Grief and politics in Texas

PRESIDENT TRUMP and first lady Melania Trump touched down in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday to view the aftermath of the deadly floods amid ongoing scrutiny of the emergency response and sorrow over the tragedy.

“Well, this is a tough one,” Trump said at roundtable event with first responders in front of the presidential seal and matting emblazoned with “Texas Strong.”

“It’s hard to believe the devastation…I’ve never seen anything like this,” he added. “This is a bad one.”

At least 170 people died in the flash flood that struck the Texas Hill Country in the middle of the night over the Fourth of July weekend. More than 120 people are still missing, some of them children.

“They’ve been devastated, they lost their child or two children, it’s just hard to believe,” Trump said.

“A little narrow river that becomes a monster, and that’s what happened,” he continued. “The First Lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation.”

Trump arrived at the roundtable event somber after having met with families of the victims.

“It’s a horrible thing,” Trump told reporters before leaving the White House.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) greeted the Trumps upon landing. The president will also meet with state and local officials and families of the victims.

Shortly before Trump arrived, he updated a disaster declaration to make additional counties eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance programs.

"There has been extraordinary collaboration with the state and the federal government to make sure that we address Texans' needs as quickly as possible through disaster assistance programs,” Abbott said.

Trump and Abbott toured the affected region with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose pledge to eliminate FEMA has been in the spotlight since the disaster.

CNN and others reported that FEMA’s response to the floods was slowed because Noem enacted a new rule requiring that she personally sign off on any expense greater than $100,000.

"She has no idea what she’s doing,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who served as director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), said on MSNBC’s "The Weeknight."

“The best thing that she can do now is … sponsor my bill, get FEMA out of Homeland. Get it away from her, OK, so that we can start reforming and rebuilding the agency,” he continued.

Noem denied the report in an interview with Fox News.

"Our Coast Guard, our Border Patrol BORTAC [Border Patrol Tactical Unit] teams were there immediately,” she said on "Fox & Friends."

“Every single thing they asked for, we were there,” she added.

The president defended Noem and the federal response while speaking to NBC News on Thursday.

"She was literally the first person I saw on television," he said.

Trump’s budget adviser Russell Vought said Friday that FEMA has $13 billion in reserves to “pay for the necessary expenses.”

However, Vought said the administration continues to “want FEMA to be reformed.”

“We want FEMA to work well...the president is going to continue to be asking tough questions of all of his agencies,” Vought said.

Democrats are also questioning why the flood alert system did not lead to swift evacuations, with some saying sweeping government cutbacks are to blame.

“We need a full account of the ways in which the Trump administration’s recent actions have undermined the federal response, both before and after this catastrophe,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) said in a statement. “Learning from these failures and recognizing that weather intensification driven by climate change increasingly endangers lives will help prevent more tragedies.”

The Trump administration has accused Democrats of politicizing the tragedy, with DHS saying the alert system worked as intended and that all National Weather Service outposts were fully staffed at the time.

In the NBC interview, Trump called for an alarm system to be installed to warn against future floods.

The Lone Star State is also at the center of some brutal political battles.

Polls have shown state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) with a wide lead over Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Senate GOP primary.

Some Texas Republicans fear Paxton will be a disastrous general election candidate, potentially putting the state in play for Democrats.

On Thursday, news broke that Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton (R), had filed for divorce. The filing accuses her husband of adultery and says they have been living separately for more than a year.

The GOP’s Senate campaign arm, which defends incumbents, released a blistering statement on the matter:

“What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said. “No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has, and we pray for her as she chooses to stand up for herself and her family during this difficult time.”

Paxton had previously been impeached and accused of corruption.

Trump has not endorsed in the primary race, although Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he discussed it with Trump at a meeting this week.

Texas could also be major battleground in the fight over the House majority.

Abbott announced that redistricting will be included in a legislative special session slated to take place later this month, even though Texas is not due to draw new House lines until after the 2030 census.

New maps could boost some GOP candidates as the party seeks to defend its narrow majority in the midterm elections, which are historically difficult for the party in power.