Remember the guy who cried on MSNBC?

[CarolinaTiger 0]

as it turns out, his emotional tale criticizing the slow relief efforts was 'not true'.

Link to the story and the video.

very sad the guy's mom died...but how could this guy get his facts SO WRONG?

chalk another one up for the bloggers....

n emotional moment and a misunderstanding

Story of a mother’s desperate calls from nursing home skewed

Meet the Press

  Katrina multimedia

AP

WASHINGTON - The Jefferson Parish president's emotional retelling of a mother's desperate calls from a New Orleans nursing home included details that conflict with the timeline of the tragedy.

The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29.

In the course of the interview, in which Broussard was expressing frustration with the slow-footed response by the federal government to the hurricane, he related the personal story of a man whose mother had died in the flooding caused by Katrina. Broussard, who did not identify the man by name at the time, broke down in tears as he related the story. As the Meet the Press transcript shows, Russert paused the interview to allow Broussard to compose himself.

BROUSSARD: ... The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything.  His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son?  Is somebody coming?"  And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you.  Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday.  Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday.  Somebody's coming to get you on Friday."  And she drowned Friday night.  She drowned Friday night.

RUSSERT:  Mr. President...

BROUSSARD:  Nobody's coming to get us.  Nobody's coming to get us.  The secretary has promised.  Everybody's promised.  They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences.  For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.

RUSSERT:  Just take a pause, Mr. President.  While you gather yourself in your very emotional times, I understand, let me go to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

Since the broadcast of the interview, which elevated Broussard to national prominence, a number of bloggers have questioned the validity of Broussard’s story.

Subsequent reporting identified the man whom Broussard was referring to in the Meet the Press interview as Thomas Rodrigue, the Jefferson Parish emergency services director. Contacted on Friday by MSNBC.com, Rodrigue acknowledged that his 92-year-old mother and more than 30 other people died in the St. Rita nursing home. They had not been evacuated and the flood waters overtook the residence.

The chronology of the phone calls described by Broussard came under particular scrutiny by bloggers.

Rodrigue said he didn’t see or hear Broussard’s comments on Meet the Press. When told of the sequence of phone calls that Broussard described on Meet the Press, Rodrigue said “No, no, that’s not true.”

“I can’t tell you what he said that day, why he was confused, I’m assuming he was under a tremendous amount of pressure,” Rodrigue told MSNBC.

“I contacted the nursing home two days before the storm [on Aug. 27th] and again on the 28th of August,” Rodrigue said.  “At the same time I talked to the nursing home I also talked to the emergency manager for St. Bernard Parish,” Rodrigue said, “to encourage that nursing home to evacuate like they were supposed to and they didn’t until it was too late.”

Broussard must have been confused “because I was calling, not my mother calling me, I was calling her,” Rodrigue said.  Further, Rodrigue says he never made any calls after Monday, the day he figures his mother died, based on conversations he’s had with another person who had a family member perish inside St. Rita’s. Officials believe that the residents of St. Rita’s died on Monday, Aug. 29, not on Friday, Sept. 2, as Broussard had suggested.

Broussard could not be reached for comment Friday, but Jackie Bauer, a spokeswoman for Broussard who was present during the Meet the Press interview, said "it was a misunderstanding."

Late on Friday, Bauer told MSNBC.com: "I was there when he (Broussard) was doing that, when he was saying that, I think he was meaning that he was calling, he was calling and trying to talk to Tommy and telling him ‘don’t worry,' trying to console Tommy, 'don’t worry, we’ll get her out, don’t worry we’ll get her out.'"

When asked how Broussard could have gotten the details of his mother’s story so wrong, Rodrigue said, Broussard “was emotional, absolutely and he was from the time that he found out that, you know, that my mother had died and I was here doing what I’m required to do for the citizens for Jefferson Parish.”

Rodrigue said he hasn’t spoken with Broussard since the Meet the Press broadcast.  “He’s been busy, I’ve been busy,” Rodrigue said. “I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and talk to him.”

The husband and wife owners of St. Rita’s nursing home in the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette have been charged with homicide in the case.

