Amid mounting criticism in the media, the White House announced Friday afternoon that President Obama would visit flood-ravaged Louisiana next Tuesday.
The president has been vacationing with his family in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and will complete his scheduled stay there through August 21 before traveling south.
A statement from White House press secretary Josh Earnest reads:
The Baton Rouge-based Advocate newspaper, Louisiana’s largest, published an editorial Wednesday evening asking Obama to leave Massachusetts to tour the state, whose recent flooding is the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Sandy, according to the Red Cross.
“Sometimes, presidential visits can get in the way of emergency response, doing more harm than good,” the editorial read. “But we don’t see that as a factor now that flood waters are subsiding, even if at an agonizing pace. It’s past time for the president to pay a personal visit, showing his solidarity with suffering Americans.”
The state’s Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, had defended Obama for not visiting, citing logistical concerns.
