ABC Tries To Get FEMA Chief To Bash Trump Then He Drops Fact Bombs On Stunned Anchor
a lot to talk with the FEMA director
with Management Agency Brock long he is
joining us this morning and we really
appreciate we know how busy that you are
and to spend some time with us to update
us and more importantly update our
viewers so what is the latest where FEMA
is concerned preparing for hurricane
Florence hi good morning so hurricane
Florence is continuing to be a major
threat to the Carolinas as well as the
mid-atlantic I think what we've seen
overnight is a shift south and so I
never look at one single forecast and
make decisions based on that we often
evaluate several forecasts in a row and
as you've seen that the trend is it's
it's continuing to dip south the
question is whether it will it continue
to do that today
and this is a highly dynamic situation
that requires constant model you know
constant monitoring we have to
continually assess the situation and
make sure that we're pre-positioned
correctly and that's what we'll do today
but the message to citizens is clear
today is your last day to get out of the
areas that have been placed under
evacuation orders if you don't do it now
your time is going to be running out and
once the impacts of this storm start to
come in it's going to be very difficult
for first responders to get to you and
you're putting your life and you're
putting yourself in danger I hope people
hear your message sir George has touched
upon this the 10 million the funds that
were moved from FEMA to ice does that
affect your preparations at all the loss
of that that money no not at all it's
just an attempt to divert away from the
life safety issues at Florence it does
not come out of the disaster relief fund
it funds everything behind me that funds
everything in the field so it's a it's a
non-issue for us at this moment you're
actually from North Carolina so when you
are are telling people to to take cover
to get out to evacuate you know when you
speak of you were there for Hugo and 89
so it's not just as a FEMA director it's
also as a native of that area that
you're getting this message out that's
true I grew up in North Carolina about
five hours inland in Catawba County
North Carolina Hugo was moving at 26
miles an hour and if you know a her
typically holds its strength it loses
half its strength 12 hours after
landfall so as it was coming in it was
still a cat one over my house in North
Carolina and we had multiple trees down
we were out of power for multiple days
and this is setting up to be somewhat
like that this is going to be a big hit
with storm surge at the coast the worst
place to be is just north of the Isle on
the coast wherever the eye makes
landfall that's where you're gonna see
the ocean rise above 13 feet you're
gonna have damaging waves on top of that
but this is going to be unique from the
stand point that and you know the four
and five day forecast points is forecast
to lose its steering currents stall out
and we're looking at rain upwards of 30
inches in localized areas across the
Carolinas and so this is not something
to be taken lightly
the whole entire state of North Carolina
and South Carolina could be impacted by
this event in areas that are already
have received so so much rain so at this
hour what is your biggest concern right
now it's just we have to set citizen
expectations
here again it goes back to heed those
warnings uh this is nothing to be played
with particularly if you live in an area
that is vulnerable to storm surge where
the ocean this is wind driven water that
piles up in the Back Bay inland areas
and along the coast people do not live
and survive to tell the tale about what
their experience is like with storm
surge you know it's the most deadly part
of the hurricane that comes in it causes
the most amount of destruction but as
this moves in inland you know 15 20 30
inches of rain over a very short period
of time you're gonna see inland flooding
we ask people to stay out out of out of
flooded areas and shelter in place and
just be very careful please heed the
warnings heed the warnings a final
question this is something that Cecilia
and Jorge touched upon and it was a
statements that President Trump made
yesterday and also tweeting today
talking about the efforts after
Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico calling
it an incredible unsung success do you
agree with that look you know the effort
into Puerto Rico was a huge effort by
the federal government the problem is is
that FEMA is the only responder going in
and we were we were the first responder
and that's not the way that disaster
response to recovery works what you're
seeing set up now for Florence is that
you have
stayed strong you have strong state
government capabilities you have strong
local capabilities and that emergency
response and recovery is a team sport
it's a whole community effort it takes
everybody from neighbor helping neighbor
to the federal government going into
Puerto Rico we were the first responder
and only responder as I said and that's
not ideal so what are we doing to
correct that you know we have we've
