By Mike Thayer
Earlier this week, The Daily Caller circulated clips the mainstream media failed to properly report on of a 2007 speech then-Senator Barack Obama gave to black ministers and church members, to include black liberation theology pastor Jeremiah Wright. In that speech, Obama suggested the federal government discriminated against the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“Down in New Orleans, where they still have not rebuilt 20 months later,” Obama says, “there’s a law, federal law — when you get reconstruction money from the federal government — called the Stafford Act. And basically it says, when you get federal money, you’ve got to give a 10 percent match. The local government’s got to come up with 10 percent. Every 10 dollars the federal government comes up with, local government’s got to give a dollar.
“Now here’s the thing, when 9/11 happened in New York City, they waived the Stafford Act — said, ‘This is too serious a problem. We can’t expect New York City to rebuild on its own. Forget that dollar you got to put in. Well, here’s 10 dollars.’ And that was the right thing to do. When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, ‘Look at this devastation. We don’t expect you to come up with y’own money, here. Here’s the money to rebuild. We’re not going to wait for you to scratch it together — because you’re part of the American family.’ … What’s happening down in New Orleans? Where’s your dollar? Where’s your Stafford Act money? Makes no sense. Tells me that somehow, the people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much.”
In an interview with Meagan Kelly of Fox News, contributer Tucker Carlson said the statements made by Obama were evidence he was “whipping up race hatred and fear. Period.”
The truth? Obama was one of 14 Senators who voted AGAINST the bill that waived the Stafford Act, making relief funds available with no strings attached. That vote took place just a couple weeks before Obama made that speech.
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