Former FEMA Director Michael Brown says he was upset to read President Trump’s “unseemly” and “inappropriate” tweets about last year’s hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico, saying Trump made himself a distracting “bug light” as Hurricane Florence hit the Carolinas.
Brown, who led the Federal Emergency Management Agency during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Trump was wrong to tweet “3,000 people did not die” and allege researcher bias — and that such claims risk ongoing disaster response efforts and perception of Trump’s role.
“Mr. President, focus on what’s happening now,” said Brown, who President George W. Bush made infamous, telling him “You’ve doing a heckuva job, Brownie,” despite public perception to the contrary after New Orleans flooded, killing hundreds of people.
Brown, who resigned after criticism of his response to the disaster, told the Washington Examiner Trump’s distracting commentary on Thursday could have real-world effects.
[Also read: Katrina commander: ‘I would not bet any money’ that the feds are prepared for Hurricane Florence]
“It’s the men and women who are on the ground, it’s the urban search and rescue teams, it’s the local emergency managers, it’s the people who are going to be going door to door. Those people need to understand the commander in chief is behind them,” he said.
In sparking a daylong political debate about deaths in Puerto Rico, Trump created a perception that he’s not intimately involved with relief efforts, Brown said, regardless of his actual involvement. He likened Trump’s pair of tweets to Bush deciding to do a “flyover” of Katrina damage, rather than make an immediate visit.
“[Bush] missed an opportunity to land in Baton Rouge during the middle of Katrina … Instead they did the flyover. What’s happening here is in essence you’re doing a flyover. But you’re doing a flyover by tweeting, making comments about something else that’s in the past, rather than what’s going on now,” he said.
Brown said Trump’s commentary matters because reporters “are like bugs to a bug light,” and can abruptly shift public focus away from important ongoing disasters.
“[Reporters] find the bug light and are all focused on that bug light and in doing so you often miss the larger picture. In some ways, President Trump has become the bug light, everyone’s focused on the tweets,” he said.
Brown, who now has a radio show and lectures on emergency preparedness, praised current FEMA Director Brock Long’s competence and integrity, but said he’s concerned that he’s distracted by reporting Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is reviewing his use of government cars for personal travel.
On Thursday, Brock repeatedly referred to Hurricane Florence as “Floyd” during a press call.
“I don’t think he did anything wrong,” Brown said, “[but] he would be lying if he said ‘I’m not distracted by this.'”
Brown bristles at comparing hurricanes such as Maria, which ravaged Puerto Rico last year, or Florence to Katrina in terms of scale or response, saying each present different challenges.
During Katrina, Brown argued, many deaths were the result of poor residents being either unable or unwilling to evacuate, some on a mistaken belief they were safest in their homes. In Puerto Rico, he said, the island’s fragile infrastructure played a prominent role in calculated excess deaths.
Brown said he thinks it would be fair to debate the accuracy of various Puerto Rico death-count estimates, just not at the moment. He said, however, he’s not convinced Trump will take the advice.
“We should all recognize by now that President Trump is going to say and do what he’s going to say and do, irrespective of any advice anybody gives him,” Brown said.
