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Democrats and media outlets across the country have been quick to politicize the devastating flooding in Texas that killed at least 91 people by blaming climate change, President Trump, race and government cuts.
“It is hard to make the Texas flood tragedy worse, except to know that on the same day Trump signed a bill cratering solar and wind energy that is vital in the battle against the climate change making these torrential rains more frequent,” former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee posted on X on Saturday as bodies were still being recovered in Texas.
“I think climate change is obviously a part of it,” Dem. Rep. Joaquin Castro told CNN. “These floods are happening more often.”
“’Waste, fraud & abuse’ is a handy mantra,” Former Obama aide David Axelrod posted on X on Sunday. “And they surely exist, in & out of government. But cutting vital services like the weather service has predictable, hazardous consequences – especially when catastrophic weather events are becoming more frequent!”
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“Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., posted on X in response to reports that a specific meteorologist position in the area was unfilled at the time of the flood. “There are consequences to Trump’s brainless attacks on public workers, like meteorologists.”
Murphy was one of several critics on the left to invoke Trump’s name.
“It only took 9 days for Trump’s cuts to the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] to kill dozens of children in Texas when Tropical Storm Barry landed this week,” Grant Stern, the executive editor of Occupy Democrats, wrote on X.
“The people in Texas voted for government services controlled by Donald Trump and Greg Abbott,” added Ron Filipkowski, former federal prosecutor and the editor-in-chief of MediasTouchNews. “That is exactly what they (sic) getting.”
Isaiah Martin, a Democratic candidate for Texas’s 18th Congressional District, called for an immediate congressional investigation into “the Republican DOGE cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service.”
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“We saw the affects (sic) this weekend,” Martin wrote on X. “Trump defunded these agencies and we DEMAND answers. There MUST be *swift* accountability!”
“Trump & Musk gutted the National Weather Service. The result was predictable: A bad forecast leading to the death of children in a horrific flood,” added California state Sen. Scott Wiener.
Additionally, several media outlets joined Democrats in placing blame on budget cuts and suggesting the National Weather Service was understaffed at the time of the flooding despite an Associated Press report that said the NWS office in the area had extra staff on duty at the time of the flooding.
“Reminder: The staffing shortages at the National Weather Service’s San Angelo and San Antonio offices doubled under the Trump administration,” the official X account of the Democratic Party wrote on X in a post that was lambasted by conservatives on social media. “These jobs are meant to coordinate disaster response and save lives.”
“The Big Ugly Bill’s elimination of climate action laws and cutbacks in the National Weather Service couldn’t come at a worse time as the deadly flooding in Texas has shown,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., posted on X. “Those incidents are likely to get worse as Republicans ignore the reality of climate change.”
Some incorporated race into the equation, including Sade Perkins, a former member of the Houston Food Insecurity Board, who suggested in a heavily criticized video the intense media coverage of the event was because the young girls who were killed at a summer camp in the flood’s path were White.
Several meteorologists have pushed back in recent days on Democratic claims that Trump administration cuts to NOAA, NWS and other government agencies directly contributed to the tragedy.
“The event has nothing to do with climate change,” meteorologist Chris Martz posted on X. “And, the tragedy had nothing to do with DOGE cuts.If you are someone who has exploited this catastrophe because you just don’t like Trump, you need to take a serious look in the mirror.”
Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, told NBC News that weather forecasting offices were adequately staffed, and “they issued timely forecasts and warnings leading up to the storm,” but he added that unfilled leadership positions were “clearly a concern.”
“All I’ll say is this. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Kerr County more than 12 hours ahead of the catastrophic flood. A flash flood warning was issued for Hunt & Ingram 3 HOURS before the Guadalupe started to climb,” said Texas-based meteorologist Avery Tomasco. “They did their job and they did it well.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called it “shameful and disgusting” to see that, in the wake of this tragedy, people are politicizing what took place.
”It’s shameful and disgusting that in the wake of tragedy, the left’s first instinct is to lie and politicize a disaster to target their political opponents. False claims about the NWS have been repeatedly debunked by meteorologists, experts and other public reporting,” Jackson said. “The NWS did their job, even issuing a flood watch more than 12 hours in advance. The Trump administration is grateful to the first responders who sprung into action to save hundreds of lives during this catastrophe, and will continue to help the great state of Texas in their recovery efforts.”
In a lengthy thread on X outlining the timing of the government’s response, the Department of Homeland Security said “the mainstream media is deliberately lying about the events leading up to the catastrophic flooding in Texas.”
Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report
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