Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) suggested Tuesday that those looking to assign “blame” for the deadly flood in Kerr County last weekend might just have the mindset of “losers.”
Abbott confirmed that more than 100 people died over the July Fourth holiday weekend, and over 160 people are believed to still be missing in the aftermath of the flood that ravaged his state. While Texas is moving towards recovery, residents are still seeking answers about who was responsible for monitoring the weather and warning them of dangers.
When asked by a reporter if he would ask for an investigation into “who is to blame here,” a seemingly frustrated Abbott responded by claiming the word “blame” is for losers.
“You asked and I’m going to use your words, ‘Who’s to blame?’ Know this, that’s the word choice of losers,” Abbott said.
The governor went on to seemingly compare the flood response to a football game, stating “every square inch of our state cares about football” and “every football team makes mistakes,” but “the losing teams are the ones that try to point out who’s to blame.”
“The championship teams are the ones that say, ‘Don’t worry about it, man, we got this. We’re going to make sure that we go score again, that we’re going to win this game,’” Abbott said. “The way winners talk is not to point fingers. They talk about solutions. What Texas is all about is solutions.”
Local leaders have expressed the need for a formal flood warning system for a long time. The Federal Emergency Management Agency chose not to allocate FEMA funds to Kerr County for such a system, and local residents didn’t want to pay for it, either.
Other top Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Vice President JD Vance, offered prayers following the devastation. However, they received backlash for supporting the Trump administration’s cuts to agencies tasked with overseeing severe weather and natural disasters.
Among Republicans being slammed online was also Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who was in Athens, Greece, during the time of the flood. His communications office said the senator “promptly booked a flight” to come to Texas “as fast as humanly possible.”
Some Democrats called for an investigation into the National Weather Service to determine if staffing shortages affected the flood’s forecast. In a letter to the Department of Commerce, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) cited a New York Times report that said the Trump administration’s hiring freeze left key positions at the NWS San Antonio and San Angelo offices vacant.
“As those impacted begin to mourn their catastrophic loss and start to rebuild their communities,” Schumer wrote, “we must do everything possible to provide answers as to why the community was not alerted sooner that dangerously high floodwaters were imminent.”
