Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he refused to answer a reporter’s questions about the crisis in East Palestine before oddly asking to snap a photo of the journalist.
Reporter Jennie Taer approached Buttigieg while he walked outside in Washington, D.C., identified herself as a journalist from the Daily Caller News Foundation and asked what he had to say to "the folks in Ohio, East Palestine who are suffering right now" in the aftermath of the toxic train derailment that leaked dangerous chemicals into the air.
"Well, I’d refer you to about a dozen interviews I’ve given today, and if you’d like to arrange a conversation you should reach out to our press office," Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg told Taer that he would not have a conversation with her "just walking down the street," but the reporter did not stop attempting.
"You don’t have a message for them?" she asked.
"I do, and I shared with the press many times today and I refer you to those comments," Buttigieg fired back.
Taer responded, "Mind sharing it with us?"
Buttigieg declined, repeating that he would not answer her question because he was taking some personal time.
"Right now, I’m taking some personal time, and I’m walking down the street," Buttigieg said.
Taer then asked if he planned to visit the Ohio town, which prompted Buttigieg to reach for his cell phone. He then pointed his phone at the reporter and asked if he could snap a picture.
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"Can I get a photo of you?" Buttigieg asked.
The reporter can be heard giving permission before the video cuts off.
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.
"I asked Secretary Buttigieg about the crisis in East Palestine and I guess he didn’t like that so he took a pic of me. I'm just doing my job, sir," she wrote to caption the video.
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Media critic Steve Krakauer was among the people who found Buttigieg's response unusual.
"This is totally weird, and shows the current administration's disdain for journalists. Imagine if Elaine Chao did this during the Trump administration," Krakauer tweeted. "Let's see if the corporate press colleagues speak out on behalf of a reporter doing her job."
Fox News' Harris Faulkner responded, "Why did the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg need a picture of a member of our FREE press? Is he trying to be funny… or is something else at play here? Targeting? Journalists are allowed to speak with public officials who are in public."
The Norfolk Southern Railroad freight train originally derailed on Feb. 3, but it was not until three days later that officials conducted a controlled burn of the toxins inside the cars in order to avoid an explosion.
Following the burn, black smoke tainted the community as toxins like vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride and phosgene filled the air. The Biden administration and Buttigieg have been widely criticized for their handling of the toxic spill.
"With both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris preoccupied in Europe, celebrating an endless war, just who's running the show back here at home? It is definitely not Pothole Pete Buttigieg. Now America's incompetent transportation secretary, he has been utterly M.I.A. And in just two years, he aimlessly has presided over multiple airline fiascos, chaos at America's shipping ports, a supply chain nightmare that is still ongoing, and now a disaster in East Palestine, Ohio," Fox News host Sean Hannity said on Tuesday.
"The Biden administration and Pete Buttigieg specifically has absolutely failed on this Ohio environmental disaster," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said on "Sunday Morning Futures."
Fox News' Bailee Hill contributed to this report.
