U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke with MSNBC this afternoon regarding the East Palestine train derailment.

Buttigieg was asked if he would be going to East Palestine. He said that he is planning a visit to the area.

MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi asked Buttigieg about East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway calling on President Biden to visit before his trip to Ukraine. 

"That was the biggest slap in the face that tells you right now he doesn't care about us," Conaway said while talking about President Biden. "So he can send every agency he wants to, but I found out this morning that in one of the briefings that he was in Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there, not to us, and I'm furious."

Buttigieg said the biggest thing he wants the residents of East Palestine to know is that they're not alone.

"Our department's personnel were on the ground from within the first hours of the incident. They have got multiple federal agencies on the ground, partnering with the state, partnering with local first responders. And this has the attention of the entire administration, and will for many years to come," Buttigieg said.

He again said he is planning on visiting East Palestine.

"And I will tell you, I am planning to go. And, when I'm on the ground, it's going to be about action. It's not going to be about show or politics, because I can very much relate to how a mayor feels, having been mayor and noticed that, when we had disasters in our community, there were two kinds of people who showed up, people who were there because they had a specific role to play, job to do, and difference to make and wanted to help, and people who were there because they wanted to look good. This administration has been on the ground from day one, and that support for East Palestine will not go away," he said.

Buttigieg also talked about the train's contents and why it was not part of the most restricted category.

"I think a lot of people are wondering, if there's a category called high-hazard flammable train, why wouldn't a train like this qualify? That's one of the things that we are looking at the maximum authorities we have, although I got to say our authorities really have been constrained over the years by Congress, which is why we're doing two things at once. We're making the most of the authorities we have and calling on Congress to give us a stronger hand here," Buttigieg said.

Secretary Buttigieg hasn't announced when he will make the trip to East Palestine yet.