Disaster Gaffes

As his countrymen sorted through the rubble after Monday’s earthquake, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared that they should treat their newfound homelessness like “a weekend of camping.” The Daily Beast remembers some of the great insensitive moments of crisis response through the years.

Andrew Medichini / AP Photo

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---silvio-berlusconi_qo5rwz — “They have medicaments. They have hot food. They have shelter for the night. Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. But they should see it like a weekend of camping."— Silvio Berlusconi, on the 17,000 Italians left homeless by Monday’s earthquake
Andrew Medichini / AP Photo

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---barbara-bush_pkizkw — “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this—this [chuckles] is working very well for them.”— Barbara Bush, suggesting Hurricane Katrina refugees would enjoy living in the Houston Astrodome, 2005
Scott Olson / Getty Images

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---phil-gramm_eype1d — "We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline. You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession.”—former Sen. Phil Gramm, then a John McCain adviser, on the flagging economy, 2008
Douglas Healey / AP Photo

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---tom-delay_t7j5cj — “Now, tell me the truth, boys, is this kind of fun?”— Tom DeLay, to a group of evacuees after Hurricane Katrina, 2005
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---rupert-murdoch_aj13ff — "I think you will see a great deal more restraint and a better-policed code of ethics [in pursuing paparazzi photos]. … It would be a major cost-saving if we can see this through."— Rupert Murdoch, shortly after Princess Diana died in a chase with paparazzi photographers

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---sharon-stone_vuxz94 — "Then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice, that the bad things happen to you?"— Sharon Stone, after the Chinese earthquake, 2008
Dave Hogan / Getty Images

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---charles-locke---the-challenger_nluzod — "This shuttle thing will cost us ten cents a share this year." — Charles Locke, CEO of the aerospace company Morton-Thiokol, the maker of the faulty rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle Challenger, 1986
Bruce Weaver / AP Photo

galleries/2009/04/08/disaster-gaffes/gaffes---donald-rumsfeld_eesiz1 — “Stuff happens.”— Donald Rumsfeld, on the looting that followed the American invasion of Iraq, 2003
Larry Marano / Retna

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