Donald Trump Drops In For Louisiana Flood Photo Op After Governor Asks Him Not To, Because He Cares
Donald Trump wins the thousand-meter Empty Show Of Compassion event today as he and running mate Mike Pence dropped in on Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to nod and look concerned about all the flooding. And also to sign some Make America Great Again hats, despite Gov. John Bel Edwards's request that he not visit the state for political purposes.
"Donald Trump hasn’t called the governor to inform him of his visit," a spokesman for Edwards' office said in a statement Thursday evening. "We welcome him to LA but not for a photo-op. 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."
Edwards, a Democrat, also said Thursday night that he would prefer that President Barack Obama wait at least a week to visit.
Eh, why would someone important like Donald Trump want to consult with the governor of a state that's in the middle of an emergency? Donald Trump goes where he wants! Despite the fact that a presidential visit involves a small army of aides and security, and would divert police and other emergency resources away from search and rescue operations, the Wingnut Media had a field day pointing out that while Trump actually went to the disaster area to spread around the compassion (and autographs), Barack Obama selfishly stayed on vacation like the uncaring monster he is, and Hillary Clinton remains too frail to even wave a palsied hand at the suffering Louisianans:
Good lord, what horrible people!
President Obama has given no indication he will interrupt his two week vacation in exclusive Martha’s Vineyard to visit the flood victims. The president played another round of golf Thursday with television star Larry David and Bain Capital co-managing partner Jonathan Lavine.
The Obama family’s vacation is scheduled to continue until Sunday.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will be resting from the campaign trail on Friday, and will also not be visiting Louisiana over the weekend [...]
A number of recent stories have focused on questions about Clinton’s health and her need for extensive rest over the weekends.
The story also added, just so you know liberals are hypocrites,
The mainstream media, which was so critical of President George W. Bush’s handling of the Katrina flooding of New Orleans in 2005, has no such criticism of President Obama’s hands off approach to this year’s Louisiana flooding.
The Baton Rouge Advocate also published an editorial begging Obama to cut short his vacation and come to Louisiana. Asked about that plea on "The Rachel Maddow Show" Thursday night, Gov. Edwards was quite clear that he'd love to have Obama visit -- in a week or so:
</center> <p>Edwards praised the federal response so far, noting that FEMA had arrived in Louisiana last Thursday as the flooding began and </p><p/><blockquote>since that time we've had everything that we needed in terms of assets and resources; we've actually pushed those down to the parish level, so the local first responders, they have received every request that they've made in a timely fashion.</blockquote> <p>FEMA head Craig Fugate traveled to Louisiana earlier this week, and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also visited Louisiana Thursday to meet with Edwards and make sure the federal response was meeting state needs. Damn that uncaring Obama! He has done NOTHING. Asked about the Advocate's call for an immediate presidential visit, Edwards said thanks but no thanks: </p><p/><blockquote>The president is welcome to come any time he wants to come. I do want you to know...that within hours of me making a request for a federal [disaster] declaration, I got it from the president. He called me [...] In all honesty, if he's gonna visit, I would would just as soon it be a week or ten days, 14 days from now, because the vice president was here about three weeks ago to go to the memorial service for the police officers who were killed here, and I will tell you, it is a major ordeal -- they free up the interstate for him, we have to take hundreds of local first responders, police officers, sheriff's deputies, and state troopers, to provide security for that type of visit. I would just as soon have those people engaged in the response, rather than try to secure the president, so I would ask him to wait, if he would, another couple of weeks. </blockquote> <p>In other words, that monster Obama has even roped the Governor of Louisiana into his web of lies and indifference to the people of Louisiana, forcing him to put up this ludicrous cover story that emergency resources are more helpful than a presidential visit. </p><p>As to the comparison to Katrina, we suppose it might be worth noting that while Barack Obama's FEMA director was on the ground in Louisiana almost immediately, George Bush's FEMA administrator, Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown, had no idea there were <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/fema-director-we-did-not-know-new-orleans-convention-center-was-a-hurricane-shelter-1f43b6f2ce2e#.k0vcx3iw2" target="_blank">dead bodies piling up</a> outside the New Orleans Convention Center until he saw it on CNN. In fact, he said the feds didn't know people were sheltering in the Convention Center until days after the flooding began. </p><p>So the federal response has been timely and has provided everything the state has asked for and federal officials are coordinating rescue and recovery efforts with state and local responders. That seems like a more important contrast to the Katrina response than whether Barack Obama has pulled resources away from emergency needs for a visit, but what do we know? The man is GOLFING, for godssake! </p><p><em>Want to do more for Louisiana than Donald Trump spending a few minutes unloading supplies on camera? Send some dollars to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation's <a href="https://www.classy.org/events/louisiana-flood-relief-fund/e91206" target="_blank">Louisiana Flood Relief Fund.</a> And maybe ask <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump" target="_blank">Donald Trump on Twitter</a> if he's <a href="https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/766675736514076672" target="_blank">cut a check yet.</a> </em> </p><p><a href="http://wonkette.com/?attachment_id=605734" rel="attachment wp-att-605734"><img id="2e555" data-rm-shortcode-id="6501111c8015adb244c17f055b13cfce" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" class="rm-shortcode " loading="lazy" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY3MjgzMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY5MDY3MzEyMX0.9xEclVmOGKQwq2iTDL4uf1nF9KImcS-Xbwtu24Uouak/img.jpg?width=980" /></a> </p><p>Finally, because there's no more heartbreaking song about flooding in Louisiana, some Randy Newman. You can almost never go wrong with Randy Newman: </p><p/><center><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f2e9e0b25dca043a7598306e864c2b4"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MGs2iLoDUYE?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;">
[ MSNBC / Breitbart / Reuters / Politico / Louisiana Flood Relief Fund ]
I am your friend.
ETA - I tend to use "friend" when dealing with trolls. You are my not-quotation-mark friend. I am honored that you asked.
I'm hanging out in a den of iniquity. Of course I would love a drink!