Rules for thee but not for me has long been an unwritten motto within the Democratic Party. Whatever they do to you, you must not do to them lest you be improperly “politicizing” whatever the topic of the day is. That was the line trotted out on CNN in a discussion about the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, and Scott Jennings was having none of it.
Appearing on Anderson Coopers’ show on Friday, Jennings lit into the suggestion that criticizing Biden and Harris is crossing some sort of line. Specifically, he mentions how George W. Bush was treated in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Joe Biden was at the beach when the hurricane came ashore. VP Harris was raising money w/ celebrities before staging a plane photo op. I promise you if a Republican were in the WH there would be no political restraint, just as there was none after Katrina. pic.twitter.com/K8LjX6Sd6U
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 5, 2024
JENNINGS: I lived through Hurricane Katrina in the Bush White House, as I know you lived through it Anderson, covering it, and I don’t recall any restraint by Democrats or the national media coming after George W. Bush and FEMA and every other thing. It was immediately politicized, and, you know, I mean, I well remember it. It’s seared into my brain.
And so now, all these people are out here saying, “We can’t politicize this, we can’t criticize this,” you know, nothing can be said about Biden and Harris here or FEMA or anything else, and I just think, if a Republican were in the White House, and a Republican president were at the beach, and the vice president were raising money with celebrities, I guarantee you somebody would be mad about it.
Jennings nails the frustration so many Republicans feel now and have felt for decades when it comes to the double standards in the press. Recall that then-President George W. Bush essentially had his political legacy destroyed over a flyover he did surveying the damage done by Katrina. He was then on the ground within three days to help direct the response.
By contrast, Joe Biden didn’t show up in North Carolina until seven days after the storm hit. He spent the weekend that the hurricane struck Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas relaxing on the beach. Across the country, Kamala Harris was attending a swanky celebrity fundraiser in California. Neither of them has faced any criticism from the same mainstream press that lambasted Bush as an evil, unempathetic moron for not somehow preventing the unpredictable issues in New Orleans.
Saying that the devastation is worthy of the same critique doesn’t pass muster. Somewhere over 200 people have died with hundreds more still missing due to widespread flooding in and around Asheville, NC. What has Biden done? He’s repeatedly claimed everything is great and that the people on the ground are “happy across the board.” His tone-deafness is only matched by the Harris’ campaign schedule.
SEE: Joe Biden’s Response to Hurricane Helene Question Causes Outrage
There will be no “political restraint” regarding hurricane responses after what Democrats did to George W. Bush. The Biden administration has made several mistakes that deserve to be called out before voters head to the polls in November. Perhaps one day, Democrats will learn not to set precedents that come back to bite them. Until then it’s game on.
