Noem grilled over FEMA’s Texas response on “Meet the Press”
As the head of the Department of Homeland Shield Kristi Noem has a lot to answer for Noem is the top dog in U S natural accident response which is under fire following deadly floods in Texas The former governor walked into a buzzsaw on NBC s Meet the Press Sunday when host Kristen Welker took her to task over the job she s done in President Donald Trump s second term Welker cited a review from the New York Times that claimed staggering numbers of calls to FEMA for assistance went unanswered in the wake of the central Texas flood The overview notes that the Trump administration had let call center staff contracts expire the day after the flood and that Noem took five days to get a new contract in place Per the Times the days after the waters receded saw nearly two-thirds of calls to FEMA go unanswered Noem denied the facts of the overview on Sunday saying that no employees were off work It s just false Noem revealed Every one of them was answering calls so false reporting fake news and it s discouraging It s discouraging that during this time when we have such a loss of life and so multiple people s lives have turned upside down that people are playing politics with this Noem commented that the outlet s reporting necessities to be validified and that she s not sure where their numbers came from The individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA I d love to have them put their names behind it because the anonymous attacks to politicize the situation is entirely wrong she stated Related FEMA s acting director is MIA and the media hasn t even noticed The review comes after Noem put in place a requirement that she approve any contract over Welker solicited why Noem would want to add more red tape to catastrophe recovery It s not extra red tape It s making sure everything gets to my level Noem reported This was not slown down at all Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Discipline Welker also pressed Noem about an alleged delay in deploying search and rescue teams by multiple days They were deployed straightaway when requested Noem stated So a large number of individuals are playing politics with what happened to Texas Watch the interview below Read more about this topic Camp Mystic a haven for generations of Texas girls becomes a center of tragedy Texas flash flood is a preview of chaos to come Ted Cruz addresses weather modification conspiracy theories The post Noem grilled over FEMA s Texas response on Meet the Press appeared first on Salon com