hired over 1800 local Puerto Rican
citizens to start building a backbone of
Emergency Management at the Commonwealth
and local level that did not exist
before the storm and so the other thing
is is that we need to shift the
narrative about Puerto Rico to what are
we going to do with the 50 billion
dollars that FEMA is going to provide
Puerto Rico over the next couple of
years and billions more from other
federal government agencies Puerto Rico
has never had a better opportunity than
now to become more resilient and
economically viable and the question is
is that you know how do we go back in
build a resilient infrastructure and
that's what we're concentrating on we're
working with the governor day in and day
out to build a resilient infrastructure
the question is what are the provisions
that will be put into place that doesn't
allow Puerto Rico to let their
infrastructure crumble we face a
crumbling infrastructure it was rotted
in decayed and FEMA can't help that we
have to deal with the head of the deck
of cards that we've been dealt all right
thank you so much Brock long and and
hopefully there were lessons that were
learned and I know that it's a very busy
day for you and everyone there behind
you with me and we appreciate your time
all the best thank you and this morning
we have a team a director on door
America responding to this I want to
listen to what he had to say and then
ask you guys what you thought about it
so let's listen to that the 10 million
the funds that were moved from FEMA to
ice does that affect your preparations
at all the loss of that that money no
not at all it's just an attempt to
divert away from the life safety issues
at Florence it does not come out of the
disaster relief fund that funds
everything behind me that funds
everything in the field so it's a it's a
non-issue for us at this moment so a non
issue ally you think he's right yeah so
this is 10 billion Darce Cuse me 10
million dollars that came from
FEMA's operational budget and so that is
administration administrative cost
Senator Merkley called this a scandal
but it may actually be more of a case of
bureaucratic sausage-making
these are funds that are totally
separate from a twenty five billion
dollar disaster relief fund that also
exists that is separate from this and
tom was saying off-camera that it may
actually be a lot more money than that
and also the other thing to keep in mind
is that yes ten million dollars sounds
like a lot of money because it is a lot
of money if you're dealing with disaster
exactly I mean you consider giving that
money to Puerto Rico recovery efforts
would be a huge boon however this is
again money that was never meant to be
spent directly on disaster relief so
doesn't mean a home basket it's not
gonna get built somewhere necessary it's
not the denial of those services this is
a totally different bucket of money how
do you write advisor in this White House
is this political spinners is a real
story it's political spin the Department
of Homeland Security has an over forty
billion dollar annual budget so they put
it in perspective we're not talking
about ten million compared to the
disaster relief fund or even to FEMA's
one billion dollar appropriations we're
talking about internal moving of money
and a forty billion dollar so we get
that I think we're in agreement that may
not be the scandal here but I think
what's people what's rubbing people the
wrong way is the the comments from
yesterday the this is an unsung success
Justin you're just taking my next
question okay I think you're exactly
right yeah and and and giving himself a
plus grades from a mystery group of
people that haven't given him these
screams okay but let's take a moment
let's fill people and yesterday what
Jess ins was referring to at the White
House the president was asked about the
White House's response to the disaster
in Puerto Rico a year ago the response
to Hurricane Maria he said it was an
unsung success a huge success we're
gonna get into it more later but he's
been in a political Twitter battle with
the mayor of San Juan again what do you
guys make of this Tom was it an unsung
success in Puerto Rico yep absolutely
and here's the thing there's a lot of
empathy that we need to put behind this
answer so I'll try to do that very
quickly there's the loss of life there's
suffering that continues there were
conditions that were deplorable in
Puerto Rico that predate the storm that
require a whole lot of extra attention
that wouldn't normally accompany a storm
and its recovery but the actual
mobilization and logistics effort that
went into sending in federal and
volunteer resources into that island
right after Puerto Rico was not only a
huge effort it was unprecedented and it
was
run and it saved a lot of lives and of
course FEMA that's after actually were
current from suggesting that we've
gotten ourselves a year to date back
into a position in which things are rosy
in Puerto Rico in fact it took more than
ten years to recover after Katrina and
so there's a whole sense of moving
goalposts on what the president's trying
to take credit for and they're trying to
