President Donald Trump has defended Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over criticism of the federal response to the deadly flash flooding in Texas by saying she has done a “great job” because he saw her get out on TV quickly to reassure the public.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are visiting Kerr County on Friday to survey the devastation in the Lone Star State that left 121 people dead and 173 missing.
However, their arrival coincides with reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s response to the disaster was delayed by three days due to a new rule instigated by Secretary Noem.
The secretary’s order, intended to rein in excessive spending, dictated that she must personally sign off on contracts and grants worth more than $100,000, something she only did in relation to the Texas disaster on Monday, leading to delays to the relief effort that may have cost lives as rescue workers battled flood waters that had laid waste to local housing and a children’s summer camp.
Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz has already called on the House committees on Homeland Security and Transportation and Infrastructure to investigate whether Noem’s order held up proceedings.
NBC’s Kristen Welker interviewed the president on Thursday night and said: “There are these reports that have come out that Secretary Noem, I guess, had to have sign-off on FEMA expenditures, and they may have delayed some of the response.”
Trump answered: “I don’t know anything about it. We were right on time. We were there. In fact, she was the first one I saw on television.
“She was there right from the beginning, and she would not have needed anything. She had the right to do it, but she was literally the first person I saw on television.”
He continued: “That morning, when we all woke up and saw this tragedy that took place during the evening. And she was right on the ball. She’s done a great job.”
Responding to that exchange on MSNBC’s All In, commentator Chris Hayes scoffed: “She was on TV! So, obviously she’s doing a great job, right?”
Noem, whose Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversees FEMA, reacted angrily to CNN’s reporting on her handling of the disaster, calling it “fake news” and the network itself “absolute trash” during an interview on Fox and Friends.
Before that, she responded to criticism of the agency on Wednesday for sending a fraction of the personnel to Texas that the state itself has deployed to address the crisis – 70, compared to 1,750 – by insisting that the federal government does not manage natural disasters, but rather that they are the responsibility of individual states.
“We come in and support them, and that’s exactly what we did here in this situation,” she said.
Completing a bad week for Noem and FEMA, the agency’s acting administrator, David Richardson, has been reported as missing in action, having failed to visit Texas, sparking concern about how his agency is run and whether he has effectively handed over responsibility to the secretary.
FEMA was created to “prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against the risk of natural disasters” and its leader would ordinarily be expected to play a prominent organisational role and be out in front of the cameras to give regular updates.
The Independent has contacted FEMA and DHS for comment.
Last year, Trump threatened to shut the agency down altogether, commenting at a campaign event in June: “We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level.
“A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.”
Asked earlier this week whether he is still sharpening the axe for FEMA, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was evasive and said only: “The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need. Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that is a policy discussion that will continue.”
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