Under-fire Bush defends response to national emergency

US President George W Bush, already under fire for the Iraq war, yesterday tried to fight off criticism over his response to Hurricane Katrina as he pleaded with Americans to keep politics out of the disaster.

Mr Bush cut short a holiday at his Texas ranch to return to Washington on Wednesday to take charge of recovery efforts two days after Katrina walloped the US Gulf Coast, leaving hundreds feared dead.

But critics have accused him of failing to take one of the country’s worst national disasters seriously enough at the outset, prompting a strong riposte from the president yesterday.

“I hope people don’t play politics during this period,” Bush said in an unscheduled interview on ABC.

“This is a natural disaster, the likes of which our country may have never seen before. And it is a national emergency. And what we need to do as a nation is come together to solve the problem and not play politics. There will be ample time for politics,” he said.

The New York Times, in a scathing editorial titled Waiting for a Leader, dismissed his remarks of consolation and support on Wednesday as “one of the worst speeches of his life”.

“In what seems to be a ritual in this administration the president appeared a day later than was needed,” the Times said.

“And nothing about the president’s demeanour yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested he understood the depth of the current crisis.”

USA Today also criticised early coordination problems in rescue and recovery efforts, and scored the White House for “what appeared to be a halting response”.

“The president has mobilised a massive response,” the paper said.

“Even so, the feeling lingers that for the victims of Katrina in most imminent peril, help might be arriving too late.”

It was not the first time Mr Bush, who campaigned for re-election last year as a tough and decisive war president, has been criticised for a tardy response to catastrophe.

The criticism over Katrina came at a bad time for Mr Bush, with his popularity ratings sinking to around 45%, the lowest of his presidency, and less than four in 10 Americans approving of his handling of Iraq.

But Mr Bush insisted yesterday he reacted swiftly to Hurricane Katrina once the magnitude of the calamity became apparent as he was winding up a five-week vacation at his ranch.

He said he told aides: “Look, when I get back to Washington on Wednesday afternoon I want to have a report on my desk and a cabinet meeting for you to tell me exactly what your departments are going to do.”