Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) echoed a comment from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at a news conference with President Donald Trump on Friday to address the catastrophic flooding in the Hill Country that killed over 100 people and left many more missing, attacking the media for daring to ask whether state officials have any responsibility for what happened.
"For all in the media clamoring to ask that ridiculous question trying to point fingers, the governor said it best when he said that pointing fingers is for losers," said Roy. "This state is about looking forward, and we'll figure out how to make our systems the best they can be. But more importantly, when you see 26 feet of water rising a foot per minute, don't go around pointing fingers."
Roy, a far-right hardliner, was echoing similar comments Abbott gave at a press conference earlier this week, when he said, "You ask, and I'm going to use your words, 'Who is to blame?' Know this, that's the word choice of losers."
Notably, during a Fox News interview on Sunday, Roy himself tried to level some blame for the disaster: on the federal government being too large.
"When you have 19 federal bureaucrats that you have to talk to as the state of Texas to figure out the weather, maybe you need fewer bureaucrats," he said.
All of this comes after reporting that local officials in Kerr County were unwilling to foot the cost of a warning siren system along the affected stretch of the Guadalupe River, known for decades to be a high-risk area for flash floods, because of the potential burden to local taxpayers, and the Texas state government refused to commit any of its own money to such a project.
Meanwhile, other reports have outlined missteps in the Trump administration as well.
Although the National Weather Service properly issued warnings beforehand, the Department of Government Efficiency task force pushed a key person in charge of coordinating those warnings with local officials into retirement. Additionally, because Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem imposed new rules requiring her direct approval for any contract over $100,000, Federal Emergency Management Agency search-and-rescue teams were held up for more than 72 hours.
Watch the press conference below or at the link here.
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