Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called on former President Trump to show solidarity with the six immigrant workers who were killed in the Baltimore bridge collapse last month.
“I’ll take care to avoid talking about campaigns while I’m sitting here, but just at a human level, it would be helpful for the former president to weigh in here and show the solidarity that we’ve seen from most if not all, elected officials on either side of the aisle because of the human nature of what happened,” he said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
MSNBC host Jen Psaki noted that Trump had not acknowledged the deaths of the road workers who were filling potholes on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore late last month when a massive container vessel struck the bridge. Six of the eight workers on the bridge that night — who were all immigrants — were killed in the collapse.
“We count on so many workers in this country, many of them immigrants, to do these vitally important infrastructure jobs. They’re not glamorous. They’re not the highest paying jobs in the country, but they’re absolutely essential,” Buttigieg said.
“And I think just again, at a human level showing some regard for that is very important. And that’s what characteristically President Biden was doing when I was with him in Baltimore on Friday,” he added.
President Biden and Buttigieg visited Baltimore on Friday more than a week after the bridge went down. Biden vowed to “move heaven and Earth” to rebuild the structure as he spoke with the wreckage of the bridge in the backdrop.
Lawmakers have been at odds with how to fund the rebuilding of the bridge since Biden has promised federal funding for the project. Some conservatives have argued that it is a regional issue, while some liberals have noted that the owner of the shipping vessel should pay for some of the repair costs.
The container ship, named The Dali, was leaving the Baltimore Harbor on its way to Sri Lanka last Tuesday when it lost power and crashed into the bridge. The owner of the ship and the management company asked a federal judge last week to limit its legal liability for the incident.
The Hill has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.
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