American taxpayers more than a Million Dollars. Earlier white house tried to downplay its role. To be clear, white house doesnt have role on the front end of approving private Charter Flights. Thats agencies and something were looking into from this point forward and asked a halt to be put particularly at ahs on any Charter Flights moving forward. White house may not approve but played a role in travel costs overall. Approved the use of Military Aircraft for prices trips to africa, europe and asia to tune of half a Million Dollars. Adding to the cost. Price reimbursing government about 52,000. Inspector general is investigating whole mess but in case of private jets, anyone can figure out how outrageous the
travel costs were. 300 to fly commercial from washington to nashville. He took a private plane at more than 17,000. At least 20 trips. Including a flight from washington to philadelphia, can drive in 2 1 2 hours or train for 72. This is just the spending that price railed against under the obama administration. In particular spending on private planes for congressman. Nancy pelosi. What i want to say to the speaker, dont you fly over our country in private jet and lecture us on what it means to be an american. Still talking about being frugal this summer. Price said in june its incredibly important to get rid of wasteful spending in Government Health programs. And he took a private plane to
precarious situation even more so. And also i get he doesnt want to pay full cost of the Charter Flights, but did he actually think this was going to put it away . Agreeing to pay for equivalent price of a Business Class ticket on these flights . He commented a bit ago. What did he say . Reporter you have to wonder about that. Im told by someone familiar with the president s thinking, close white house aide who is talking to us confidently saying that president is incensed by this and fact its 52,000 to pay for that, talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not going to help Secretary Price keep his job. Caught up with Secretary Price and asked him where he stands. Take a listen. Couple of quick questions. Will the check youre writing satisfy your bosses and taxpayers questions . I think what weve done right now is demonstrate a good faith effort. Heard the concern and criticism and look forward to the inspector generals report. Reporter he said absolutely he would stay on the job but thats not decision up to him. Its up to the president and that interview was done shortly before the latest revelation in politico again tonight about half Million Dollars more worth of foreign travel on the Military Aircraft. And its not travel thats the question. Cabinet secretaries travel all over the place. He was looking into treatment of ebola in africa, attending world health organizations. But what is different is using private or military planes. Every recent health and Human Services secretary weve talked to, a lot of them, republicans and democrats, they always flew
commercial. Difference is military planes are reserved for secretary of state, defense secretary, others with urgent business with matters of national security, not the health and Human Services secretary. And frankly his office hasnt been upfront about the reasons or number of trips. At one point saying so busy, sometimes has to take private planes. One of the trips to island, i guess where they have a house with his wife and there was conference there but they went there two days early. So the idea that there was no commercial flight, no way to get there commercially is not right. Reporter weve seen these situations in washington before where you think someone may hold on. Its president s decision. Well see about this. Not followed crisis management
101 getting everything out there. Now wondering with the latest revelation, are they trying to get it out there . But all the new revelations again are not giving president confidence in his secretary. Talking to someone close to the white house and president , saying this is making it more difficult for the president to stick with him. Well see. Opening questions for people throughout the government. If others are doing this. Wealthy members of the cabinet fly their own planes, that is fine. Others moderately wealthy. Price as net worth of 10 million or so, not enough to get a private plane. Was he wanting to live that lifestyle . Well see. No question tomorrow the president will be asked again about this if hell keep him on board but hes in hot water tonight. 10 million net worth is more than moderately wealthy. Stereotype about the trump administration, rich people, privileged people, rules dont apply to them. Idea is draining the swamp, this is flying over the swamp in private plane. This is continuing the swamp in private plane. I agree with jeff. President has become aware in recent days just how damaging this is for him. That is what he cares about. This impacts Public Perception of him and his administration. Beginning of the week people in white house telling me thought he would survive this. He would be damaged, president is not enamerred of tom price. Not his favorite cabinet pick. But story of taking plane to visit his son. There were a ton of instances in that story of mingling personal life with use of the jets and that put it overboard for the president. Musing about the idea that price
