Texas. Gov. Rick Perry said it’s not enough that President Barack Obama sent Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to see the border, and compared Obama’s decision to not go there himself to former President George W. Bush’s response after Hurricane Katrina.
After his meeting with Obama on Wednesday, Perry discussed the border crisis on Fox News.
I think about the criticism George W. Bush received when he didn’t go to New Orleans in Katrina. This is no different, Perry said.
On Wednesday, Obama said he sent Johnson to the border multiple times because he wasn’t interested in “photo ops,” but Perry insisted it’s not enough.
“I’m pretty sure if George Bush had said, ‘Well, I sent my FEMA director down multiple times,’ that he would have still been criticized greatly because you need to go,” he said. “That’s what governors do, that’s what presidents do when there are natural disasters, when there’s crises like this. A president needs to be there to show the American people, number one, that he understands.”
He also applealed to Obama on a much more personal level.
“I said, I really want you to come and see this,” Perry said, “because this is important for you to absorb as a father, but more, importantly as the President of the United States, to see the humanitarian crisis.”
And after Obama said he has no “philosophical objections” to Perry’s suggestions, Perry said it’s about time people agree with him.
“I’m glad the president thinks what I said makes sense because we have been saying it for many years now,” he said.
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
h/t: Talking Points Memo
