WASHINGTON — President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.
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To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
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As for blunders in the federal response, "
I'm not going to defend the process going in," Bush said. "I am going to defend the people saving lives."
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It was the closest Bush has come to publicly finding fault with any federal officials involved in the hurricane response, which has been widely criticized as disjointed and slow. Some federal officials have sought to fault state and local officials for being unprepared to cope with the disaster.
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