I would have gone to eastern Palestine sooner if I had known “the amount of misinformation”

During an interview with NBC News that aired on Tuesday’s edition of “Hallie Jackson Now,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that one of the reasons he traveled to eastern Palestine, Ohio, following the train derailment, it was “all the misinformation that has reached the people of Eastern Palestine” and that “if I had known the amount of false information that would be directed against the people of eastern Palestine, we would have taken more steps to make sure they got more accurate information earlier in the process.”

Buttigieg said, “I think we missed an opportunity to communicate more clearly, with all the misinformation that has reached the people of eastern Palestine. And that’s one of the reasons I broke with the norm. Normally, a Transportation Secretary does not travel to an active HAZMAT site or an active accident site. But, in this case, I thought it was worth breaking that norm in order to be there to communicate directly with the people on the ground about how this administration was supporting them and to communicate with the country about the security and the necessary reforms.

He added, “I was following the norm that you stay away from first responders and the NTSB. But I think if I had known the amount of misinformation that would be directed at the people of Eastern Palestine, we would have taken more steps to make sure they got more accurate information earlier in the process.