Leon Panetta, a top official in the last two Democratic administrations, praised the Trump administration’s efforts on Tuesday to cope with the aftermath of two large hurricanes that hit the U.S. over the last two weeks.
“My sense is that lessons have been learned here,” Panetta said on CNN. “Lessons have been learned from Katrina, they’ve been learned from Sandy, and I have to say that [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], Homeland Security have actually done well in getting ahead of these terrible hurricanes as they approached both Houston and Florida.”
Panetta — President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, and was CIA director and defense secretary under President Obama — praised both President Trump and the national security team he assembled.
“What I’ve seen from President Trump is an understanding of what people are going through, and the fact that the federal government is going to be there,” he said.
“I think he’s got some very good people at FEMA, I think Homeland Security has done a great job, I think the Department of Defense has done a great job,” he added. “They’re there.”
Panetta said the longer-term test would be how long the federal government remains to help cleanup efforts in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and parts of the Caribbean.
