Buttigieg hits back at Trump, GOP critics on Ohio train derailment response

What he's saying: Buttigieg said in his CNN interview that although it wouldn't have made a major difference in the aftermath of the incident and no other transportation secretary had visited a derailment site, it would've likely helped residents if he had gone to East Palestine sooner than Feb. 23.

• "Sometimes people need policy work, and sometimes people need performative work," he told CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere. "And to get to this level, you’ve got to be ready to serve up both."

Yes, but: Buttigieg rejected criticisms he's received from former President Trump and other Republicans about his handling of the matter.

• "It's really rich to see some of these folks — the former president, these Fox hosts – who are literally lifelong card-carrying members of the East Coast elite, whose top economic policy priority has always been tax cuts for the wealthy, and who wouldn’t know their way around a T.J. Maxx if their life depended on it, to be presenting themselves as if they genuinely care about the forgotten middle of the country," Buttigieg said.
• "You think Tucker Carlson knows the difference between a T.J. Maxx and a Kohl’s?"

Worth noting: Buttigieg said claims that he only visited the Ohio crash site because Trump had done so one day earlier were "bulls**t" as he was "already going to go" to East Palestine.

• He said of Trump that it's "somewhat maddening to see someone who did a lot to try to gut not just rail safety regulations, but the EPA, which is the number one thing standing between that community and a total loss of accountability for Norfolk Southern, and then show up giving out bottled water and campaign swag?"

More from Axios:

• Another Norfolk Southern train derails in Ohio, no hazardous materials aboard
• Ohio derailment prompts calls to investigate federal oversight of trains
• Ohio crews release toxic chemicals from derailed train
• East Palestine's record of devastating derailments