NOLA Mayor Nagin interview w/Soledad O'Brien in which he says Gov. Blanco told the President she needed 24 hours to make a decision for Federal aid.
NAGIN: The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, "No, you guys stay here. We're going to another section of the plane, and we're going to make a decision."
He called me in that office after that. And he said, "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor." I said -- and I don't remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.
S. O'BRIEN: You're telling me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?
NAGIN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Regarding what? Bringing troops in?
NAGIN: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the -- I was abdicating a clear chain of command, so that we could get resources flowing in the right places.
S. O'BRIEN: And the governor said no.
NAGIN: She said that she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn't happen, and more people died.
A Blog of Current Events and Ancient Issues.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
MAYOR AND GOVERNOR RIFT
3 comments:
WOW. What is most remarkable to me is not that Blanco would stall - that has long been her deliberative style and reputation - but that Nagin would sell her out so cheaply. His lack of leadership has been appalling.
BTW, didn't Bush declare LA and MS disaster areas well in advance of landfall? All Blanco had to do was issue a request for specific types of aid.
And lost amid all the media hype is the fact that FEMA is not a first-responder unit. FEMA does well what it does - taking care of the mess after the fact. Only local authorities can handle local evacuations in advance of landfall.
Nagin is quoted as "abdicating a clear chain of command." Did he mean "advocating"? If so, misquote or Freudian slip?
Yeah, E. I didn't catch that. He meant advocating. The sentence just doesn't make sense the way he said it.
You know a situation is breaking down when the Democrat Mayor blames the Democrat Governor. Everyone is looking for cover now.
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