August 28, 2023

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans with Mother Nature’s fury in late August 2005, causing over 1800 fatalities and over $100 billion in property damage. Because a Republican president resided in the White House, the corporate media and Democrats took the opportunity to pounce on the disaster response.

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From “Heck of a job Brownie” to President George W Bush’s famous flyover in Air Force One high above New Orleans, the cost of human suffering was far less important to the media than the opportunity to stick it to President Bush.

MSNBC screen grab

Not only did they not like him, many in the media and Washington DC establishment believed Bush and his election were illegitimate and interestingly no one has been criminally indicted for questioning the integrity of the 2000 presidential election.

Bush himself described the optics of his famous flyover in an interview with The Hill,

Former President George W. Bush said it was a “huge mistake” for him to have been photographed during a flyover trip over New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

Bush acknowledged the famous photograph showing him looking out the window of Air Force One at the damage in New Orleans made him seem detached from the disaster on the ground that was caused by the massive Hurricane. 

Bush said the photo, which became a symbol of his administration’s response to Katrina, made him look “detached and uncaring, no question about it.”

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Vanity Fair described it as, “The flood that sank George W Bush.” US News called the flyover, The undoing of George W Bush.” A Face the Nation  crank said of the flyover, “Still an embarrassment for Bush 43.”

Far fewer stories recorded Bush’s genuine empathy for the disaster he witnessed on his watch. I am no fan of Bush 43’s policies but believed him to be a caring and decent man, in sharp contrast to the current president. As NPR reported,

In a speech at the school, the former president said he will never forget the images of “misery and ruin” from Katrina. He said New Orleans was a city where “the levies gave out but … [the] people never gave up.”

Flash forward from 2005 to 2023, with another disaster in a different state, this one being a raging wildfire in Maui, Hawaii. Leaving aside all the oddities of the fire and circumstances, and the inept government response, focus on today’s president, how he reacted to the disaster and how the media reported on everything.

YouTube screen grab

Lahaina was engulfed in flames on August 8, after a series of smaller wildfires on Maui, driven by high winds from passing Hurricane Dora.

Not only did President Biden not do a flyover, he went on vacation and had nothing to say about the Maui inferno. As Newsweek reported,

President Joe Biden is facing a backlash for his reportedly dismissive responses on Sunday to questions about the recent wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, that have taken the lives of 96 people with more still unaccounted for.

Biden was cycling on vacation at the seaside in Delaware.

After spending a few hours sunbathing on the beach near his home, when asked about the death toll on the island, Biden replied with a “no comment,” before leaving.