GOP Strategist Defends Romneys Plan To Dismantle FEMA
By Aviva Shen on Oct 29, 2012 at 11:57 am
Mitt Romneys past comments about dismantling FEMA and privatizing disaster relief have come back to haunt him as Hurricane Sandy begins to wreak havoc on the East Coast. Still, one Republican strategist, Ron Bonjean, agrees with him. On CNN Monday morning, Bonjean, a private consultant who advises GOP congressional leaders, defended Romney, suggesting that even talking about federal disaster relief is politically toxic:
Most people dont have a positive impression of FEMA and I think Mitt Romney was right on the button. But I dont think anybody cares about that right now. I think people care about whether or not their powers on, whether or not their basements going to be flooded. And I think that if the president gets too far in front of this and something goes wrong, people are going to remember, hey, my powers not out, and the presidents talking about FEMA. Im not a real big fan of FEMA. That could sway their vote.
Watch it:
Atlantic City, NJ
1 of 2 10/29/12 4:39 PM
GOP Strategist Defends Romney's Plan To Dismantle FEMA | ...
GOP Strategist Defends Romney's Plan To Dismantle FEMA | ThinkProgress...
Sandy has already caused severe flooding in the Northeast, hours before the worst of the storm is projected to hit. President Obama has declared a state of emergency in 7 states and DC after several governors urgent requests for federal aid to combat the storm. Though Bonjean fails to make the connection between FEMAs services and people worrying about their power going out, the agency has already dispatched emergency power teams to try to reinforce vulnerable power grids before the storm hits and provided hundreds of generators and other back-up power sources. Americans are unfortunately well-acquainted with the agency, despite Bonjeans insistence that they dont care about it; a recent study of FEMA data found that, since 2006, 4 out of 5 Americans have been affected by weather-related disasters.
