President Barack Obama, who has come under fire for not disrupting his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to visit a flood-devastated Louisiana, will visit Baton Rouge next week, the White House announced today.
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At least 40,000 homes have been damaged by the August 12 storm, according to news reports, and at least 13 people have been reported dead.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ office said Trump had not called to discuss plans for his visit, but that the NY businessman was welcome to volunteer or make a sizable donation towards helping victims.
According to journalists on the scene, Trump took a swipe at President Obama for his absence.
Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton issued a statement Friday on the Louisiana flooding and the flood relief effort on her Facebook page.
“Instead, we hope he’ll consider volunteering or making a sizable donation to the LA Relief Fund to help the victims of this storm”, a statement from Edwards’ office read.
At one point during Trump’s trip, a reporter asked the GOP nominee what his message was to Louisiana.
Regardless, the paper was clear in its call for the president himself to come down, stating that “a disaster this big begs for the personal presence of the president at ground zero”, and that it is imperative for him to show Louisiana residents and others affected that the nation stands in solidarity with them.
She said she hasn’t watched TV in several days but she was confident that Trump would visit Louisiana if he knew about the damage here. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter and longtime Obama critic, praised the trip by Trump and Pence, writing in a message on Twitter: “Sad that Obama [can’t] leave vacation for one day”.
Representatives for Trump’s campaign, which canceled a roundtable discussion on immigration in NY to make the trip, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s visit – and the media coverage that comes with it – comes as people in Louisiana and beyond have questioned why the disaster has not gotten more national media attention.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets flood victims during a tour of flood damaged homes in Denham Springs, La., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016.
The good, hard-working people of Louisiana are suffering and they need to hear from their president.
Also Friday, Trump started airing his first ads of the general election after moving a day earlier to invest almost $5 million in battleground state advertising. It lists $173,860 in salary for Pence and says Karen Pence’s earnings from a towel charm business and her work as a self-employed artist each bring in less than $1,001.
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Clinton said that people can donate money to the Red Cross and to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. As many as 1,833 people died as a result of Katrina, and caused an estimated $108 billion in damages. “To move the president into a disaster area actually takes away some time from the response and the focus on” saving people. And so his few hours in Baton Rouge, though little more than a photo-op, could have had some modest value-whether the governor wanted him there or not.