should have to pay this back but told by people in his own circle, that raises question to what it means for other people in terms of the flights . Cabinet secretaries and staff who went on the planes. Its not clear too many people were aware he was announcing reimbursing for the seat. Maybe a couple in the west wing. The president did not actually ask him to do this as i understand it. Continues to roll along as chaos unchecked. Moronic announcement to make, do this partial thing. I get it, he doesnt want to spend all that money. Ironic on two levels. A, continues it. B, raises a host of legal questions, do other people have to pay for their seats . How does that work . What is the precedent . It doesnt go away. Its not only about but partly about perception. And this president came in
saying he was going to be different and drain the swamp. This week Backing Establishment candidate for senate who lost. Administration mired in investigations and now a cabinet appearance of cabinet run amok. That cant continue for him. After the Treasury Secretary and his wife flew the plane to fort knox. The day of the eclipse. And she decided to tweet on instagram. And tom price was brought on, member of congress that was going to overturn obamacare, that has turned into major fiasco. It was senate not house that price came from. But theres nothing donald trump likes at moment about house and senate republicans. Tom price is representative of them. Another reason hes irritated. And cnn reporting tonight that administration is on the hunt for leakers within the department of health and Human Services. Interesting about that, as if
leaking is the egregious part of the tale. Thats all ask maggie. Always tends to be where this goes with this administration. It is part recognition that theres a public issue here and large part about paranoia and fear that things are going on were not in control of. Bigger question for white house right now is what is happening at various agencies. And theres clear sense putting it together. Questions about Scott Pruitts spending at epa, advisers defend it but sound prf booth thing. Private security. Most epa dont. And money for the soundproof booth. All a giant bag of what is going on here. And one of the effective parts of candidate Trumps Campaign was the notion of draining the swamp. First time he said it, Korey Lewandowski said i think youll
hear that a lot. Winning phrase. When it comes to washington, d. C. , it is time to drain the damn swamp. Drain the swamp. Were going to drain the swamp of washington. Were going to have fun doing it. When we win on november 8, were going to drain the swamp. Were going to drain the swamp of Government Corruption in washington, d. C. It is time to drain the swamp. And now i think he wanted to drain the swamp. Thats what i drew from what he was saying. But look who is in the government . Bunch of very wealthy and privileged people. Fortunately some like betsy devos and wilbur ross can afford their own private planes and are
paying for them but its very elite wealthy Group Running the government and apparently tom price wants to live like them. Up next, members of the administration defending handling of puerto rico. Calling it good news story. See how it squares with what puerto rico is saying. Nfl, continuing debate about taking the knee during the National Anthem. Government and apparently tom i count on my dell Small Business advisor
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crisis in puerto rico and two questions, is enough being done to meet overwhelming needs there and is the white house painting overly optimistic picture of their time so far. Disasters are time for Decision Makers in the field, all up the chain of command. List of obstacles for puerto rico is long one. Things go wrong and lot of people in fema and elsewhere working round the clock to try to help. All argues against appearing over confident. Had this to say when asked if satisfied with the government response so far. Im very satisfied. I know its a hard storm to recover from but the amount of progress thats been made and i really would appreciate any support that we get. I know it is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited
number of deaths taken place in sufficient a devastating hurricane. Certainly good news story in limited number of fatalities from the hurricane but beyond that correspondents on the ground not hearing from people thinking of it as good news. Translator im getting desperate. This is no way to live. They should bring us water, other supplies. Kids keep asking. Waiting days for food or bag of ice to keep food she has from spoiling. Local docks are distributing but containers are stuck because roads are bad, communication is down and drivers in short supply. Named overseer for the operations on the ground but raise the question, why has it taken more than a week. Why has it taken eight days
to get Three Star General on the ground to start organizing this . Because it didnt require a Three Star General eight days ago. We had Three Star General in charge of this from day minus eight. Thousands of miles from puerto rico. Would you acknowledge its a mistake looking back to not have him on the ground earlier . Not at all. Doesnt affect the way we stage equipment and handle area and field operational command. This is textbook and been done well. Saying this is textbook. General who led the response to katrina disagrees. Slow to deploy the military. Took us seven days for Brigadier General and another 24 hours in pentagon to decide on Three Star General. Waved the jones act allowing
