Amid widespread criticism and calls for his resignation, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made a bizarre request of a reporter who approached him on the street: "Can I get a photo of you?"
"Outnumbered" panelists Wednesday offered criticisms of the administration for the delayed response to the train derailment in East Palestine – the same issue Daily Caller News Foundation’s Jennie Taer had confronted Buttigieg about.
But co-host Harris Faulkner warned his request for a picture could have wider implications.
"Why do you think he did that?" she asked.
"I reached out to his team because it felt like free speech was being chilled, and I just wanted to hear that it wasn't. … Honestly, at the end of the day, why did he need her photo?
"That was odd," Kayleigh McEnany responded, with Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe calling it "super weird."
Buttigieg’s press office did not immediately respond to a series of questions from Fox News Digital, including why he wanted to take the reporter’s photo. Taer posted video of the incident, and it quickly went viral, piling up over 1.6 million views overnight.
Faulkner said she hopes Buttigieg answers as many questions as possible when he visits East Palestine Thursday, nearly three weeks after the derailment.
Buttigieg has been largely quiet and even downplayed the disaster, citing "roughly 1,000 cases a year of a train derailing." His actions led critics to question his leadership ability.
"This was a person who wanted to be the president of the United States," Faulkner said. "I appreciate the fact that he's now going [to East Palestine], but he had aspirations to lead from the top, and he could have modeled that because nobody's gone from any other cabinet section either."
"Where’s the leadership on the ground?"
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom joined the "Outnumbered" couch and questioned the Biden administration’s priorities as a whole. He considered it sad that the president is continuing to pledge support for Ukraine while people in his own country cry out for help.
"It's been how many weeks that our administration has not visited yet among people that are suffering," he said. "Is America really coming first for our administration?"
Kanter Freedom then called for concrete action to help the people of East Palestine.
Buttigieg’s trip to Ohio was announced just hours after former President Trump publicized his own intent to visit.
Boothe called it a "sad reflection" of the current administration that a former president took faster action.
"It seemed like it took President Trump declaring that he was going to visit to get Pete Buttigieg to come to the same conclusion," Boothe suggested.
Boothe said her heart breaks for the people of East Palestine.
"Imagine having to trust your life in the hands of the government. Imagine having to trust your children's lives in the hands of the government," she said. "I just hope that they can get truth and answers,"
