On the October 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report, while introducing a segment on President Bush's tour of the fire-ravaged areas of Southern California, host Brit Hume asserted that Bush “declined to compare the government's wildfire response to the one for Hurricane Katrina.” And during the segment that followed, Fox News chief White House correspondent Bret Baier aired only a statement Bush made when asked by a reporter to compare his administration's response to the fires to its response to Hurricane Katrina in which Bush said, “There's all kinds of time for historians to compare this response or that response.” But neither Hume nor Baier noted that Bush also said, during a news conference earlier in the day, that "[i]t makes a big difference when you have someone in the statehouse willing to take the lead." As The Washington Post reported, Bush made the statement while speaking to “a crowd of hundreds of firefighters at a command post at Kit Carson Park in Escondido in northern San Diego County.” It was during a “subsequent tour” of Rancho Bernardo in San Diego, as the Post also reported, that Bush declined to compare the government's response to the wildfires to its handling of Katrina.

During the Special Report segment, Hume asserted: “President Bush hit the ground in Southern California today to view the devastation. He declined to compare the government's wildfire response to the one for Hurricane Katrina. Chief White House correspondent Bret Baier reports Mr. Bush instead tried to give the kind of attention and comfort that only the president can bring.” During the segment, Baier stated: “President Bush walked through the ashes and rubble of Jay and Kendra Jeffcoat's home in Rancho Bernardo. The fires claimed almost everything, leaving only a charred spiral staircase to nowhere and a piece of wall showing their address.” Baier then played a portion of Bush's response to a reporter's question about “thoughts” Bush may have “about the contrast between this response and the Katrina response,” highlighting specifically Bush's statement that "[t]here's all kinds of time for historians to compare this response or that response. But those of us who are here from government, our hearts are right here with the Jeffcoats. That's where we are."

From a White House news release, which included Bush's full response to the reporter's question:

QUESTION: Mr. President, a lot has been made about the contrast between this response and the Katrina response. Do you have any thoughts on that, and how you're doing?

BUSH: You better ask the governor [of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger] how we're doing. I will tell you this: On all these responses, the thing that has amazed me most is the courage of our first responders. The firefighters here in this part of the world are incredibly brave people. The police force has done a fabulous job. And same in the Katrina area. I mean, I know there was a lot of criticism of effort, but remember, there was 33,000 people pulled off roofs by brave Coast Guard men and women flying those choppers. A lot of people's lives were saved.

REP. BRIAN BILBRAY (R-CA): San Diego County has a centralized disaster response team made up of the County chairman as the chairman of the Disaster Council, and every police chief and fire chief and mayor, so there's a network here that those of us in the federal and the state level are able to come supplement. But the backbone of this response was the local providers, because they were organized. So the real heroes here are the providers, are the men and women working for the counties and the cities and the fire districts that really were here first and foremost, and we're just supplementing.

BUSH: Yes, see, that's an interesting question. I appreciate you asking it. My hearts are with the Jeffcoats right now, that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about people whose lives turned upside-down. The experts can try to figure out whether the response was perfect or not. All I can tell you is when the governor calls, I answer his phone. When the governor says we need this help, think about sending these troops here, I got on the phone, I called the appropriate people. I'm interested in helping him solve problems and helping the folks here at the county level. There's all kinds of time for historians to compare this response or that response, but those of us who are here from government, our hearts are right here with the Jeffcoats, that's where we are.

And I'm looking forward, and I know the senator and governor and congressman is, to eating lunch with the firefighters. We can't thank people enough for putting their lives at risk to help a neighbor, and that's exactly what's taking place. If there needs to be more firefighters, we'll send more firefighters. Those are the kind of questions that we're asking: What does it take to get the job done?

While neither Hume nor Baier mentioned Bush's comment that "[i]t makes a big difference when you have someone in the statehouse willing to take the lead" -- made earlier the same day -- it was reported by other media outlets. In The New York Times, reporter Jennifer Steinhauer wrote that Bush's remark was “an apparent dig at the Louisiana governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat,” for her handling of Hurricane Katrina two years earlier and noted that "[t]he president pointedly praised Mr. Schwarzenegger's handling of the country's biggest disaster since Hurricane Katrina two years ago, making veiled comparisons to local relief efforts at that time in Louisiana."