“The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not,” Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said Tuesday. “They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people.”

“They had a duty and a standard of care to people who could not care for themselves,” Foti said of the owners. “If you or I decided we are going to stay, we do it of our own free will. ... The people at the nursing home don’t have that choice.”

“Thirty-four people drowned in a nursing home when it should have been evacuated. I cannot say it any plainer than that,” Foti said, his voice rising with anger.

[WarTim 3,457]

Why didn't he just come right out and say that the President KILLED his mother?

[Jenny AU-92 0]

You guys are both totally off base on this one.

You mean to tell me that you guys would have been clearheaded and politically correct after seeing what he had seen, experiencing what he had been through, operating on bits and pieces of sleep and not much food or water for probably 3 or 4 days? Look at the picture of the man -unshaven, exhausted.

Aaron Broussard, the Jefferson Parish President, is a good man, one who was exhausted, both mentally and physically, by watching his friends and neighbors and constituents get washed away with no help from the federal or state government. He is just a normal guy who was elected parish president - he is not an experienced politician. His staff was running around like chickens with their heads cut off - their communications was spotty at best, partially because FEMA cut their communications lines once!! A guy's mom dies because the guy was doing his job for the people of Jeff Parish - of COURSE the Parish President is going to take that personally. He probably heard part of this story from another staff member and then heard the lady had died, and he took it to heart.

Be REALLY careful before you throw stones at this guy. I watched that interview, and had seen other interviews on WWL prior to this one on MSNBC. When all was said and done, Aaron Broussard and Jefferson Parish and the Jeff Parish Sheriff's Dept were the only ones who came through this looking good. There WAS no looting in Jeff Parish. Henry Lee and Aaron Broussard saw to that.

I presonally would vote him the next Governor of Louisiana.

Any bashing of the Feds that he did was equally directed at the state. I saw this interview LIVE and at no time did I feel he was making statements that were not based on what he was personally experiencing at that time. He was helpless and could not get any assistance from anyone - of course he was emotional!!!

Tim, I am SO disappointed in you. Do you REALLY think this man decided to come apart emotionally on national television as a ploy to bash President Bush? I would have snapped my twigs long before he did. Guess what - most of Metairie is REPUBLICAN and I'll betcha Aaron Broussard is too!!!

You guys are totally out of line to criticize this man, given the circumstances and the emotional toll this was having on him.

“The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not,” Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said Tuesday. “They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people.”

The AG is referring to THE OWNERS OF THE NURSING HOME - not to the Jeff Parish officials, like your highlighting would insinuate. Plus, this nursing home is in St Barnard Parish - not Jeff Parish. So your intended jab is just way off base.

[TexasTiger 13,016]

You guys are both totally off base on this one. 

You mean to tell me that you guys would have been clearheaded and politically correct after seeing what he had seen, experiencing what he had been through, operating on bits and pieces of sleep and not much food or water for probably 3 or 4 days?  Look at the picture of the man -unshaven, exhausted. 

Aaron Broussard, the Jefferson Parish President, is a good man, one who was exhausted, both mentally and physically, by watching his friends and neighbors and constituents get washed away with no help from the federal or state government.  He is just a normal guy who was elected parish president - he is not an experienced politician.  His staff was running around like chickens with their heads cut off - their communications was spotty at best, partially because FEMA cut their communications lines once!!  A guy's mom dies because the guy was doing his job for the people of Jeff Parish - of COURSE the Parish President is going to take that personally. He probably heard part of this story from another staff member and then heard the lady had died, and he took it to heart. 

Be REALLY careful before you throw stones at this guy.  I watched that interview, and had seen other interviews on WWL prior to this one on MSNBC.  When all was said and done, Aaron Broussard and Jefferson Parish and the Jeff Parish Sheriff's Dept were the only ones who came through this looking good.  There WAS no looting in Jeff Parish.  Henry Lee and Aaron Broussard saw to that.

I presonally would vote him the next Governor of Louisiana.

