Hotmail
Messenger
My MSN
MSN Directory
Transcript for February 19
MEET THE PRESS NETCAST & PODCAST |
Get Meet the Press when & how you want Click here to see Sunday's MTP netcast. (After 1pm ET each Sunday) |
Related Stories |
SEC’Y CHERTOFF: Well, actually, I think what I said is that they’d been breached over night, Monday night. And we now know the levees began to be breached Monday morning. I think that the principle levee breach, 17th Street, we still haven’t pinpointed the exact time of the breach.
This was really the biggest failure, I think, of the department in Katrina was the inability to get ground troops from New Orleans. The fact that we didn’t have assets on the ground, trained people, proper equipment, to immediately send back messages about what was going on. And that’s one thing we have already begun to fix. We’ve trained and recruited law enforcement personnel. We are acquiring the kinds of very sophisticated satellite gear that let us beam things directly back to headquarters. We’ve got better aerial assets, and we’re integrating better with the military in terms of things like satellite capability and overflying P3s and other kinds of aircraft.
MR. RUSSERT: But FEMA knew on Monday morning that a levee had been breached. I was somewhat taken back by this testimony from Michael Brown before the Senate. “Question: You’re telling us that a conversation directly with Secretary Chertoff would not have produced any kind of worthwhile results? Brown: No, it would have wasted my time.”
SEC’Y CHERTOFF: I think that was a big mistake on Mike Brown’s part. I mean, we had the ability to bring in all kinds of assets at the department. On the Sunday before the hurricane struck, I sat on a video conference and heard everybody go through the very extensive list of supplies that had been pre- positioned. And at the end, I asked two questions, I said, “Is there anything you need from us, Coast Guard, law enforcement, anything that you don’t have?” And I was told, “We’ve got everything we need.” And I asked about the Department of Defense, I said, “Is there something we need to do to help you there?” And was told that the Department of Defense was sitting at the table, and they were engaged.
I think that had we gotten earlier notice, we could have done more to help. But I also think, Tim, we have to acknowledge that this hurricane was simply overwhelming, and you will never have a catastrophe of this magnitude that will not have its problems and not have its suffering and not have its pain. So we aspire to do a lot better, but we also have to be realistic about the nature of the challenge.
MR. RUSSERT: But the Thursday of the hurricane, four, five days into it, you began to have your doubts about FEMA and its leadership, and this is what you said before the Congress.
(Videotape, February 15, 2006)
SEC’Y CHERTOFF: Thursday night, I began to—I asked myself, “Are we dealing with a situation where it’s not just the inherent, overwhelming challenge, but that maybe, despite good intentions, Mr. Brown is really not up to this.”
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: “Mike Brown not up to this.” The very next day, the president came down to the Gulf region, and here you are on the screen—right of the screen in the purple shirt, Mr. Brown in the middle, the president on the left. And this is where the president uttered these now-infamous words. Let’s listen.
(Videotape, September 2, 2005)
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: The president is saying he’s doing a heck of a job; the night before, you’re saying, “I don’t think the guy’s up to it.” Why didn’t you tell the president?
SEC’Y CHERTOFF: Well, again, I never get into conversations with the president. But I do think the context of that remark is that Brown had been up for, you know, practically every night for the last few days. I think whatever my judgment was about whether his skills were matched to the challenge, I think certainly everybody believed at that point he was doing his best. And I think this is really an effort to kind of buck the troops up, recognize the fact that everybody was really exhausted and working hard. And the fact is, we were in the middle—still very much in the middle of the event, and we needed to keep people’s spirits up, so I think you’ve got to look at this as—in the context of a recognition that everybody was really exhausted and overwhelmed by the nature of the challenge.
MR. RUSSERT: Was it an attempt to spin the American people? Things on the ground were in such stark reality to what the official pronouncements coming out of the government were?
SEC’Y CHERTOFF: No, I think—I think, you know, when you are in a disaster, you actually look people in the eyes, and you see how they’re working their hearts out. And even if it—if they haven’t done the kind of job that you wish they could have done. As a human matter, I think you want to reach out, you want to, you know, pat them on the back, you want to buck them up. I don’t think that’s the time to start to engage in finger pointing or in—in, you know, giving brutal assessments about people’s performance.
MR. RUSSERT: Taxpayers are obviously very concerned about where their money’s going. There’ve been a series of reports this week about some of the federal money that was spent on Katrina. The Government Accountability Office said this: “The government squandered millions of dollars in Katrina disaster aid, including handing $2,000 debit cards to people who gave phoney Social Security numbers. Recipients improperly used their debit cards instead—intended for food and shelter for $400 massages, a $450 tattoo, $1100 diamond engagement ring and $150 worth of products at Condoms to Go.”
How does that happen?
SEC’Y CHERTOFF: Well, let me break this into two parts. Let me first say that there’s actually good news in that we have fixed the problem of people being able to call up with phony Social Security card numbers because we’ve now used—we’ve engaged a kind of contractor that we used to screen online applications, and we’re now using that for telephone applications. So that’s one problem we have corrected. The second problem of people misusing funds is kind of a common issue when you deal with disasters. People are entitled by law to receive a certain amount of compensation, money for food, and—and clothing and shelter. Inevitably, some people are going do misuse that. And unless we move to a voucher system, which would be a very cumbersome system, we have to try to balance the urgency of getting people some money so they’re not literally left starving and without clothing against the fact that there will always be some scoundrels who will misuse the money or try to defraud us. And those people we obviously need to prosecute and punish.
MR. RUSSERT: There are some misjudgments that were made, however, that were not scoundrels, it appears to be your department. Look at this: “Mobile homes worth hundreds of millions of dollars are deteriorating in a muddy field in Arkansas and may never be used to house victims of Hurricane Katrina because of a dispute over where to install them, federal officials acknowledged. Only about 2700 of the 25,000 mobile homes ordered at a cost of $850 million have been installed, and at least 10,000 are sitting in Hope, Arkansas, according to documents and statements from FEMA officials. Though about 55,000 Louisiana families are still waiting for a manufactured housing unit, the mobile homes may never be used because FEMA regulations prohibit them from being installed in flood-prone coastal areas, federal officials said.” $850 million in mobile homes that can’t be used.
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
- Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM MEET THE PRESS |
 Meet the Press Section Front |
| Add Meet the Press headlines to your news reader: |