White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was called out Monday on CNN after dodging a question earlier that day on whether President Donald Trump would follow through on his pledge to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of the deadly Texas flood.
“Not really answering the question there,” said Kristen Holmes, CNN senior White House correspondent, listening back to the press briefing from earlier that day.
“In fact, another reporter tried to follow up on my question later and she’d said she’d already answered it. But as you can hear, she does not actually answer the question of whether or not they’re going to phase out FEMA.”
Holmes had asked Leavitt for an update on Trump’s comments in June, where the president said he wanted to “wean off of FEMA” and “bring it down to the state level.” In cooperation with local officials, FEMA has worked on rescue efforts in central Texas, where a flash flood led to the deaths of at least 95 people. Dozens more were missing Monday afternoon.
In response, Leavitt dodged the question, and instead, spoke to Trump’s dedication to keeping Americans safe.
“The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need,” Leavitt said.
“Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that’s a policy discussion that will continue, and the president has always said he wants states to do as much as they can, if not more. In the case of Texas, the state and local officials are doing a tremendous job.”
Holmes, reacting to her earlier exchange with Leavitt, also took aim at the White House spokesperson for labeling scrutiny over the disaster response as “depraved.”
“The other part of this is that Karoline Leavitt came in saying that anyone who was questioning the cuts and whether or not these government cuts played a role in what happened in Texas, anyone who said that this wasn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime natural disaster was playing ‘political politics,’” Holmes said. “She said that people were pointing fingers in a partisan way.”
Leavitt’s pushback on scrutiny was similar to comments made by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who, reportedly on vacation in Greece at the time of the flood, said “This is not a time for partisan finger-pointing and attacks” on Monday.
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