Austin, Texas – Congressman Lloyd Doggett says that the government has completely failed at all levels, and that is why Texas continues to recover from the devastating flooding that killed more than 120 people. During an interview on MSNBC on Saturday morning, the Democrat from Austin gave a harsh review of the emergency response and preparedness, saying that the damage was “totally unnecessary.”
“There are families across the state in tears today, suffering so much loss, and this was totally unnecessary to have this big loss, so many lives, so many children’s lives taken when we have the technological means to do something about it,” Doggett said during his Saturday morning appearance on MSNBC “Velshi, The Hill reported.
The congressman said that FEMA’s search-and-rescue operations were late and lacked proper training, which he said was because they were slow and not well-coordinated. Doggett noted that these problems didn’t emerge on their own; they are the product of bad leadership and a lack of responsibility.
Former President Donald Trump’s reaction during his visit to Texas on Friday added to the stress. When a reporter asked him about how upset people were that flood alerts were late, Trump abruptly brushed aside the concern and went on a rant to defend himself.
“Well, I think everybody did an incredible job under the circumstances,” Trump responded on Friday, adding, “I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There’s just admiration. The eh – only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don’t know who you are. But only a very evil person would ask a question like that.”
Doggett didn’t hold back in his reaction to Trump’s remarks.
“Well, only a president who believes he should have no accountability at all, certainly not from the courts, not from the Congress, not from an inspector general, and in this case, continuing to attack the press when reporters point out that the National Weather Service, despite its dedication, had some problems,” the Texas Democrat said on Saturday.
The argument goes beyond Trump. Doggett also said he had reservations about some of the recent choices made by Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. According to a CNN article, Noem made a rule that any grant or contract over $100,000 had to be personally signed by her, which might impede down important disaster response work. Noem has disputed the claim and called the news “fake news.”
Trump defended Noem in a different interview, saying she responded quickly and had the power she needed. However, Doggett said that bureaucratic delays and political incompetence led to the unfortunate conclusion.
As recovery efforts continue, Doggett and other Democrats are calling for more thorough investigations into what went wrong and genuine responsibility so that future disasters don’t cause the same kind of pain.
