President Obama called Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Perry on Wednesday evening to discuss the wildfires raging across Texas, as Perry prepared to make his debate debut in California.
Obama contacted Perry, the governor of Texas, “to express his concern for citizens of Texas impacted by the unprecedented fires,” according to the White House.
The president “made clear that the federal government… will continue to make federal assistance available to state and local officials as they fight the fires” and he “assured the governor that requests for additional assistance… would be quickly assessed.”
Perry, who is scheduled to take the stage at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., has said he’ll ask for federal aid.
Obama’s phone call underscores the political risk Perry took by leaving Texas on Wednesday to participate in his first Republican presidential debate. Over the weekend, the governor skipped a major GOP event in South Carolina to deal with the fires.
