New Orleans Mayor
To Feds, Bush -
'Get Off Your Asses'
9-3-5
- CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray
Nagin blasted the slow pace of federal and state
relief efforts in an expletive-laced interview
with local radio station WWL-AM.
-
- The following is a transcript of
WWL correspondent Garland Robinette's interview
with Nagin on Thursday night. Robinette asked the
mayor about his conversation with President Bush:
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- NAGIN: I told him we had an
incredible crisis here and that his flying over
in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that
I have been all around this city, and I am very
frustrated because we are not able to marshal
resources and we're outmanned in just about every
respect. Listen to the mayor express his
frustration in this video -- 12:09)
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- You know the reason why the
looters got out of control? Because we had most
of our resources saving people, thousands of
people that were stuck in attics, man, old
ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator
vent and you look down there and they're standing
in there in water up to their freaking necks.
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- And they don't have a clue what's
going on down here. They flew down here one time
two days after the doggone event was over with TV
cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn --
excuse my French everybody in America, but I am
pissed.
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- WWL: Did you say to the president
of the United States, "I need the military
in here"?
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- NAGIN: I said, "I need
everything."
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- Now, I will tell you this -- and I
give the president some credit on this -- he sent
one John Wayne dude down here that can get some
stuff done, and his name is [Lt.] Gen. [Russel]
Honore.
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- And he came off the doggone
chopper, and he started cussing and people
started moving. And he's getting some stuff done.
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- They ought to give that guy -- if
they don't want to give it to me, give him full
authority to get the job done, and we can save
some people.
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- WWL: What do you need right now to
get control of this situation?
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- NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I
need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't
talking about -- you know, one of the briefings
we had, they were talking about getting public
school bus drivers to come down here and bus
people out here.
-
- I'm like, "You got to be
kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get
every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country
and get their asses moving to New Orleans."
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- That's -- they're thinking small,
man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And
I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.
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- I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people
over at the convention center. It's bursting at
the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish.
... We don't have anything, and we're sharing
with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.
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- It's awful down here, man.
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- WWL: Do you believe that the
president is seeing this, holding a news
conference on it but can't do anything until
[Louisiana Gov.] Kathleen Blanco requested him to
do it? And do you know whether or not she has
made that request?
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- NAGIN: I have no idea what they're
doing. But I will tell you this: You know, God is
looking down on all this, and if they are not
doing everything in their power to save people,
they are going to pay the price. Because every
day that we delay, people are dying and they're
dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.
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- We're getting reports and calls
that are breaking my heart, from people saying,
"I've been in my attic. I can't take it
anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't
think I can hold out." And that's happening
as we speak.
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- You know what really upsets me,
Garland? We told everybody the importance of the
17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please,
please take care of this. We don't care what you
do. Figure it out."
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- WWL: Who'd you say that to?
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- NAGIN: Everybody: the governor,
Homeland Security, FEMA. You name it, we said it.
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- And they allowed that pumping
station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under
water. Our sewage and water board people ...
stayed there and endangered their lives.
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- And what happened when that
pumping station went down, the water started
flowing again in the city, and it starting
getting to levels that probably killed more
people.
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- In addition to that, we had water
flowing through the pipes in the city. That's a
power station over there.
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- So there's no water flowing
anywhere on the east bank of Orleans Parish. So
our critical water supply was destroyed because
of lack of action.
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- WWL: Why couldn't they drop the
3,000-pound sandbags or the containers that they
were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering
feat that just couldn't be done?
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- NAGIN: They said it was some
pulleys that they had to manufacture. But, you
know, in a state of emergency, man, you are
creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done.
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- Then they told me that they went
overnight, and they built 17 concrete structures
and they had the pulleys on them and they were
going to drop them.
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- I flew over that thing yesterday,
and it's in the same shape that it was after the
storm hit. There is nothing happening. And
they're feeding the public a line of bull and
they're spinning, and people are dying down here.
