On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” anchor Lawrence O’Donnell stated that it is a good thing those in danger from Hurricane Irma will rely on government professionals and not President Trump.
O’Donnell said, “The National Weather Service’s ability to precisely track the hurricane can save lives and save money. … Which is why Democrats objected so loudly when the Trump-proposed budget cut funding to the National Weather Service and cut funding to FEMA. Even today, with potentially more destructive power than Hurricane Harvey headed our way, 17 Republicans in the Senate voted against Hurricane Harvey relief funding, including Senator Lindsey Graham, whose state of South Carolina has been hit hard by hurricanes before, and may be hit hard by Hurricane Irma.”
He added, “It has become popular over the last few decades, in Republican politics especially, to mock government, to attack government, to attack the American government. Donald Trump got elected president by attacking American government and the people who work in it. And he could never stop talking about how easy it is to govern, how easy it would be for him to make the decisions, make the deals, get the job done as president of the United States. And now tonight, even Donald Trump knows that government is a deadly serious business, an especially deadly serious business in Florida tonight, and that government’s ability to respond to the hurricane on its way to Florida can save lives, including possibly lives in and around Donald Trump’s properties in Florida. Luckily for the Americans’ lives who are at stake as this deadly hurricane approaches, it is not Donald Trump who they can — who they will be relying on. It is the professionals in government who will do their best to save them from the dangers of this storm, to rescue them if necessary, to protect them.”
O’Donnell concluded, “The elected officials who run for office with an expressed hatred of government will actually have nothing to do with how this natural disaster is handled. The career professionals at the National Weather Service, the career professionals at FEMA, the career professionals in the national government are the people we will rely on when Irma hits Florida. And they are the very same people who politicians will continue to attack when they attack government in order to be elected to that government. And they are the people whose jobs those politicians will propose cutting when a hurricane isn’t headed toward this country.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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