Louisiana Gov. Destroys GOP Faux Outrage Over Obama Not Going To Baton Rouge Sooner

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:04 pm

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Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards debunked the Republican outrage over President Obama not visiting flood-ravaged Baton Rouge sooner.

Video:

Transcript via CNN State Of The Union:

BASH: Now, following Trump’s visit the White House announced that President Obama will travel there on Tuesday. That came after a local paper, “The Advocate,” that you’re familiar with, published an editorial calling on the president to cut his vacation short and come down.

Now you defended the president saying that you’d rather him delay his visit to preserve resources. I just want to be clear did you ask the White House not to come down? Did they want to come?

EDWARDS: I would never ask the White House not to do what the president wants to do.

BASH: Did the White House want to come down earlier?

EDWARDS: But I’ve been talk (ph) — the White House asked me — in fact, the president and Valerie Jarrett asked me when would be a good time for a visit. I asked them to let us get out of the response mode where we were still conducting searches of houses, and we were still making rescues. I didn’t want to divert these police officers, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers and other essential resources and assets to providing security for the president while they were needed in this region to undergo those — or to undertake those response activities. And I asked that if he could wait until the response was over and we got into the recovery phase, which I predicted we would do over the weekend and certainly next week would be a better time for us to visit. But the president is welcome to come to our state anytime that he wants to.

The Republican faux outrage over Obama not going to Baton Rouge sooner has been a common theme throughout the Obama presidency. When Obama travels to memorial services for mass shooting victims or disaster scenes, Republicans accuse him of playing politics with a national tragedy. If the President waits and allows local officials to do their work, Republicans criticize him for not showing up sooner.

In the eyes of Republicans, President Obama will always get criticized and never do the right thing. Gov. Bel Edwards was right. A presidential visit is exponentially more complicated than Donald Trump flying in on his private jet, signing a few autographs, and pretending to care.

The Republican outrage was the usual let’s blame Obama for something because anything is better that letting the nation see that Donald Trump is our presidential nominee.

President Obama has given the suffering people in Baton Rouge more than a photo op. He has done his job by providing immediate federal resources and disaster relief. The situation in Baton Rouge highlights why the nation needs a competent president who can do the job instead of a baseball cap wearing reality television star occupying the Oval Office.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association