Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) have accused President Joe Biden of lying when he claimed he failed to communicate with state officials to secure disaster relief supplies for Hurricane Beryl.
More than 1.2 million people in Texas remain without power since Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Monday. according to PowerOutage.us, Biden Said of Houston Chronicle He said the federal government cannot distribute emergency relief supplies until the White House can “go after” state leaders.
“We are trying to locate the Governor, but I don’t have the authority to do so without a specific request from the Governor,” Biden said of Governor Abbott. According to his office, Governor Abbott is currently on an “economic development mission to Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.”
Biden added that he “continued to follow up with the lieutenant governor,” and said he had not been able to contact Patrick by Tuesday afternoon to approve the allocation of resources.
“The president did not provide further details about his attempted contact with Abbott or Patrick,” the outlet noted.
of ChronicleThe Blaze News, which has endorsed Biden’s reelection campaign, initially published the story without comment from the state leaders in question. report.
The original article also included a sentence saying that a White House spokesman “said officials had attempted to contact Mr. Abbott and Mr. Patrick multiple times but apparently without success.”
The line has since been removed, according to The Blades.
Patrick pushed back against Biden’s claims in a post on X on Tuesday, saying the president had “falsely” accused him of being out of touch.
I am disappointed that President Biden is trying to politicize Hurricane Beryl. We had a cordial call today, and ultimately the President granted my request for a major disaster declaration. But that is not enough for the President. The President must acknowledge that I…
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) July 9, 2024
“I am disappointed in President Biden’s attempt to politicize Hurricane Beryl. We had a cordial call today and ultimately my request for a major disaster declaration was granted. But that’s not enough for him,” Patrick wrote. “He is now falsely accusing me of being unable to reach him.”
“He obviously didn’t know any FEMA employees. [Federal Emergency Management Agency] They were with me for the entire three days! All he had to do was call them and give them his phone. We even took a photo together!”
Patrick added that state officials need to “determine what our unmet needs are” before speaking with Biden.
“We have been discussing this with local officials as we have been touring the affected areas,” he explained. “Today, while we were being briefed, I got a call from the president… In President Biden’s words, this is bullshit and he’s whitewashing it!”
In a follow-up post titled “The Biden Hurricane Hoax,” the lieutenant governor detailed how he provided evidence of the call to Congress. Houston Chronicle Even though the president had a personal phone number, he called the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM).
‘
last night, Houston Cronos The reporter who wrote the false story about Biden not being able to find me or Governor Abbott requested the state phone records of my conversation with the President, and we have sent them over.
The log only showed 3… https://t.co/NZP76CrOE2
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) July 10, 2024
“The @HoustonChron reporter who wrote the false story last night about Biden not being able to find me or Gov. Abbott has requested the state phone records of my conversation with the President. We have sent them,” Patrick wrote.
The recording shows a three-minute call from Biden to TDEM Chief Nim Kidd, and Patrick said he sat next to Kidd while waiting for Biden’s call.
“I spoke with the President via Chief Kidd’s phone from 11:49 to 11:52 a.m.,” Patrick wrote, adding that Biden’s reasons for calling Chief Kidd “were puzzling to me since he had just given me my cell phone number.”
The lieutenant governor said FEMA officials had called TDEM officials “approximately 10 minutes” before Biden’s call, asking for their “personal phone number.”
“My team provided FEMA with my cell phone number and my chief of staff’s phone number, yet the president called Chief of Staff Kidd’s phone 10 minutes later instead of calling me,” Patrick said.
He continues: “If [Biden] “If anyone wanted to find me, they could easily find me,” he said, adding that “Governor Abbott didn’t hear from the president during Hurricane Beryl.”
I was working all weekend with FEMA officials at the State Operations Center in Austin, and they’re good people, but they never once told me that the President was trying to contact me.
All the president had to do was call the FEMA official who worked with me for three days before, during, and after the hurricane. If they wanted to find me, I was easily found. I was where I was supposed to be, in plain sight, at any time of day or night, at the State Operations Center.
Governor Abbott also did not hear from the president during Hurricane Beryl. Governor Abbott tweeted that the president had his number and had called him as recently as Memorial Day, but he did not call him during the hurricane.
It is absurd to say the President could not find out about me or the Governor. The bottom line is that I requested a Federal Disaster Declaration without delay and in a timely manner, and the President agreed. Sadly, President Biden is trying to score political points by attacking Governor Abbott and me for reasons that make no sense. Mr. President, as you often say, “Please!”
Abbott also sharply criticized the president’s claims on social media during his visit to East Asia.
Biden’s memory has failed again.
During Beryl, he never called me.
He had my phone number and called me on Memorial Day after the tornadoes hit Texas.
I was on the phone with state and local officials every day during Beryl.
I spoke with the FEMA administrator during the trade mission, and Biden never called.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) July 9, 2024
“Mr. Biden’s memory has failed again. He never called me during the Beryl incident,” the governor wrote to X.
“He had my phone number and called me on Memorial Day after the tornadoes hit Texas. I was on the phone every day with state and local officials during the storm. I spoke to the FEMA administrator during the trade mission, but Biden never called,” Abbott added.
Abbott’s spokesman, Andrew Maharelis, also responded to Biden’s “total lies.”
“This is a complete lie by Mr. Biden and frankly it makes absolutely no sense,” he said. I have written“Biden and his administration know exactly how to communicate with governors and have done so many times in the past, most recently on Friday when FEMA called and spoke with governors.”
moreover, Houston Chronicle“A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth puts its shoes on. @HoustonChron published a fake exclusive on this nonsense based on statements by our incoherent president before we had a chance to respond,” Maharelis said.
“This is why Americans have lost trust in the media,” Abbott’s representative added.
