Residents of East Palestine are responding harshly after President Joe Biden claimed his schedule was too busy to visit the area as promised. The small community in Ohio was the site of a devastating chemical spill and explosion in February that captivated the nation. Yet, seven months later, despite promising to make a trip there early on, the president has still not followed through.

As RedState reported, Biden was asked about East Palestine while touring hurricane damage in Florida. He responded by claiming he hasn't "been able to break" because "there's a lot going on." He then mentioned an upcoming trip to Asia as being more important.

#BREAKING: President Biden says he "hasn't had the occasion" to go to East Palestine because "there's a lot going on" & he hasn't "been able to break."

He says he considered going to East Palestine this week "but then was reminded I've got to go literally around the world." pic.twitter.com/cirJbh0CiK

— Forbes (@Forbes) September 2, 2023

None of the excuses the president made add up. Biden spent most of August on three different vacations, including staying at a billionaire donor's house in Lake Tahoe. He has spent right around 40 percent of his presidency not working, with much of it spent in Delaware. The idea that he hasn't had a few hours to take the short fight over to East Palestine is laughable. It's flatly untrue. 

That's not lost on the residents of the town, some of whom appeared on Fox News to discuss Biden's comments. 

“At this point, I don’t even care if Biden comes, he has already insulted us,” East Palestine resident Jamie Wallace told “Fox and Friends” guest host Nicole Saphier.

“We are here, we are still sick. We do have unmet needs. We need to have representation at this hearing that’s coming up in East Palestine when our politicians they come in they meet with very cherry-picked groupings of the community and it’s not representative of most of us that are still suffering, still in hotels, still relocated,” Wallace said. “I don’t care. This is not a red issue, it’s not a blue issue. This is an issue of human lives and it can happen to every single person watching this that has a railroad track within 30 miles. You know, this is about human lives.”

Another resident described how she's still living in a hotel with her children, criticizing Biden for showing no compassion at all about the situation. 

“This guy has actively not shown any compassion or moral value to anything, emotionally, physically, he hasn’t shown up and there has been no help for us economically or with our residents,” East Palestine resident D.J. Yokley said. “It’s really frustrating to see him go and say he is too busy for people that literally put him in the office.”

East Palestine resident Courtney Miller said she and her kids have been living in a motel since the derailment. “I don’t want to take my kids into something that obviously Biden doesn’t even want to show up,” Miller told Saphier. “So, there’s obviously some reason as to why he is not coming.”

Whatever Biden's strategy is here, assuming one even exists, it's a really bad one. Why promise to go if there was never any intention of going? The easiest thing in the world would have been to make an appearance relatively soon after the disaster occurred. Instead, the president and his team continue to insult the intelligence of those who are suffering, up to and including joking that going to Vietnam is more important. 

In the end, one can't help but come to the conclusion that Biden isn't going because he fears the optics. East Palestine is a majority-Republican area. Apparently, not voting for the "right" person dictates whether the White House cares about you as an American or not. It's a sad development, and the residents are correct that if Biden does finally show up, it will only appear contrived and forced. The damage is already done.

Editor's Note: This article was edited post-publication for clarity.