I need to look him in the eye and say: 'Mr. "Well, what do you need to talk with him before the briefing?" I said, "Because he needs to understand exactly how bad things are here. I said, "Look guys, when you land at this Air National Guard Base, I need five minutes with the boss before we do the public briefing." And they wanted to know. President, have instructed the Cabinet to give me whatever I need. That when I ask for X, I really need the Cabinet to know that you, Mr. and had explained to him that we were having a very difficult time getting a unified command structure set up, and that things were pretty bad down here, and that I once again reiterated to him that I really need the Cabinet full hands on deck. I had talked to the president just the day before. MB: Well let me tell you the backstory to that. NJ: Since people felt you had it under control, do you think that's what led President Bush to say. was going to the one place that we wished it wouldn't go to, and that was the fishbowl called New Orleans. So I think you couple that experience just the year before along with everything I had done in all of the disasters all of the way back to 9/11, I think maybe there was this assumption that, "Hey, it's just a hurricane, there won't be any problem." And I think there was also kind of, "Brown's good at this stuff, so there's not a lot for us to worry about." I think it was that coupled with a failure to recognize that. It was right in the middle of a presidential election, so we had an amazing amount of political pressure. Michael Brown: I think rather than using the word "seriously," to be more accurate I would say, the administration just assumed because of the incredible success that we had had in 2004 we had four hurricanes strike Florida. Why didn't the administration do so and what would have been done different if the administration had taken it seriously? National Journal: You've said in the past you think the Bush administration didn't understand the magnitude. Ten years after that turning point, Brown talked with National Journal about why New Orleans suffered worse, that infamous phrase, and why questions about race with regard to Katrina are "utter bullshit." The interview has been condensed for clarity. Bush telling Michael Brown, then the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job," has become a potent symbol-shorthand for what many viewed as the White House's mishandling of the natural disaster.Ä«rown left later that year and now hosts a radio show in Colorado. In the decade since Hurricane Katrina, the image of former President George W.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |