Barbour: The federal government has been a tremendous partner in this. They have helped ...
O'Brien: Governor Barbour, surely there was enough knowledge in advance that this was a huge killer storm a matter of days, not hours, before it ever struck landfall. And it seems to me the military ...
Barbour: Now, Miles, if this is an interview or an argument, I don't care. But if you want to let me tell you what I think, I will.
O'Brien: OK, go ahead.
Barbour: And what I think is this storm strengthened in the Gulf. We begged the people to leave, and thousands of people left. Thousands of people left New Orleans. The federal government came in here from the first minute - in fact, in advance. They have been tremendously helpful, whether it's the Coast Guard, the Corps of Engineers, FEMA.
O'Brien: But ...
Barbour: I don't think it's at all fair ...
O'Brien: But ...
Barbour: ... and I'm not going to agree to that, because I don't believe it's true.
O'Brien: But conspicuously absent from that short list you just gave us was the military, the Pentagon. This is a type of situation that cries out for the kind of support, the kind of logistics, the kind of coordination the military is ideally suited for. Why weren't more military assets prepositioned and ready for the possibility here?
Barbour: We prepositioned more than 1,000 National Guard, 175 on the coastal counties, 1,000 more 60 miles inland, so that they wouldn't be swept away in the storm. And as soon as it became clear where the storm was going to hit, even Alabama had sent us National Guard. Pennsylvania has offered us and is sending us 2,500 National Guard.
O'Brien: But ...
Barbour: Would I have liked to have had 5,000 National Guard on the ground on Tuesday morning? Yes, that's not - other states are not going to give up their National Guard until they see what's happening to them. I don't blame them.
O'Brien: But I'm talking about assets, like, you know, amphibious vehicles that the Navy has. It has helicopter support, hospital support, the ability to generate power, that sort of thing. We haven't seen that kind of thing, the kind of thing we saw, incidentally, in the wake of the tsunami.
Barbour: Well, I'm not going to be critical of what the federal government has done. We're very grateful for it. You know, it's easy to go back and pick the bones, but we feel like they have tried very hard.
This is the worst natural disaster that's ever struck the United States. Everybody down here is trying hard. Everybody is tired and fractious. So, I don't want to argue with you about it. But a lot of people from all over the country are helping us, and we really appreciate them, because we're making progress. And we're going to recover from what has been a grievous blow to our state, not just the coast. And we're going to rebuild, and it's going to be bigger and better than ever. But we're not going to do it by nitpicking.
O'Brien: Governor Haley Barbour, Mississippi. Thank you for your time, sir.
Barbour: Thank you, Miles. |