Presidential Visit Highlights Urgent Recovery Efforts (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Yeah, because the questions and the needs are so urgent right now, and I want to bring in Deanne Criswell, who is the former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. Thank you for being with us. It's perfect timing. Hang on, there he is. There's the president of the United States and the first lady coming down the steps of Air Force One to go tour this. So, first, on what we're looking at right now, how important, as a former FEMA administrator, is a visit by the president to something like this? And how important is the relationship with

Speaker 2: Gavin Newsom? I think it's incredibly important, Terry, because people want to know that their federal government is there for them. And so when a president shows up, it means that they're there to better understand what the situation is and to ensure that the federal government is providing all of the resources that the communities are eligible to receive. But they do have to work together. The governor and the president are going to have to work together to make sure that everybody understands how much is going to be needed for this really complicated recovery, and that these people can get on this road to help rebuild as fast as possible.

Speaker 1: Let's see. They're going to take a few questions here. Thank you very much. We'll be right back to you. Let's listen in.

Speaker 3: Thank you very much. And we'll be talking a little bit. We want to get it fixed. We want to get the problem fixed. And there'll be some ways. But it's like you got hit by a bomb, right? Yeah. Like you got hit by a bomb. Would you like to say something?

Speaker 4: Most importantly, thank you for being here. It means a great deal to all of us, not just the folks in Palisades, the folks in Altadena that were devastated. We're going to need your support. We're going to need your help. You were there for us during COVID. I don't forget that. And I have all the expectations that we'll be able to work together to get this speedy recovery.

Speaker 3: We will. We're going to get it done. Tremendous numbers of lives have been affected. A lot of real estate's been affected. Nobody's ever probably seen anything like this. You can almost say since the Second World War, when you think of it. I mean, nothing like this has happened. And we're going to get it fixed. So we'll get it permanently fixed. So it can't happen again. And again, we'll be talking a little bit later and we're going to work out. Okay. I appreciate it, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 5: Mr. President, the both of you have disagreed a lot over the past week over what has happened in this state. How do you plan to-

Speaker 3: We got to get it finished. We're looking to get something completed. And the way you get it completed is to work together. He's the governor of the state. And we're going to get it completed. They're going to need a lot of federal help. Unless you don't need any, which you do. We're going to need a lot of federal help. So we're going to take care of things.