MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript
MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
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SCARBOROUGH: All right, Tony, thanks so much for being with us. I greatly appreciate your insight. I know millions of Americans tonight also greatly appreciate it, too.
And I want to echo what Tony said. And we heard it from Trent Lott also. A lot of these bureaucracies, whether its FEMA or some of the bigger private organizations, it seems, as Trent Lott said, that their first answer is always no. And, as Trent said, they need to learn to start saying yes more. They need to learn that there are people out there who are suffering. And you know what? If it aint in the rule book, and the rule book is not working, throw out the rule book and do whatever you can to help the truly disadvantaged.
I will tell you, we are having to do it tomorrow. We are getting in -
we are packing up a caravan. We are going over to a string of small cities along Mississippis Gulf Coast that have been forgotten, small towns, and we are going to make an impact. But I will guarantee you, we are going to have to do it by going around all of the bureaucracies, because, if you are not in their gang, they want nothing to do with you. And, a lot of times, they will stand in the way.
And I will talk about that in the next segment with a doctor that wants to get 10,000 tetanus shots over there, but, again, the bureaucracy is standing in the way.
Let me bring in right now Louisiana Senator David Vitter to talk about, well, some of the situations we are talking about.
Senator, thank you so much for being with us.
What can we do to help the people that are most affected? And forget about whether FEMA gets the credit or MEMA gets the credit or the Red Cross gets the credit or Homeland Security gets the credit. How do we break through these bureaucracies to help the people who tonight, David, as you know, are still suffering, still sick...
SEN. DAVID VITTER ®, LOUISIANA: Absolutely.
SCARBOROUGH: ... still in danger of getting diseases...
VITTER: Absolutely.
SCARBOROUGH: ... and dying? How do we do that?
VITTER: Well, short term, what I have been doing is focusing on what works.
The military works, and so I have been pushing to get them more and more assignments, because they have a can-do attitude. They are the only part of big federal government or big state government that really works, because of their mind-set and positive culture. So, I have been trying to push things to them.
And private citizens, private folks, churches, community groups, they work. And so we need to empower them and let them work. And, Joe, you are exactly right. FEMA has been getting in the way of that. The first thing we need to do is take these bureaucracies, state and federal, out of the way and let these private groups and citizens get it done.
SCARBOROUGH: Hey, David, I want you to stay with us. I have got a lot to talk to you about regarding New Orleans. Obviously, there are corpses that are decaying in the streets of your town, and a lot of people talking about how the city may be shut down for a long time. We are still seeing the death count rise.
We are going to be talking about that, the toxins that are streaming through the city streets and much more when SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY returns.
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SCARBOROUGH: Early morning, last Monday, Katrina crashes onshore and destroys Biloxi and surrounding areas. We have amazing new video to show you. Its just coming in to us. We will show that to you and much more when we return.
But, first, heres the latest news you and your family need to know.
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SCARBOROUGH: The heroes from September 11 come to New Orleans to help. We are going to be talking live to some of New York Citys bravest about their latest mission.
And, tonight, hundreds of children missing, tragically separated from their moms and dads, what is being done to reunite them? We are going to be talking about that and much more.
Welcome back to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY. Those stories in just minutes.
But, again, I want to go back to what we have been talking about the first half-hour. And I am not here reallyIm not here to assign blame. This is not about the blame game. This is trying to figure out what went wrong and how we can make things better in the future. Like I said before, I have had a lot of my Republican friends calling me up, saying, I thought you liked the president. Why are you attacking him?
I am not attacking the president of the United States because I dont like him. And I always say this. If my mom were in charge of FEMA, responsible for FEMA, and she were slow to react, I would have to tell you about it, because, friends, whether you are in Iowa or Kansas or California or New York, you know what? When a natural disaster strikes your hometown and the federal government gets paid taxes to take care of you in your greatest time of need, its my responsibility at that point to shine the light on the truth of the situation on the ground, just like Tony Perkins, one of the most loyal George Bush supporters that I know, that I have ever had on this show.
He is on the ground. He has seen that there are serious problems. I have been on the ground in Mississippi. I have seen, there have been serious problems. Its not just about George Bush. Its about FEMA. Its about MEMA. Its aboutits about all of these other organizations that arent doing their jobs.
Friends, we have got to make sure this mess gets cleaned up. Lets not point fingers. Lets just fix the problem.
Now, one of the people thats going to be responsible for helping fix this problem and somebody who I know is going to be taking a lead is U.S. Senator David Vitter, Republican from Louisiana.
And, Senator, I have been very frustrated, obviously, with whats been going on, on the ground. I know you have, too.
Can you just explain to our friends across America what we need to do to overcome this bureaucracy on all levels that, lets face it, has probably cost lives in New Orleans and Mississippi.
VITTER: ... probably. Absolutely, Joe.
And let me say amen to everything you have been saying. You know, I think we turned the corner last Friday, but the reason we did itand we need to be clear about thisis because we made it a massive military operation. It was basically the biggest work-around in human history. And so, you still have this bureaucracy that I dont see changing nearly quickly enough.
I was in outlying areas today that have been hit by this devastation, Washington Parish, St. Tammany Parish on the north shore. Yesterday, I was in similar areas, Tangipahoa and St. Helena Parish on the north shore. And the bureaucracy still isnt changing. And it needs to change immediately, state and federal. Again, we turned the corner because we threw military assets at this, and they have a completely different attitude and culture.
They dont say no. They say, yes, sir. But we also need to fix these bureaucracies, because, medium long term, they are still going to be in charge of temporary housing and all these big issues that are the next phase of this challenge.
SCARBOROUGH: And, as you have said, you talk about that can-do attitude. The military seems to have it, and, as I quoted Republican Senator Trent Lott from Mississippi saying, with these federal bureaucracies, it seems their first answer is always no. And he said, they need to learn how to start saying yes, because there are so many people still out there suffering.
I want to ask you, Senator, about your hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana, obviously hit tragically by this storm. Right now, the military is going through. They are trying to force the evacuation of the remaining 10,000 people in town. Do you believe that is the only way to make sure that these people are safe from all the diseases that are sure to rise up because of the toxic soup that they are all living in?
VITTER: Yes.
When we are talking about the highly flooded areas of the city of New Orleans, absolutely yes. And I know its difficult for some folks to accept, but its absolutely necessary. Now, in contrast to that, there are other areas that were hit, like Jefferson Parish, where thats not the case. They are not quite ready to be inhabited yet, but they are going to come back a lot more quickly.
So, its a very mixed bag, and its different area to area. But, yes, the areas you are talking about in the city of New Orleans, where you have high levels of flooding, yes, they need to be fully evacuated.
SCARBOROUGH: David, final question. We are seeing a lot of images of corpses that are still being brought out of New Orleans, some trapped in hospitals. Doug Brinkley talked about corpses in the street, littering the streets, last night. Do we have any new death count? I know a lot of people are talking about the possibility of 10,000 people dying. But have there been any updates on the casualty count out of your town?
VITTER: They are updating that as those bodies are absolutely verified.
And I honestly dont know what the exact figure is now. But its clearly going to go a lot higher. Do we have any very good sense of where its going to end up? No, we really dont. I know I said independently taking a wild guess, when things were looking really bad, it could reach 10,000. The mayor independently said the same thing. I certainly hope and pray that, on this, I am very wrong.
SCARBOROUGH: All right, Senator, we hope you are wrong, too. Unfortunately, usually, you are not. Thanks for being with us again, Senator David Vitter. Greatly appreciate it.
VITTER: Thank you, Joe. Thanks.
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