At her press briefing, Karoline Leavitt was asked about the National Weather Service union stating that there was inadequate staffing before the deadly Texas floods.
00:00With our new media seat, Brian Glenn, who is, of course, very present in this briefing room.
00:05He's put in a lot of hours covering this president. So we're glad you finally have a seat today. Brian, go ahead.
00:09It feels great to sit down. Thank you very much. I want to go back to the hurricane.
00:14You said that President Trump is scheduled to go to Texas later this week.
00:17Can you speculate on what day and what he has plans?
00:21Sure. The White House is currently arranging those travel plans.
00:24We hope that it will be later this week, likely on Friday, but of course we want to do it at the most appropriate time on the ground for state and local officials.
00:31We don't want to interrupt the recovery efforts, but we're planning tentatively for a Friday trip.
00:36And when that becomes final, we'll let all of you know, as we always do.
00:39And you gave a little bit of reaction earlier, but the National Weather Service, the union, actually publicly stated they had an adequate staff on hand to forecast and predict the storm.
00:48You shared your thoughts earlier on the how the way the left has really weaponized this to blame the deaths in Texas on Trump for to comment that again.
00:59Yeah, I just do think those comments are depraved and despicable, especially when so many Americans are mourning the loss of their children.
01:06The National Weather Service, as I said, did its job. Many experts, many meteorologists have said that.
01:12Many of you in the media, in all fairness, have said that as well. Unfortunately, not all.
01:15And many Democrat elected officials are trying to turn this into a political game, and it is not.
01:21This is a national tragedy, and the administration is treating it as such.
01:25We know the National Weather Service provided early and consistent warnings.
01:29They gave out timely flash flood alerts. There were record-breaking lead times in the lead-up to this catastrophe.
01:36There is ongoing flood monitoring, and these offices were well-staffed.
01:40In fact, one of the offices was actually overstaffed. They had more people than they need.
01:45So any claim to the contrary is completely false, and it's just sad that people are pushing these lives.