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- WWL: If some of the public called
and they're right, that there's a law that the
president, that the federal government can't do
anything without local or state requests, would
you request martial law?
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- NAGIN: I've already called for
martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did
that a few days ago.
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- WWL: Did the governor do that,
too?
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- NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think
so.
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- But we called for martial law when
we realized that the looting was getting out of
control. And we redirected all of our police
officers back to patrolling the streets. They
were dead-tired from saving people, but they
worked all night because we thought this thing
was going to blow wide open last night. And so we
redirected all of our resources, and we hold it
under check.
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- I'm not sure if we can do that
another night with the current resources.
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- And I am telling you right now:
They're showing all these reports of people
looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they
are doing that, but people are desperate and
they're trying to find food and water, the
majority of them.
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- Now you got some knuckleheads out
there, and they are taking advantage of this
lawless -- this situation where, you know, we
can't really control it, and they're doing some
awful, awful things. But that's a small majority
of the people. Most people are looking to try and
survive.
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- And one of the things people --
nobody's talked about this. Drugs flowed in and
out of New Orleans and the surrounding
metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me,
and that's why we were having the escalation in
murders. People don't want to talk about this,
but I'm going to talk about it.
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- You have drug addicts that are now
walking around this city looking for a fix, and
that's the reason why they were breaking in
hospitals and drugstores. They're looking for
something to take the edge off of their jones, if
you will.
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- And right now, they don't have
anything to take the edge off. And they've
probably found guns. So what you're seeing is
drug-starving crazy addicts, drug addicts, that
are wrecking havoc. And we don't have the
manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only
target certain sections of the city and form a
perimeter around them and hope to God that we're
not overrun.
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- WWL: Well, you and I must be in
the minority. Because apparently there's a
section of our citizenry out there that thinks
because of a law that says the federal government
can't come in unless requested by the proper
people, that everything that's going on to this
point has been done as good as it can possibly
be.
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- NAGIN: Really?
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- WWL: I know you don't feel that
way.
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- NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami
victims request? Did it go through a formal
process to request?
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- You know, did the Iraqi people
request that we go in there? Did they ask us to
go in there? What is more important?
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- And I'll tell you, man, I'm
probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble.
I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it
ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to
deal with me after this interview is over.
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- WWL: You and I will be in the
funny place together.
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- NAGIN: But we authorized $8
billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11,
we gave the president unprecedented powers
lickety-quick to take care of New York and other
places.
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- Now, you mean to tell me that a
place where most of your oil is coming through, a
place that is so unique when you mention New
Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's
eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place
where you probably have thousands of people that
have died and thousands more that are dying every
day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize
the resources that we need? Come on, man.
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- You know, I'm not one of those
drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.
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- And I don't know whose problem it
is. I don't know whether it's the governor's
problem. I don't know whether it's the
president's problem, but somebody needs to get
their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of
them, and figure this out right now.
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- WWL: What can we do here?
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- NAGIN: Keep talking about it.
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- WWL: We'll do that. What else can
we do?
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- NAGIN: Organize people to write
letters and make calls to their congressmen, to
the president, to the governor. Flood their
doggone offices with requests to do something.
This is ridiculous.
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- I don't want to see anybody do
anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a
moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another
press conference until the resources are in this
city. And then come down to this city and stand
with us when there are military trucks and troops
that we can't even count.
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- Don't tell me 40,000 people are
coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone
late. Now get off your asses and do something,
and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the
history of this country.
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- WWL: I'll say it right now, you're
the only politician that's called and called for
arms like this. And if -- whatever it takes, the
governor, president -- whatever law precedent it
takes, whatever it takes, I bet that the people
listening to you are on your side.
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- NAGIN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I
am just -- I'm at the point now where it don't
matter. People are dying. They don't have homes.
They don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans
will never be the same in this time.
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- WWL: We're both pretty speechless
here.
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- NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to
say. I got to go.
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- WWL: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in
touch.
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- http://www.wwltv.com/
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