Biden heads off bridge col­lapse scruti­ny with trip to Bal­ti­more

Biden heads off bridge collapse scrutiny with trip to Baltimore

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden will trav­el to Bal­ti­more on Fri­day to sur­vey the cleanup of the col­lapsed Fran­cis Scott Key Bridge as his admin­is­tra­tion attempts to head off past crit­i­cism over his han­dling of cat­a­stroph­ic events.
Since a car­go ship col­lid­ed with the bridge last week, killing six peo­ple, Biden has sent sev­er­al high-rank­ing admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials, includ­ing Sec­re­tary of Trans­porta­tion Pete Buttigieg, to Bal­ti­more to assist the local gov­ern­ment in the imme­di­ate cleanup effort.
That includ­ed green-light­ing $60 mil­lion in emer­gency funds for the city to min­i­mize the impact on sup­ply chains and local busi­ness. The debris has dis­rupt­ed eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty at the busy Port of Bal­ti­more.
The trip comes a month after the pres­i­dent vis­it­ed East Pales­tine, Ohio, to mark the one-year anniver­sary of a train derail­ment that …