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Sen. Mary Landrieu
(D-La.)
FOX News Sunday
Interview with Chris Wallace
on Response to Hurrican Katrina
September 11,
2005
CHRIS WALLACE: Was it
incompetent and insulting for Mayor Ray Nagin to order a mandatory
evacuation, but then to leave buses — and we have a picture of them —
hundreds of buses idle, so that they could be flooded, instead of using
them to get people out.
MARY LANDRIEU: Well, Chris,
I was there, as you know, through the whole ordeal with state and local
officials, and was right there with Louisiana Democrats and Republicans,
city council members, police chiefs, mayors, the governors, and could
watch what Haley Barbour was doing and Governor Riley in Alabama.
I am not going to level criticism at the local level. These people did…
WALLACE: But I’d like you to
answer, if you could, this one specific question.
LANDRIEU: Well, I will. I
will answer it. I am not going to level criticism at local and state
officials. Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time
getting their people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out
of the city in front of a hurricane. And it’s because this
administration and administrations before them do not understand the
difficulties that mayors — whether they are in Orlando, Miami, or New
Orleans — face.
(CROSSTALK)
LANDRIEU: In other words,
this administration did not believe in mass transit. They won’t even get
people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out…
WALLACE: But Senator, there
were hundreds of buses sitting in that parking lot. Can I just ask the
question? Well, look in the picture here. There were hundreds of
buses in parking lots. The city and the state.
LANDRIEU: That is
underwater. Those…
WALLACE: It wasn’t
underwater before the…
LANDRIEU: Those buses were
underwater. Those buses…
WALLACE: They weren’t
underwater on Saturday; they weren’t underwater on Sunday.
LANDRIEU: We had two
catastrophes. We had a hurricane and then we had a levee break.
When the levee broke, not only did New Orleans go underwater, but St.
Bernard when underwater and St. Tammany Parish went underwater.
WALLACE: But they weren’t
underwater on Sunday.
LANDRIEU: And Plaquemines
went underwater. And because the mayor evacuated the city, we had the
best evacuation between Haley Barbour and Kathleen Blanco of any
evacuation I’ve seen. I’m 50 years old; I’ve never seen one any
better.
WALLACE: But there were a
hundred thousand people left in the city.
LANDRIEU: They did a hundred
thousand people left in the city because this federal government won’t
support cities to evacuate people, whether it’s from earthquakes,
tornadoes, or hurricanes. And that’s the truth. And that will come
out in the hearing.
And let me say one thing I do
agree with David about — and we agree with many things; he and I have
worked very closely together this week — everyone will be held
accountable. The president himself will be held accountable. This
administration; I will be held accountable; Senator Vitter will be held
accountable; and all state and local officials.
Now is not the time for
finger-pointing. Now is the time to rebuild. So, I’m asking the
White House to stop sending out press releases blaming local and state
officials.
WALLACE: But, Senator — I’m
sorry. This works better if I get to ask some questions here.
LANDRIEU: I know. That
would be fine.
WALLACE: OK, thank you.
But you’re the one who’s done the finger-pointing. You were the
one who, on the Senate floor, talked about the federal response being
incompetent and insulting to the people of Louisiana. You were the
one — if I might — and, I want to ask you, also, because you’ve also
pointed the finger at the Bush administration for failing to spend
enough on flood control.
Here’s what you said this week on
the Senate floor. Let’s take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LANDRIEU: They gambled that
no one would notice if Louisiana’s critical and vital role in our
national economy was threatened. And Washington rolled the dice
and Louisiana lost.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: But here is what
the Washington Post found in an article this week, Senator. And
let’s put that up on the screen if we can: “The Bush
administration’s funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control
projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton
Administration’s for its past five years.”
And, Senator, the article went on
to say that Louisiana politicians, in too many cases, were involved in
pork, rather than in trying to protect the city of New Orleans.
And let’s go back to the article. Let’s put up another part of it:
“For example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of
Iberia flunked a Corps…” — that’s an Army Corps of Engineer
— “… cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu tucked language
into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its
calculations.”
So, question, Senator: Is it
just the president who gambled and lost or, frankly, did a lot of
Louisiana politicians, including you?
LANDRIEU: The president
gambled and lost, and I’ll tell you why, if you’ll let me answer this
question. Number one, it is true that the president gave slightly
more than Bill Clinton. But what is also true is Bill Clinton was
running the largest deficit created by the Reagan administration before
him and the Bush administration before him.
President Bush was running a
surplus. Yet, when he had a surplus, he didn’t invest it in levees
and flood protection for people from Miami to Orlando to New Orleans to
Biloxi or to Mobile. He had other priorities.
And I have a letter I will submit
to Fox Network.
Number two, on the issue…
WALLACE: We’ve only got
about 30 seconds left.
LANDRIEU: OK. On the
issue of that project: I’ll tell you what that project was, that
project of two ports in Louisiana. We have oil in Louisiana.
My guys can’t build the fabrications because they’re being built in
Korea and Indonesia. So, I thought: If you’re taking our
oil, for God’s sakes, give us the jobs.
So, I put that in for the people
of my state, so they could build the oil rigs that take the oil out of
the ground. I will make no apologies for it and the Washington
Post is wrong.
WALLACE: Senator Vitter, Senator
Landrieu. We want to thank you both. We’re going to have to
leave it there. And our thoughts and prayers go out to the people
of your state. Thank you so much.
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