The president of a Louisiana parish tearfully told a national TV audience the heartbreaking story of a coworker whose mother was left to die in a flooded nursing home days after Hurricane Katrina immobilized New Orleans – but, as it turns out, the story isn’t true.
The blog WuzzaDem.com uncovered the truth-stretching rhetoric of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard’s account he shared on “Meet the Press” Sept. 4 as he emotionally complained about lack of federal response to Katrina victims.
Here is Broussard’s story broadcast on the NBC news show:
The guy who runs this building I’m in, emergency management, he’s responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in a 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.
The Friday night Broussard is talking about was Sept. 2, but it turns out the woman actually died Aug. 29, the previous Monday, when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
 Aaron Broussard’s tearful outburst. |
MSNBC reported the man Broussard was talking about is Thomas Rodrigue, who told “Dateline” that his 92-year-old mother was one of 32 elderly people found dead at the St. Rita’s nursing home. The New York Times reported the 32 residents, out of 60 total, died Aug. 29.
CNN reported Rodrigue, as he worked the hurricane watch Aug. 28, called the nursing home in St. Bernard to plead with the management to evacuate the residents. He also says he contacted St. Bernard Parish officials asking them to send sheriff’s office personnel to the facility to evacuate his mother and the others – but to no avail. Over half the residents were killed Monday when Katrina came ashore.
Reported WuzzaDem.com: “Broussard claims Rodrigue was talking to his mother for four days after she died, promising here some nebulous ‘cavalry’ was on the way. His story doesn’t jibe with the reporting of CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, or even Thomas Rodrigue’s own account.
“Why would he lie about such a thing?
“Aaron Broussard’s crocodile tears came at the tail-end of a tirade against FEMA, in response to a question from [host] Tim Russert asking whether the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana could have been ‘more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area.'”
The site claims Broussard, a Democrat, was “trying to score political points” by blaming federal officials when Louisiana’s emergency plan explicitly designates local officials as those responsible for pre-disaster evacuation and for responding directly after an event.
The website Lies.com also reported on Broussard’s fabrication, saying, “Assuming the MSNBC story is accurate, Broussard’s story was at least significantly embellished. … Broussard, for all the apparent sincerity in his emotional on-air breakdown, was willing to lie in order to make his story work better as political theater.”
