A Republican candidate for the House of Representatives ripped the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, saying it was “mistreating residents” of East Palestine, Ohio.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he would visit the city where the Feb. 3, 2023, train derailment occurred, fulfilling a promise to visit East Palestine made in March 2023. The derailment caused people to evacuate after chemicals were spilled.
Dr. Rick Tsai, who is running for the House seat vacated when Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, resigned last month to become president of Youngstown State University, blasted the EPA and federal government during an appearance on WMAL-FM radio’s “The Vince Coglianese Show” in Washington.
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“I don’t think the world knows the whole truth about what happened here and is still going on in East Palestine,” Tsai told Coglianese, who is also the Daily Caller’s editorial director.
Officials warned of a possible “catastrophic blast” at the derailment site Feb. 6, 2023, and carried out a controlled burn of chemicals, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
“The government put the entity that caused this catastrophe in control of the cleanup, and they’ve almost been like the Gestapo here, mistreating residents,” Tsai added.
Tsai has done his own testing of local creeks, saying he has found elevated levels of benzene, according to Cleveland’s WKYC-TV
“As of yesterday or the day before, Ann Vogel of the Ohio EPA was saying they have no evidence of chemicals in our land or a creek,” Tsai told Coglianese. “I can give a seven-year-old a stick and teach him how to find these chemicals. I don’t know how the EPA doesn’t do it with their millions of dollars at, you know, their beck and call.”
Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine in February 2023, donating bottled water and pallets of supplies to assist residents in the town.
Originally published by Daily Caller News Foundation
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