Any bashing of the Feds that he did was equally directed at the state.  I saw this interview LIVE and at no time did I feel he was making statements that were not based on what he was personally experiencing at that time.  He was helpless and could not get any assistance from anyone - of course he was emotional!!!

Tim, I am SO disappointed in you.  Do you REALLY think this man decided to come apart emotionally on national television as a ploy to bash President Bush?  I would have snapped my twigs long before he did.  Guess what - most of Metairie is REPUBLICAN and I'll betcha Aaron Broussard is too!!! 

You guys are totally out of line to criticize this man, given the circumstances and the emotional toll this was having on him. 

“The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not,” Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said Tuesday. “They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people.”

The AG is referring to THE OWNERS OF THE NURSING HOME - not to the Jeff Parish officials, like your highlighting would insinuate. Plus, this nursing home is in St Barnard Parish - not Jeff Parish. So your intended jab is just way off base.

182822[/snapback]

Don't always agree with Jenny, but when she's right she nails it. Why would the guy intentionally lie about it? He got his days mixed up. His friend and colleague lost his mother unnecessarily. That's clear.

[CarolinaTiger 0]

jenny...this is obviously a story/guy you care and/or know a lot about, and that's great...but how is this story off base?

it just reports what was said and that it was wrong....

sure there are reasons for the guy to be so totally wrong...including stress or misunderstanding, as the article suggests...but the fact remains that what he said in his initial interview w/ russert painted (rather graphically) one picture, when the facts would indicate that 'no, no, that's not true'.

you'd rather the 'correction' never be printed? unfortunately for broussard, his initial tale was made so big by msnbc that the subsequent correction also made the news, too, making broussard look bad.

i'm sure he'd make a fine governor ... certainly an improvement over blanko.

ct

[CarolinaTiger 0]

Don't always agree with Jenny, but when she's right she nails it. Why would the guy intentionally lie about it? He got his days mixed up. His friend and colleague lost his mother unnecessarily. That's clear.

are we reading the same thread? the same article?

nowhere does it say he intentionally lied. did you think he had TT?

[Jenny AU-92 0]

Don't know him have no personal connection to him other than my heart breaking when I saw him on TV - my mother in law lives in Jefferson Parish, and she has never had a cross word to say about him.

I felt that the tone of the article made it sound like he was totally off base, either on purpose or because he was a moron, when neither is the case. In your own comment you said "how could this guy get his facts SO WRONG?.

To me, it is VERY easy to understand how he got the facts wrong. Emotion and exhaustion will do that to you.

And why does it MATTER if the guy's mom died on Friday or if the man had been calling her or if she had been calling him? The bottom line is that the man was doing his job for Jeff Parish, was unable to get to his mom, and she died in the flooding. His boss, the Parish President, heard about it, and was overcome by emotion. The timeline on how that occurred is not the point, IMO. The whys and wherefores just don't matter - it was probably just the straw that broke the camel's back, and Broussard lost it on national tv.

Sometimes, it is not a bad thing to let every single solitary detail go unverified. The lady is still dead - that part never changed.

[WarTim 3,457]

I was attempting to be "tongue in cheek absurd". I failed miserably and ask the forgiveness of the Football Goddess.

p.s. You already knew that I was an idiot...right?

[Jenny AU-92 0]

I was attempting to be "tongue in cheek absurd". I failed miserably and ask the forgiveness of the Football Goddess.

p.s. You already knew that I was an idiot...right?

183001[/snapback]

Yes, Timmy, I knew that...

But just like your poor, long suffering wife, I loves ya' anyway, man!!

[TexasTiger 13,016]

Don't always agree with Jenny, but when she's right she nails it. Why would the guy intentionally lie about it? He got his days mixed up. His friend and colleague lost his mother unnecessarily. That's clear.

are we reading the same thread? the same article?

nowhere does it say he intentionally lied. did you think he had TT?

182859[/snapback]

No the article doesn't. Your comments could be construed to imply that, though:

as it turns out, his emotional tale criticizing the slow relief efforts was 'not true'.

very sad the guy's mom died...but how could this guy get his facts SO WRONG?

Why do you have so much trouble understanding how he got some facts wrong?