgment by the federal government that the East Palestine situation warranted the highest level of emergency response — an acknowledgment the Biden administration had been reluctant to make.

”Why Has the President Not Made the Visit?”

The reporter then asked the question that had been hanging over the East Palestine story for months: “And why has the President not made the visit out there? And at this point, is he just not going to? He’s done a lot of travel in recent weeks and months.”

The question was sharpened by the observation about Biden’s travel schedule. The President had visited Europe, Asia, and multiple domestic locations for political events, fundraisers, and policy announcements. His calendar demonstrated that travel was not the issue — priorities were.

Jean-Pierre fell back on a formula she had used before: “So I’m just going to repeat what the President said. He — he will travel to the area, to East Palestine. Just don’t have anything to share on travel or upcoming dates that he’ll be there. But the President said it. He’s going to go. So he will go.”

The circular reasoning was notable: Biden will go because he said he would go. The tautological assurance contained no new information, no timeline, and no explanation for the five-month delay. The phrase “just don’t have anything to share” had become the administration’s default response on East Palestine, appearing in briefings going back months.

The East Palestine Timeline

The Norfolk Southern freight train derailed on February 3, 2023, releasing vinyl chloride and other hazardous chemicals into the air, soil, and water of East Palestine, a small town in eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. The derailment led to a controlled burn of chemicals that produced a massive plume of toxic smoke visible for miles. Residents were evacuated, and concerns about long-term health effects and environmental contamination dominated the community’s recovery.

Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine on February 22, 2023, just 19 days after the derailment. He brought supplies, met with residents, and used the visit to contrast his responsiveness with Biden’s absence. The optics were devastating for the Biden administration, as a former president — and Biden’s likely 2024 opponent — demonstrated concern for a community that the sitting president had not visited.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited East Palestine on February 23, one day after Trump. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan visited earlier in February. But the President himself remained absent, and each passing week made the non-visit more politically costly.

By July 2023, the East Palestine story had evolved from an environmental disaster into a symbol of the Biden administration’s perceived disconnection from working-class communities, particularly in red states. East Palestine was a small, predominantly white, working-class town in a state that had voted heavily for Trump. Critics argued that the administration’s delayed response reflected a political calculation that the community’s residents were not part of Biden’s electoral coalition and therefore not a priority.

The Promise That Was Never Fulfilled

Jean-Pierre’s assurance that Biden “will go” to East Palestine joined a growing list of presidential commitments on the topic. Biden had said in interviews that he intended to visit. Administration officials had said the visit was being planned. Jean-Pierre had repeated the promise multiple times from the podium. Yet no visit materialized.

The indefinite nature of the promise allowed the White House to claim it had not been broken while never actually fulfilling it. By never providing a date — “just don’t have anything to share on travel or upcoming dates” — the administration avoided creating a deadline against which its performance could be measured. The promise existed in a state of perpetual future tense: Biden would go, eventually, at some unspecified time.

This approach carried diminishing political returns. Each time Jean-Pierre repeated the promise, its credibility eroded further. The gap between the assurance and the reality widened with each passing month, and the media’s willingness to accept the promise at face value decreased accordingly. The reporter’s phrasing — “at this point, is he just not going to?” — reflected the press corps’ growing skepticism.

Biden eventually visited East Palestine in February 2025, approximately two years after the derailment, during his final weeks in office. By that point, the visit had lost whatever political significance it might have carried in 2023.

FEMA and the Federal Response

The federal response to the East Palestine derailment was complicated by the fact that it did not fit neatly into existing disaster categories. The Stafford Act was designed primarily for natural disasters — hurricanes, earthquakes, floods — and its application to industrial accidents was less straightforward. FEMA had provided some assistance through its existing programs, and the EPA had been actively involved in environmental monitoring and cleanup.

Governor DeWine’s major disaster declaration request was an attempt to access the full suite of federal disaster resources that would normally be available after a hurricane or other major natural disaster. The request put the Biden administration in the position of either granting the declaration (and implicitly acknowledging that the federal response had been insufficient) or denying it (and appearing to dismiss the community’s needs).

Jean-Pierre’s “expeditious review” language suggested the administration was looking for a middle path — neither committing to the declaration nor rejecting it outright. The bureaucratic process would provide time and political cover regardless of the eventual decision.

Key Takeaways

• More than five months after the East Palestine train derailment, KJP said Biden “will travel” to the community but had no date to share, continuing a pattern of open-ended promises without follow-through.
• On Governor DeWine’s request for a major disaster declaration, KJP said FEMA would “expeditiously review” the request, committing to nothing while using bureaucratic language to defer the decision.
• A reporter noted Biden had traveled extensively for other events during the same period, sharpening the question of whether East Palestine’s absence from his schedule reflected a deliberate priority choice.
• Trump’s visit to East Palestine 19 days after the derailment, compared to Biden’s continued absence five months later, became a powerful political contrast that symbolized the administration’s perceived disconnection from working-class communities.
• Biden eventually visited East Palestine in February 2025, nearly two years after the derailment, during his final weeks in office.