Trump uses hurricane briefing to congratulate Pence on convention speech

During an emergency briefing on Hurricane Laura on Thursday, Donald Trump paused to congratulate Vice President Mike Pence for his speech at the Republican National Convention the night before.

“I just want to say Mike did a fantastic job last night. And I think you deserve the honor of making your statement right there,” Trump said, during a meeting with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials.

Pence spoke on the convention’s third night, using his platform to promote Trump’s record and skewing his various accomplishments. He spoke darkly in fearmongering terms of an America without Trump, which he claimed would be dangerous and violent, and supposedly led by socialist policy.

Trump’s comments on Thursday came amid warnings from those officials about preventing injuries and deaths following the storm, which made landfall in Louisiana and Texas on Thursday morning as a category 5 hurricane, packing 150 mph winds.

At least four people have died so far and more than 800,000 people are without power.

From an Aug. 27 FEMA briefing:

FEMA OFFICIAL: So that’s going to be our message for the next couple days, so we prevent injuries and deaths following the storm. Again, you’ll see that probably more slightly spike up because that’s what happens on these big storms.

 

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. I just want to say Mike did a fantastic job last night. And I think you deserve the honor of making your statement right there. You made a big statement last night, let’s make a smaller one now.

 

MIKE PENCE: Well, thank you Mr. President.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.