MSNBC The Situation - Transcript
MSNBC The Situation - Transcript
Friday, September 2, 2005
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CARLSON: Well, we go now, as promised, to Congressman William Jefferson, who joins us by phone.
Mr. Jefferson, are you there?
REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON (D), LOUSIANA: Yes, I'm here.
CARLSON: Thanks a lot. What do you make of the cleanup efforts, how do you think it's going?
JEFFERSON: Well, it's picked up in the last 24 hours, let's just say. It's just been a tough experience before that. I mean, the biggest deal was to try and rescue people and make them-and we're still in a rescue effort. I'm watching helicopters fly above my city. It's absolutely stunning. I'm astounded that we-with these conditions that are prevailing here that they are, and we're trying to pick people out of the water and off their rooftops and from their homes, and it's just extraordinary. But we're here and we are working at it.
CARLSON: At what point, Congressman, did it become obvious to you that this rescue operation ought to be federalized, when did you think that first?
JEFFERSON: Well, I talk to the mayor pretty much every day. And he was frustrated, completely and totally frustrated about a lack of a chain of command that was reliable. He was made promises and then things didn't happen. And, you know, the buses here dispatched, so many busses, and they weren't there or the number wasn't correct. And we were going to have people filling in the breach in the levee and that didn't happen.
There were studies being done as we were trying to get action taken. And so there was a need to have a very orderly chain of command here that - - where you could set expectations and meet the expectations. And that's what I think we're working with now.
CARLSON: Do you think in retrospect, I know nobody likes to second guess, but sometimes it's useful, in retrospect, it would have been helpful if the governor, say, on Tuesday or even Wednesday, had publicly called for the Department of Defense, say, to come in and take over?
JEFFERSON: Well, I don't know. I think that it took the president coming down here and him listening to everybody and getting the point of view of all the folks who are involved to get that really done right. If we had turned to the Department of Defense, I don't think the president would have had as total an appreciation for all the things we're going though down here.
I do, however, believe that there should have been a plan earlier for how to get after this without having to have the president (INAUDIBLE) or (INAUDIBLE) of government intervene. It should have been a more routine matter. Now I understand there was nothing routine about this storm or about the flood, but what I'm saying is the Corps of Engineers has tremendous expertise, they go all over the world solving problems.
And to not know-to not have a plan to fill the breach of a levee break seems to me something that, as the president said, it's unacceptable and it should not have been something we suffered through.
CARLSON: Do you think, Congressman-maybe it's early to guess about this, but do you think that people will be held accountable? I know when we have had other national tragedies, the kind of idea has been, well, we're not going to cast blame or point fingers, do you think finally someone is going to, say, lose his job for mistakes that have been made?
JEFFERSON: Well, I don't know. You know, there are a lot of mistakes to talk about here. The biggest one being-our delegation every year pushed for more and more money for flood control. We already have every study in the world that tells us what we need to do to protect ourselves down here. And we don't do it because of budgetary issues, no one thinks it's important enough or not national enough. I don't know.
But our delegation has been crying about this forever and we've been pushing hard on it. And we've made some progress. But it never is enough. And frankly, the cost of fixing this problem now is going to just dwarf what it would have taken to do preventive measures.
There will be a lot of fixing of the blame, but I think, you know, by and large, I'm talking about the Corps now, but they're getting it right now. They're applying themselves, they're putting a lot of folks in there who have a plan to pump out the city. And I'm confident the Corps has it right now. My point is they should have had it right from the very beginning.
CARLSON: Congressman, we are in the 9th Ward today in New Orleans, a poorer part of town, part of which is flooded. We are in the non-flooded part today. And we spoke to residents who said they still, still today.
JEFFERSON: You found another part.
CARLSON: . about three hours ago.
JEFFERSON: You found another part of the 9th Ward?
CARLSON: Yes, we sure did. And residents there said they still had not seen a single policeman or anyone in authority since before the hurricane. We talked to two different people who said that. Is there anything you can do to get law enforcement in there? There were two fires burning uncontrolled, no one on the scene when we were there. Can you do something?
JEFFERSON: Well, yesterday we made an agreement with the president and with all of his people there, the Homeland Security people, all the rest, and General (INAUDIBLE) and today General Honore and all of them, that we would have active duty soldiers and the National Guard soldiers out here kind of taking care of the rescue and the Coast Guard, taking care of the rescue efforts and taking care of getting the people and moving them out.
And then our police officers are back kind of doing their job of getting around town and making sure things are secure. We're going to have 9,000 or so regular Army people in here. We have now about 7,500 or so National Guard people. So the numbers are coming and we're getting it where we need it.
But-and of course, you know, as the president points out, it had been a long, long time, but when you're down here and people are desperate for food and water and desperate to be taken out of a bad situation, I mean, every minute is an hour for them. And we just have to-and every life is precious, and we just have move a little more just faster.
Right now, we're getting it together. I believe the Corps is applying itself, they're fixing the 17th Street Levee. I went over there yesterday and I saw what they were doing. They were working around the clock on that. And when this chain of command thing gets in place and we can actually rely on a promise, then I think the frustration will go away and we can start focusing on the big issues about getting our-getting the.
CARLSON: I think we may have lost the congressman. That was Congressman William Jefferson who represents this city. Thanks a lot, Congressman, if you can hear me.
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