DNC: McCain Deceived Public on Katrina Votes

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) today alleged that John McCain has deceived the public about his opposition to a congressional investigation of the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

McCain voted twice against an amendment offered by Hillary Clinton to create a congressional commission to investigate federal, state, and local government responses — once in 2005 and again in 2006.

At a press conference in Baton Rouge, La. today, McCain responded to a question about the votes by saying, “I’ve supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy…I’m not familiar with exactly what you said, but I’ve been as active as anybody in efforts to restore the city.”

The DNC circulated a press release today calling that assertion a deceit.

“During his media availability in Baton Rouge today, John McCain told reporters that he ‘supported every investigation’ into what went wrong during Hurricane Katrina,” the DNC stated in the release. “Unfortunately for the people of Louisiana, that is just not true.”

While McCain said he did not know of the specific votes to which the reporter referred, McCain recalled a bill he voted against because, he said, it included spending projects unrelated to New Orleans. “I also voted against one of the bills that came down which was loaded with pork-barrel projects that had nothing to do with New Orleans, too,” McCain said. “It had billions for projects and programs that had nothing to do with the recovery of the city of New Orleans.”

See below the video of McCain’s response: