President Biden traveled to East Palestine on Friday to show solidarity with a community still reeling more than a year after a Norfolk Southern train derailed, spilling a toxic mess across this small Ohio town near the border with Pennsylvania.
But what he found when he got here were divisions on every corner.
On the main street, protesters accused the White House of neglect and asked why it had taken Mr. Biden so long to visit. More than 100 Trump supporters, some of whom had driven in from out of state, held up “Impeach Biden” signs. And still others said they were sick of their town being used as a political prop and wanted answers about their long-term health.
Mr. Biden alluded to some of those differences during remarks near the crash site, saying that “it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican or independent.”
“What matters is we’re all Americans,” Mr. Biden continued. “We look out for one another. We leave no one behind. And we come back stronger than before.”
Mr. Biden also said the National Institutes of Health would issue six grants to research universities to study “the short and long term impacts” of the toxic spill — a key concern among residents, many of whom complain of health problems since the accident.
Tens of thousands of tons of contaminated solid waste and millions of gallons of wastewater have been shipped out of East Palestine since the derailment, the Environmental Protection Agency said. Ohio declared the drinking water safe just weeks after the crash.
“The president has no concerns with drinking the water in East Palestine,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said this week. She was responding to a reporter who mentioned that President Barack Obama had drunk filtered tap water in Flint, Mich., in 2016 after a lead contamination crisis in the city.
During Friday’s visit, Mr. Biden took a sip of coffee brewed with tap water while visiting a local candle-making workshop and also had a cup of water beside him as he met with the business owners and local residents.
Still, the fact that it took Mr. Biden a year to visit East Palestine, a town of 5,000 people, bothered many people in the community, particularly because he had promised to do so soon after the derailment.
Republicans and many residents have said his absence was a sign of disrespect.
“It’s sad he waited so long,” said Kathleen Unkefer, 68, a lifelong resident of East Palestine and florist who watched the different rallies through the window of the Flowers Straight From the Heart shop. “I just feel it’s all political. It’s an election year.”
The White House has said Mr. Biden wanted to go at a moment when his visit would not be disruptive. And Biden administration officials have defended the federal response, saying the government has sent a steady flow of federal resources to the community, and deployed hundreds of people to assess the risks in the days after the spill.
The administration has said Norfolk Southern should be held accountable for the harm caused by the derailment.
“While there are acts of God, this was an act of greed that was 100 percent preventable,” Mr. Biden said on Friday.
Mr. Biden has not approved a presidential disaster declaration, as Ohio’s governor requested last year, and as many residents were hoping he would announce on Friday. But he assured residents that the federal government would stay invested in its recovery.
“What they do not make whole, what they cannot make whole, the government will make whole,” he added of Norfolk Southern. “We have an obligation.”
Norfolk Southern has said the cost of the derailment cleanup, legal costs and assistance to the community will be more than $800 million. The company also has committed more than $100 million toward costs including direct payments to residents and reimbursements for emergency medical workers.
“We’re committed to helping them make it an even more vibrant, thriving place,” Alan H. Shaw, the chief executive of Norfolk Southern, said in a statement.
The train was carrying more than 700,000 pounds of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen used to produce pipes, furniture and packaging, when it derailed. Emergency responders set the chemicals ablaze during a so-called controlled burn to avert a wider explosion.
On Friday, Mr. Biden ignored shouted questions about the timing of his visit after his official remarks.
Presidential visits to devastated communities can sometimes provide the opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to play down their differences and focus on showing empathy. Local leaders have often commended Mr. Biden on such occasions.
But Mr. Biden, who ran for president on a pledge to unite the nation, confronted a community that is a microcosm of the politically divided country.
Former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Biden’s likely opponent in this year’s presidential race, visited East Palestine in the weeks after the derailment. Hours before Mr. Biden arrived on Friday, the Trump campaign issued an advertisement titled “Too Little, Too Late.”
Even the invitation for Mr. Biden to visit from the mayor, Trent Conaway, carried a hint of the division. Mr. Conaway has criticized Mr. Biden for allowing Mr. Trump to visit before him.
Jaime Nentwick, a 37-year-old organizer at an Ohio environmental justice nonprofit, said the situation in East Palestine has been politicized.
“It’s been a prop since the derailment,” she said. “The most important thing in order to give the residents some kind of heightened hope, to restore that, is to give an actual factual reason as to why he hasn’t been here in a year.”
