BATISTE: Mitch Landrieu Says His Aspen Speech A Higher Priority Than New Orleans Flooding

Mitch Landrieu finally admitted his priorities are outside of New Orleans, explaining on Thursday that he did not return because he had to give a speech in Aspen the night after New Orleans’ worst flood since Katrina.

“I made the determination not to come back because based on the information I had,” Landrieu said on August 24th.  The information was flooded streets, homes, businesses, vehicles, and very slow drainage.  Citizens in several different neighborhoods said in news reports that pump stations were not on.  That was the information as the sun set on a flooded New Orleans Saturday, August 5th.  Mitch’s speech was Sunday night.  He returned to New Orleans on Monday, August 6th.

When asked why Landrieu took so long to get back on the job, Deputy Mayor Ryan Berni said that Monday “was when he was able to get back based on the available flights. But we were in constant communication throughout the event.”  Even during this great speech?

The Mayor was in Aspen for the The Aspen Strategy Group’s “National Security Conference.”  Mitch stayed Sunday for a dinner event headlined: “The Home Front: A Discussion About Domestic Politics.” Landrieu claimed he was asked to speak at the event to “help the leaders who help secure the nation figure out how domestic policy and national security fit together.”

The Mayor of New Orleans, the the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said could not return to his flooded city early because he was “obligated to speak.”

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Mitch said the Aug. 5 flooding was a crisis that evolved as it became more clear that Sewerage & Water Board officials had not provided accurate information about the city’s pumping capacity and power issues at pumping stations.  Because he was not in New Orleans, the crisis in Mitch’s mind was not the flood.

“Throughout my entire time from being lieutenant governor, from being mayor, anytime there was an event, predictable or not, I’m on the ground,” Landrieu said. The article listed a few emergencies that occurred while Landrieu was out of town that he returned for.  But the article left absent that the Mayor’s locale has never been revealed for any of the monument removals, nor for the antifa riot at Jeff Davis nor for the Take Em Down march at Lee Circle which became a major protest.  A few NOPD officers on the street that day joked that they were dealing with Mitch’s mess and he wasn’t even in town.  He was certainly not “on the ground” for those. And he wasn’t here for a man-made flood at the end of his second term. To say his M.O. is “on the ground” is false.

The absentee mayor said it was more important for him to speak in Aspen than to figure out what caused catastrophic flooding of New Orleans.  Mitch Landrieu does not care about his job.

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