How Has Trump Responded to Texas Floods?

How has Trump publicly responded to the deadly flooding in Texas and growing scrutiny over the federal response? Sara Firth reports.

Transcript

00:00I guess, Sarah, a lot of plates have been spinning for the Trump administration when something like this happens.

00:05It's not the huge priority right now.

00:08So how has he publicly responded to this disaster so far?

00:12What have we seen from the president?

00:13Well, the president hasn't criticized anything that's been taking place on the ground

00:19and the way that we've seen him respond in past disasters.

00:21So if you think back to the California wildfires,

00:24there was a lot of criticism over the emergency response from Governor Newsom.

00:28Now, we know President Trump is close to Governor Abbott, the Texas governor.

00:33He has expressed publicly his support for the governor's efforts

00:39and said that the administration will be standing behind Texas right now,

00:43that everybody's thoughts and prayers are with the people on the ground.

00:48But it does come as there's been increasing scrutiny and questions asked

00:52over whether the Trump administration's cuts potentially to the National Weather Service

00:58could have impacted the response efforts on the ground in the wake of the deadly flooding.

01:05Now, President Trump has been asked repeatedly,

01:08because he is the one who's announced that in the past that the FEMA,

01:13the Federal Emergency Management Agency,

01:16that that would be scaled back, potentially cut.

01:19He's been asked repeatedly in the wake of these floods in Texas about that.

01:23But he's so far avoided answering the question directly.

01:28Expect more of that today.

01:29There are going to be lots of families on the ground who will be looking for some kind of answers.

01:34And as we said, there is that increasing scrutiny over exactly what happened in the lead up to these floods,

01:41whether the warning systems were up to scratch and what happened in the aftermath as well,

01:47and whether resources were scrambled quickly and effectively enough to try and save as many lives as possible.

01:54And like the devastation really on the ground in Texas, it can't be overstated.

01:58You know, more than 120 people killed, but a lot of those were children.

02:03One of the areas very badly impacted along the Guadalupe River was a children's summer camp.

02:08So a number of girls killed in the flooding there and people still missing.

02:13So families right now just desperately waiting for answers.