Ted Cruz denies National Weather Service cuts contributed to loss of life in Texas floods

Ted Cruz denies National Weather Service cuts contributed to loss of life in Texas floodsSource Reuters

Transcript

00:00You know, I can tell you, I talked about the partisan finger pointing.

00:05I think there have been some eager to point at the National Weather Service and say cuts there led to a lack of warning.

00:13I think that's contradicted by the facts.

00:16And if you look at the facts in particular, number one, that these warnings went out hours before the flood became a true emergency level.

00:25But number two, the National Weather Service here, New Braunfels, is where they were headquartered.

00:33They had additional manpower.

00:34In fact, they had three additional people working that night anticipating that it was going to be a very dangerous weather situation.

00:42I also think it's worth noting that the National Weather Service union, which has been very critical of the doge cuts,

00:47has publicly said that they don't believe that the reduction in staffing had any impact whatsoever on their ability to warn of this event.

00:56And so, look, I think it is reasonable over time to engage in a retrospective and say at every level what could have been done better,

01:04because all of us would want to prevent this horrific loss of life.

01:11But I think just immediately trying to use it for either side to attack their political opponents,

01:17I think that's cynical and not the right approach, particularly at a time when we're dealing with a crisis and we're dealing with grief.