foreign flagged Cargo Vessels to bring in supplies. Reason given that governor only gave it today. Touted his talks about the governor so surprising it didnt come up. Tweeted on the subject. Fema and First Responders are doing a great job. Locals trying to help. Many lost homes. Military on site. I will be there tuesday. Wish press would treat fairly. Joining me all from puerto rico tonight. People you spoke to today at river crossing, have they seen aid in the areas theyre coming from . Reporter theyve seen not a single bit of aid or assistance. About 45 minutes drive from where boris and i are standing here to where a bridge was washed out by flash floods during hurricane maria. We were able to drive there and
ford the river. Take a little look at what we were seeing there and people were experiencing there. The wire theyre hanging on to has been set up by residents of the town. This is their improvised method for trying to reach the outside world. We just spoke with a couple who had crossed this way and walked two hours to nearest supermarket to try to get bread and food and rice for their children, then had to walk two hours back. That town, san lorenzo, about 1,000 residents, 25 miles as crow flies from capital san juan. They have no electricity, no phones, you can see that transport is paralyzed, main way out to the outside world. Have to ford river, kneehigh water. Cant do it if youre elderly or
child and what do you do if medical emergency . No running water. Visit from municipal mayor and fema two days after the hurricane but no assistant whatsoever. Only help is local authorities allowed them to take food out of the shattered school in the town and distribute it ad hoc to the community. Sanjay, youve been at shelter with people with serious medical needs talk about the care they need. Reporter what happened was a lot of these folks, even before the hurricane was approaching, went to these shelters to evacuate their homes. At that point they basically have been there now for 10 or 11 days, whatever number its been. Without any power, without any water. Many of those people went to shelters because they were worried of their illness, wouldnt be able to get medical care after the hurricane. That has remained the case for several days now. What we saw over there was doctors trying to care for these patients but have not had supplies, gotten the power they need there. Not even clean water. Now they have no coms, communications to get patients to the hospitals to get care. There was woman who had been there about 11 days, severe infection, lifethreatening the doctors said. Trying to raise anyone. We gave her a Satellite Phone to get help and eventually were able to help her. Thats just one person. Thousands more in shelters and probably in homes who havent gotten to hospitals yet. Hospitals havent even begun to see what theyre likely going to over the next several days. Seems like lot of the needs are basic. Insulin, Prescription Drugs that people take every day and need to renew. Disinfectants. But without the right supplies in hospital or on Store Shelves weve seen containers at port, not fema but regular goods that should be on the Store Shelves, its hard to get those to the stores. Without that, can turn lifethreatening quickly for a lot of people. Reporter yeah. Thats really the point. Something that bears repeating, a lot of these supplies were talking about are on the island. Thats what were hearing, antibiotics, pain medications, even sat phones but not getting to people who need them. As ivan was talking about same here. Didnt see fema support and doctors on the ground havent either. You and i cover a lot of these stories and throw around the term humanitarian crisis or disaster, what that means as you
well know, after the hurricane in this case people could die of total total totally preventible things, simple treatments but people are likely to die for lack of very basic things. Getting antibiotics to people is not logistical, its life shf saving thing. People are suffering because gone without so so long. Boris, you were at port of san juan, where the containers were waiting to get trucked out. Saying that fema could get emergency supplies off ships and distributed best as they can in lot of different ways but guy from the port you talked to, what did he say was in the containers . Everyday supplies, simple
medications like sanjay referenced, tylenol to refrigerated items withering away at port. Clothing, food, cars, anything out there could be used by people here in puerto rico, at least according to the Vice President of crowley, the company that manages those containers. Ive heard from people on the street asking us where is the aid, the relief, fema . If the gridlock, layers of Problems Holding those containers back from getting where they need to go could be unravelled, then people would have more access to very necessary items. Thats one of the things that white house was saying even in Hurricane Harvey and in florida, if you can get stores open for people to purchase goods, that helps entire emergency situation. Obviously thats what youre
saying lot of those supplies are. Thanks very much. Some of the correspondents, producers and photo journalists, we have dozens on the ground in puerto rico. More details on the Three Star General who will be leading this. Speaking to general Russell Honore who is fired up about this. Be right back. This is the Drug Enforcement agency. We are ordering you to land immediately. Alright boys, lets land. What is he . [ Car Horn Honks ] thats for your bike. You never saw me. [ bell rings ] i was working for the c. I. A. And pablo escobar. Who thought that was gonna be a problem . [ Upbeat Music Playing ] there are bills blowin around the backyard. Ill rake it up in