John, we’ve all been horrified after the flooding in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. More than 120 are dead, and more than 170 still missing.
That flooding was a natural disaster — an act of God — but this loss of possessions, property, lives… that was preventable. Kristi Noem is in charge of FEMA, an agency solely responsible for preparing for and responding to natural disasters like these. The people at FEMA are dedicated to their work, good at their jobs, and have saved countless lives over the years. They know what they’re doing, but it’s clear that Kristi Noem has absolutely no idea.
I’m calling on FEMA’s Inspector General and demanding they open an investigation into Noem’s tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security that does justice to the victims and family members impacted by this tragedy.
I’ll be straight up: This was Kristi Noem’s fault, and Donald Trump’s for letting her run FEMA like a used car lot. She imposed a directive requiring her personal approval for any contract, purchase, or grant over $100,000 — and a minimum of five days review for each. Hundreds of emergency call center operators were laid off IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS CRISIS because of that directive. People were calling for help, and the phones weren’t getting picked up.
While Kristi Noem is out playing dress up in El Salvador, mugging for the camera, cosplaying in body armor to look tough, this is what happens. She doesn’t want to do the job. She’s more obsessed with handcuffing United States Senators, deploying federal agents to crack down on lawful protesters, and pitching sick reality shows where immigrants compete for citizenship.
When you run an agency tasked with responding to emergencies immediately, that kind of theater, these kinds of directives… they aren’t just stupid — they’re dangerous, and they can cost people their lives.
We’ve got to call this out because preventing future tragedies like this one will depend entirely on holding her accountable. It’s not Noem, or Trump, or their billionaire donors that pay the price for this kind of thing. It’s regular people, and in this case a lot of Trump’s own supporters.
We owe it to the victims, their families, and the American people to make sure we do everything we can to prevent this from happening again.
But this is Trump’s presidency. They won’t give us anything if we don’t force them to. So we need to join together, make some noise, build pressure and DEMAND that this gets the attention it deserves. We can’t settle for anything less.
Thanks. More soon.
Ruben
Paid For By Gallego for Arizona
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