From the October 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: President Bush hit the ground in Southern California today to view the devastation. He declined to compare the government's wildfire response to the one for Hurricane Katrina. Chief White House correspondent Bret Baier reports Mr. Bush instead tried to give the kind of attention and comfort that only the president can bring.

[begin video clip]

BAIER: President Bush walked through the ashes and rubble of Jay and Kendra Jeffcoat's home in Rancho Bernardo. The fires claimed almost everything, leaving only a charred spiral staircase to nowhere and a piece of wall showing their address. The president toured the neighborhood with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray.

BUSH: God bless you all.

BAIER: While comforting Kendra Jeffcoat, the president was asked by a reporter to compare his administration's response to the fires to the response to Hurricane Katrina.

BUSH: There's all kinds of time for historians to compare this response or that response. But those of us who are here from government, our hearts are right here with the Jeffcoats. That's where we are.

BAIER: The president said Governor Schwarzenegger would have to evaluate the response, praising the governor for his leadership. Schwarzenegger wanted to make clear to reporters that it was President Bush who called him early on, as the fires had just started spreading.

SCHWARZENEGGER: Anything he could do, anything that we need, we should let him know. That all his entire Cabinet and his whole staff, his team, everyone is available. So I call this quick action, I mean, quicker than I expected. I can tell you that.

BAIER: The president's trip to the area started with a helicopter tour through smoky haze, viewing scorched acres, but also evidence that the fires had been contained in this particular area. A briefing by fire officials showed that firefighters had taken advantage of the winds dying down to beat back four separate fires around San Diego.

BUSH: We thank you for helping save lives and save property.

BAIER: The president then met with some of the men and women who've been battling the blazes, thanking them for their hard work, and promising, as the flames died down, the support won't.

BUSH: We're not going to forget you in Washington, D.C. That we want the people to know that there's a better day ahead, that today your life may look dismal, but tomorrow, life's going to be better. And to the extent that the federal government can help you, we want to do so.

BAIER: While Senator Feinstein has praised the president's response to the fires, the other California senator, Barbara Boxer, has backed off a Tuesday comment that half of the state's National Guard equipment is not available because of Iraq. And now, she's happy with the federal response.

BOXER: I see the state, the federal, the local working very seamlessly in a way where people put their egos aside to work together. Whether all of the assets we should have had were at our disposal, I don't know at this point.

[end video clip]

BAIER: Officials at the Interior Department say almost 2,000 federal firefighting personnel and some 57 aircraft are helping out in California. The president's homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, insisted to reporters, quote, “This is not the end of federal assistance. It's just the beginning.” Brit.

From the October 26 New York Times article:

Mr. Bush, joined by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, also a Republican, visited the charred remains of neighborhoods, met distraught residents and exhausted fire crews and viewed fires that continue to burn throughout the region. By Thursday, the fires had destroyed 1,800 homes, injured 57 people and burned a half-million acres, a little more than twice the size of New York City.

The president pointedly praised Mr. Schwarzenegger's handling of the country's biggest disaster since Hurricane Katrina two years ago, making veiled comparisons to local relief efforts at that time in Louisiana.

“It makes a big difference when you have someone in the statehouse willing to take the lead,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference, in an apparent dig at the Louisiana governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat. He also assured California residents, “We're not going to forget you in Washington, D.C.”

From the October 26 Washington Post article:

Bush's helicopter, Marine One, flew over a denuded canyon, hovering there for a time in the smoky haze. It then flew over Interstate 15 before landing on a high school football field.

“It makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead,” Bush told a crowd of hundreds of firefighters at a command post at Kit Carson Park in Escondido in northern San Diego County.

During a subsequent tour of a San Diego neighborhood, Bush said he would leave it to historians to compare the government's performance in responding to the California fires with that of its response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “There's all kinds of time for historians to compare this response or that response,” he said, his arm draped over the shoulder of Kendra Jeffcoat, who lost her home in the wildfires.

Bush and Schwarzenegger gave each other credit for what they described as the prompt and effective response of state and federal agencies that had kept the number killed by the fires low, though the inferno has devastated 753 square miles and will end up causing more than $1 billion in damage.