MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript
MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
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SCARBOROUGH: Good for him.
Earlier, I talked to Congressman Robert Wexler from Florida and Republican Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee.
And I started out by asking Congressman Wexler who is to blame and how to get to the bottom of this entire debacle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. ROBERT WEXLER (D), FLORIDA: We need an independent commission, like the 9/11 Commission, which can objectively define what went wrong, what went right, and how we fix it. And I think all Americans would appreciate that type of analysis.
SCARBOROUGH: Marsha, I am going to ask you the same question I asked Robert. Do you agree with me that the Republican administration in Washington, D.C., as well as the Democratic administration in Louisiana, the Democratic mayor in New Orleans, and the Republican administration in Mississippi all share blame for this tragedy?
REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: I do disagree with my colleague. He is calling for a 9/11-type commission.
I will remind him, its the 9/11 Commission that suggested putting FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security. I think that we as members of Congress are elected by the people to address issues that affect them. It is our job to find out what went wrong and then to correct it. That is something that we should not shirk away from, we should not shy away from.
We should accept that responsibility. And on behalf of our constituents and every citizen in this great land, we need to make it our task to find out how we make certain that that partnership is responding appropriately at the local, at the state, and at the federal level.
SCARBOROUGH: Robert, respond to that.
WEXLER: FEMA needs to be its own agency. The director of FEMA ought to report to one person and one person alone, the president of the United States.
But why do I call for a 9/11-type commission? Because we know that, if we have a congressional inquiry, there will not be that objectivity that I believe the American people so desperately want when we are talking about a national catastrophe of this sort.
SCARBOROUGH: And, Robert, this is something that I dont understand, Robert. I still havent really been able to figure it out. All I can guess is that its because of Jeb Bush. And before Jeb, it was because of Lawton Chiles.
But, you know, FEMA has run these hurricane operations fairly efficiently in the state of Florida over the past five, six, seven years. And, last year alone in Florida, you had Director Brown running four very effective operations. And yet, one year later, he botches the biggest storm ever. What is the difference between 2004 and 2005?
(CROSSTALK)
WEXLER: I would disagree, Joe.
I would agree that the state of Florida, with Jeb Bush at the helm, ran very effective hurricane recovery and operations. Theres no doubt about that. Governor Bush worked well with the local officials. I called for Mr. Browns resignation in January of this year, when it was discovered that FEMA paid out more than $30 million to people in Miami-Dade, when there was no storm in Miami-Dade.
There have been fraudulent payments to the tune of tens of millions of dollars going from FEMA to people in Florida. What was most upsetting, when Mr. Brown was shown that there was, in fact, fraudulent payments, he denied it and refused to do anything. There was then a Senate inquiry and report which showed and confirmed the same type of fraudulent payments. The president did nothing.
I then asked Mr. Chertoff to remove Mr. Brawn because FEMA was mismanaged in a very gross way, in terms of misabusingor abusing taxpayer moneys. Mr. Chertoff did nothing. And here we have the result in New Orleans. The unfortunate reality is that FEMA has been run by an individual and surrounded by others that have little or no experience in emergency management.
The state of Florida, under Governor Jeb Bush, did an excellent job.
That wasnt the case in the context of the leadership from FEMA.
SCARBOROUGH: Marsha, final question. I want to ask you. And I understand that, right now, we are all engaged. We are all focused on helping the people of Mississippi and Louisiana recover, and some in Alabama.
BLACKBURN: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: But let me ask you tonight, in your opinion, and in the opinion of most Republican members of Congress, who bears the greatest responsibility for the failures of this hurricane relief and recovery operation?
BLACKBURN: I will tell you, Joe, I think that you can look at the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, and at FEMA and the response that was there, and say something didnt flow the way it was supposed to flow.
I think that what we have to do, as we say, theres going to be plenty of time for all of this to come out as to exactly where the blame lays for certain shortcomings. Who didnt order school buses to get people out? Who wouldnt turn over the National Guard to the president? Who would not issue a mandatory evacuation? Those are all questions that do need to be answered. I agree completely with you.
SCARBOROUGH: All right. Well, I will tell you what. We can all agree there are a lot of people suffering out there. And, unfortunately, in many cases, its the poorest and the oldest or the youngest.
BLACKBURN: Yes.
SCARBOROUGH: The people that can afford this type of disaster affecting their lives the least.
Robert, thank you so much for being with us.
WEXLER: Thank you.
SCARBOROUGH: Marsha, thank you, too.
BLACKBURN: Thank you.
SCARBOROUGH: Greatly appreciate it.
Good seeing both of you again.
BLACKBURN: Good to see you. Thank you.
WEXLER: Likewise.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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