Former President Bill Clinton said that the government failed people living in coastal communities in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi and called for a full federal investigation into the situation in good time.
In an interview with CNN, the ex-president said, 'Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it,' Clinton admitted. 'One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure.'
Clinton and former president George H.W. Bush were appointed by the present president to oversee fundraising and rescue efforts in the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Right now, Mr. Clinton emphasized that America had to concentrate on those still in need of aide, rescue and medical attention.
'We've got the departments on the ground, we've got the military on the ground, we've got a chance to do it right now, and we should do it right,' he said. 'And then in an appropriate time we should analyze what went wrong and why and what changes should be made.'
President Bush's father agreed with Mr. Clinton regarding the handling of the hurricane's aftermath, adding he is 'not satisfied' with the government's response.
Predictably, he also defended his son, telling Larry King, 'What can he do? He can just go out and do what he's doing today, showing that the federal government's involved, has been involved, will continue to be involved ... He cannot listen to every critic from the editorial page of The New York Times.'
