While investigators are continuing their analysis of the deadly Amtrak train derailment in Tacoma, Washington, the Left are going full-speed ahead with blame for the accident placed squarely on the shoulders of President Donald Trump.
As reported by Newsbusters, on Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Jeff Glor opened with a reference to safety mechanisms which would have prevented the catastrophic crash that killed three and injured dozens:
“Technology does exist that could have prevented that crash. Amtrak and all big passenger railroads were supposed to have it in place two years ago. That didn't happen.”
Two years ago, the world was -- according to the left side of the political aisle -- an unparalleled utopia in the miraculous hands of Barack Obama. Therefore, Transportation Correspondent Kris Van Cleave launched into a review of the tragedy which ultimately implicated the Trump Administration:
“This deadly 2008 accident in California prompted Congress to mandate PTC by the end of 2015. But that year, just months after the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia, Congress voted to delay the deadline until 2018.”
“People have died as a result of that extension,” interjected Mark Rosenker, former National Transportation Safety Board Chair Mark Rosenker. Van Cleave continued:
“This year the Trump administration has five times delayed a requirement for passenger railroads to develop a system-wide safety plan, and it has abandoned rules for stricter sleep apnea testing despite a series of deadly crashes and against NTSB recommendations."
Matthew Lehner, a spokesperson for Obama's Federal Railroad Administration, happily joined in:
"Some of the actions by this administration are definitely moving us backward and not forward on having a safer rail system.”
Nice. Trump was blamed for the disaster, despite the fact that the "Department of Transportation explained its decisions this way: in terms of those safety plans, they say they needed more time to review comments. With reference to sleep apnea, they said they felt existing safety programs and other regulations would be sufficient."
Van Cleave skipped right over Obama, not only ignoring Glor’s lead-in, but also in spite of there having been multiple derailments during Barack's presidency which could have also been prevented by PTC: in September 2016, a train in Hoboken, New Jersey slammed into a station and killed one while injuring 108; and in May of 2015, an Amtrak train jumped the tracks in Philadelphia, injuring 200 and killing 8.
But this isn’t national safety, after all; it’s politics. And the Left will take every opportunity to cast aspersions on our Republican President, even if they have to go off the rails of reality to do so.