The announcement comes hours after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump toured areas affected by the floods in Baton Rouge with his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Earlier Thursday, Trump moved to invest almost $5 million in battleground state advertising to address daunting challenges in the states that will make or break his White House ambitions.
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Trump criticised Obama’s absence after his motorcade drove past piles of possessions and building materials ripped out of flooded homes en route to Greenwell Springs Baptist Church in a hard-hit portion of East Baton Rouge Parish.
“And I think that speaks volumes for the people of Louisiana, and you can see it in their eyes as we walk through the neighborhoods”. This area has suffered a tremendous blow considering that so numerous victims did not have flood insurance as their houses had never flooded before.
As news broke that Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, had resigned from the campaign, Trump and his running mate Mike Pence toured some of the areas damaged by recent floods in Louisiana.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, told reporters at a press conference Thursday that this week wasn’t the best time for Obama to come. “Instead we hope he’ll consider volunteering or making a sizable donation to the LA Flood Relief Fund to help the victims of the storm”.
Conservatives and Trump backers had already been decrying a media double standard, comparing Obama’s continued vacation on Martha’s Vineyard during the disaster to President Bush’s much-criticized and delayed response to Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and MS in 2005.
Obama said in a statement that he has been in touch with federal and state officials regularly for updates on the flood while vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard.
Obama’s vacation is due to end on Sunday.
The president often visits sites of natural or man-made disasters in the weeks or months afterward when the scenes are calm.
The media crucified Bush for his delayed response in 2005, but are giving Obama a pass this year. To be sure, the scale of the damage from Katrina was much more significant than the current flooding; the hurricane killed at least 1,400 and was the costliest natural disaster in US history, causing more than $67 billion in insured losses, and exposed the ineptitude of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Many have compared his decision to remain on vacation in MA to President George W. Bush’s decision to remain on vacation during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in 2005, a move that the Advocate terms a “symbol of official neglect”. The state expected 4,000 would still need refuge in shelters on Friday night. Entire neighborhoods must now contend with flood-hit homes. Trump and Perkins joked about Obama’s golf game as they chatted, according to Candace Smith of ABC News.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the November 8 election, said she had spoken with the governor by phone on Friday.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the November 8 presidential election, said in a Twitter post earlier this week she was closely monitoring the situation and directed people to the Red Cross. She also emailed a call for donations to her list of supporters.
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“He took extra time yesterday going over that speech with a pen”, Conway said.