make him look like he's not
compassionate in this regard well I
think he didn't look too compassionate
to be honest he talks about a success
and he doesn't mention some of these
things I mean 83% of residents reported
in a kind of Russian post poll that came
out this week that their lives were
dramatically impacted by employment
setbacks worsening health problems
damage to homes pop loss of power for
over three months and that's almost
every single resident I mean the idea
that you can talk about the success even
if there was unprecedented response when
there was also so much hurt so much loss
of life is just makes him sort of look a
little cold I think that people were
responding to I think that's fair but
you know it's it's like the nomenclature
issue we just talked about a moment ago
it sounds like a ten million dollar
scandal at first until you dig into it
and learn the scale and the context of
it when you talk about the nomenclature
here we separate the mitigation of
planning from the response effort the
life-saving effort that we're going to
mobilize here for florence and
conversely what we mobilize for Puerto
Rico right after the storm and then we
talk about recovery separately the
recovery efforts are plagued with
bureaucracy and slowness and distrust
among contractors and people that spend
public money and on behalf of public
elected officials who are there to put
trust measures in place and so now at
this point it's almost a no-win game for
him but he's I think rightfully proud of
what he mobilized to respond and do the
life-saving mission in Puerto Rico and
so he took a little credit for it I
think maybe he's getting a little blame
but something that Tom said right at the
beginning of what you said was I want to
put some empathy behind the president's
statement I think just underscores that
it's got to be frustrating for the folks
that are communicating these things
within the White House to make the
points that Tom is making and finesse
the points that the president's making
I'm sorry to interrupt you but it's been
a lot of time in Puerto Rico and with
the people of Puerto Rico and with the
governor and they need to know that from
my experience the president does have
that behind-the-scenes off-camera
empathy for them he sent me down there a
lot and what their
dealing with I would report back to him
and he couldn't fathom it right so he
does have that sense and they should
hear that well I want to bring in I want
to bring in more of our colleagues
everyone's talking about this today it
rode a logical the wrong way raised a
lot of eyebrows and Democrats on Capitol
Hill Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer was demanding an apology from
the president I want to bring in John
Parkinson our colleague up there John
what has the response been to the
president's comments on Puerto Rico and
our lawmakers going to continue to push
him on this you know we haven't seen
that much oversight on the response from
Puerto Rico if they're really upset is
there more they should be doing
yeah the Democrats have really been you
know condemning the president's comments
I spoke with Steny Hoyer the House
Democratic whip today he's very critical
of the president's comments that this is
an unsung success I think from the other
Democrats you know I talked to GK
Butterfield yesterday a Democrat from
North Carolina ahead of the storm and
while he's bracing for its landfall he
tells me that he's pretty confident in
what the first responders have done for
preparations he wants to get out of the
way let them do their job and then when
he sees problems come up that's when
he's going to step in and conduct that
oversight and so in the next few days
are you expecting lawmakers to be out
there be be in front of the cameras or
is this a moment where they really try
to take a back seat like you said sort
of is there a way to support local
authorities from behind the scenes yeah
you know some some Republicans and
Democrats that I talked with yesterday
down in South and North Carolina they
just told me that they want to be able
to be a means of communications to their
constituents when the first responders
need to get a message out they want to
be able to use the third reach to their
constituency to help convey that message
and they're really underscoring really
the dangers of this storm right you
might see a couple of inches of rain in
the first couple of days but this is
something that's going to have impact
for for weeks on end and they're really
concern that even just a couple of
inches could cause widespread damage and
widespread flooding
all right well John stick with us
because we're gonna pivot to politics
and I know you have no shortage of
thoughts and opinions on that but I want
to say goodbye to Tom bass our NBC News
contributor former advisor are there at
the White House and Ally Rubin thank you
so much over you gonna stick with us you
can talk politics too I can stick around
okay we're going to keep chit-chatting
but Tom thank you so much thank you god
bless you and god bless him
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