Bizarre moment Pete Buttigieg asks to take reporter’s PHOTO during street interview

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg confirmed during a street interview that he would be visiting the site of the Ohio train disaster, then asked if he could take a photo of the reporter who questioned him about it.

The strange encounter occurred before it was reported Buttigieg will visit Eastern Palestine on Thursday, 20 days after the initial disaster. That came after Buttigieg defended his response yesterday and said he wants to make the trip when it can be an ‘action’ one.

Reporter Jennie Taer asked Buttigieg about the disaster and the administration’s response after identifying herself as a Daily Caller News Foundation worker.

‘Buttigieg smiled when the reporter first asked him how he was doing. Then, as Buttigieg and her husband Chasten walked briskly at night, the reporter asked, ‘What do you have to say to the people in Ohio, in eastern Palestine, who are suffering right now?’

“Well, I would recommend a dozen interviews that I’ve given today and if you want to set up a conversation, be sure to contact our press office,” Buttigieg replied.

He confirmed last Tuesday that he would visit the city, amid mounting pressure 18 days after a Norfolk Southern train derailed amid a massive chemical explosion.

He indicated that he was not going to “have that conversation with you just walking down the street here.”

Don’t have a message for them? the reporter asked, as the two walked and talked in the Eastern Market neighborhood near the Capitol.

“I do and have shared it with the press many times today and I refer you to those comments,” Buttigieg responded.

When the reporter pressed him again, he refused, saying: ‘No, I’m going to refer you to the comments I made to the press because right now I’m taking personal time and I’m walking down the street.’

She asked him if he would visit eastern Palestine, something he had revealed on ABC’s “Good Morning America” ​​Tuesday.

After a pause, Buttigieg admitted, “Yes, I’m going,” but refused to give a deadline.

So Buttigieg, who often represents the administration in combative interviews on Fox News and with other outlets, asked the reporter: ‘Can I take a picture of you?’

The reporter agreed. she later posted a video of the meeting On twitter.

“I asked Secretary Buttigieg about the crisis in East Palestine and I guess he didn’t like it so he took my picture. I’m just doing my job sir,’ he wrote.

DailyMail.com has sought comment from the Department for Transport on the encounter.

The news of Buttigieg’s decision to visit the city came on a day when former President Donald Trump was scheduled to visit Eastern Palestine.

A day earlier, he had defended the response, saying DOT personnel were “on the ground from day one” and that he wants the trip to be “action,” not image. CBS informed. He also said that he wanted to give the National Transportation Safety Board time.

“I have followed the normal practice of transportation secretaries in the first few days after an accident, allowing the NTSB to direct the safety work and staying out of their way,” he said. “But I am very much looking forward to having conversations with people in eastern Palestine about how this affects them.”

Buttigieg has called for higher maximum fines for rail safety violations, but has yet to visit the small town that is still reeling from the consequences of toxic chemicals seeping into the air, soil and water.

He wrote a letter Sunday to the president and CEO of Norfolk Southern, which owns and operates the train that derailed with the hazardous material.

“Norfolk Southern must honor its commitments to the people of East Palestine,” Buttigieg wrote in an Instagram post Monday along with images of the letter.

A Department of Transportation spokesman described the apparent change.

‘As the secretary said, he would go when appropriate and would not detract from emergency response efforts. The secretary will go now that EPA has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and into the long-term remediation phase,’ adding that the visit ‘also coincides with the release of the factual findings of the investigation by part of the NTSB,” the spokesman said, Reuters informed.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday morning that he will finally visit the site of the train derailment that released hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month.

The intense shock spewed toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water and has led nearby residents to complain of headaches and other symptoms. Eastern Palestine was evacuated two days after the derailment

However, Biden has not visited East Palestine, Ohio, after a massive train derailment released toxic chemicals into the community on February 3.