Hurricane Sandy Activist: Christie Still Sitting On $800 Million In Disaster Relief. Why?
Chris Hayes spoke to activist James Keady about what led to his confrontation with Chris Christie this Wednesday.
All In's Chris Hayes spoke to the activist who was shouted down by Chris Christie at his press conference this Wednesday, and the reason he was protesting ought to be a way bigger story than bully-boy Chris Christie's horrible temper.
Hurricane Sandy survivor: Chris Christie is sitting on $800 million meant for disaster relief:
A New Jersey activist and Hurricane Sandy survivor filmed during a confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Wednesday accused his administration of short-changing a $1.1 billion federal relief package meant to help residents.
“Only 20 percent of those dollars have gotten to the people,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “Of the $1.1 billion, $219 million has gone out. That means that the governor and his staff in Trenton are sitting on $800 million.”
According to Keady’s advocacy group, Finish The Job, Christie’s administration has mismanaged the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) while boasting about its success in the public eye.
“Photo ops, Christie, President Obama, everybody walking on the beach, kumbaya, giving the hugs,” he said.
Keady also responded to Christie's accusation that he did not "do the work" to help restore his community after the storm.
“When the hurricane happened, I actually took a month off from work, dropped everything and volunteered to help clean out peoples’ homes,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “It actually reached the point within a day or two [that] the borough gave me a borough dump truck running all the clean-up crews all over town.”
It would be nice to see some follow up on this story to find out just what happened to that money and why no one's been auditing how it's been spent. I think we can count on Hayes to do just that, unlike his counterparts over at MSNBC who all sat around and had a good laugh after watching the footage of Christie screaming at Keady.