You won't believe how badly Kristi Noem bungled Texas flood response

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's cost-cutting measures at the Federal Emergency Management Agency slowed search and rescue efforts in Texas by 72 hours, possibly costing some of the at least 120 lives lost in the devastating natural disaster, CNN reported.

According to CNN, Noem created a new policy that requires her to personally sign off on any costs greater than $100,000. The Urban Search and Rescue crews seeking to be deployed to the Texas Hill Country—where hundreds of people were swept away by the rapidly rising rivers after heavy rainstorms—met that criteria.

But CNN reported that Noem didn't approve the deployment of those search and rescue crews until Monday—three days after the floods swept through Texas.

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DHS tried to deny that Noem’s incompetence hindered the search and rescue efforts. But their denial actually proved the CNN story.

DHS said in a post on X, “President Trump approved a Major Disaster Declaration, hours after Governor Greg Abbott’s request. By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is reforming FEMA to prioritize state-led, locally executed disaster response, as Texas has exemplified.”

That means that CNN’s report was correct, that it took until Tuesday for FEMA to deploy the search and rescue teams.

Noem appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, where she was asked about the CNN report. But instead of providing evidence that she swiftly approved the search and rescue teams, she only attacked CNN—classic deflection that did not actually deny the report.

“CNN has a report accusing you of slowing the process in Texas,” one of the hosts asked Noem, to which she replied, “Well there you go. Fake news CNN is absolutely trash, what they are doing.”

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Noem, for her part, has implemented the cost-cutting measures in DHS that hamstrung the search and rescue efforts in Texas even as she spends hundreds of millions galavanting around the country and globe cosplaying for PR stunts and visiting the torture camps she's gleefully sending immigrants to.

A Wall Street Journal report from April said Noem spent $9 million on a television ad advising immigrants to self-deport.

She also sported a $50,000 Rolex watch on a visit to the CECOT prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration illegally deported immigrants against court orders. Noem is also seeking a $50 million private jet to transport her to the stunts she's carrying out.

Turns out, Noem cares more about creating torture porn than she does about saving lives. 

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