September 25, 2005, Meet The Press Appearance
On September 25, 2005, Aaron Broussard reappeared on Meet the Press, and host Tim Russert challenged Broussard's account of the tragedy on the basis that his anecdote about the woman in the nursing home contained factual discrepancies noted in the MSNBC story. Broussard did not directly account for those discrepancies, repeating the statement that "this gentleman's mother died on that Friday before I came on the show." In his subsequent remarks, though, he said that:
- The story as related by him in his earlier appearance was the story told to him by his staff.
- Tom Rodrigue was very distraught over his mother's death, and he (Broussard) wasn't inclined to interrogate him as to the specifics because of that.
- Mistakes were made at all levels of the disaster response, including the evacuation of Jefferson Parish pump operators.
- He hadn't had a full night's sleep in the past 30 days, and would be happy to debate someone as to the specifics of his story after having one.
Broussard has never acknowledged making an error in his original appearance though he did give this response:
- Sir, with everything I said on Meet the Press, the last punctuation of my statements were the story that I was going to tell in about maybe two sentences. It just got emotional for me, sir.
To date, Broussard's comments with regard to the federal government have not been formally addressed. Broussard was also excluded from the formal investigation conducted into the response to Hurricane Katrina and thus was not called to explain his role in the $3 billion of flood damage to the East Bank of Jefferson Parish.
Read more about this topic: Aaron Broussard
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