- Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter for questioning the government's efforts on the Texas floods
- Trump said that he believed everyone involved in the flood management did an extremely great job
- At least 120 people died and over 160 remain missing due to Texas floods
US President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter for questioning the government's efforts on the Texas floods, particularly over claims that timely warnings could have saved dozens of lives.
On Friday, during a roundtable discussion at Hill Country Youth Event Centre in Kerrville, Texas, a reporter asked the President: "Families are upset because they say that warnings didn't go out in time, and they say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?"
Trump said that he believed everyone involved in the flood management did an extremely great job, considering this a rare disaster. He said, "Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances."
Quoting the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, he said it was a one-in-1,000-year flood and added that he had admiration for the job that everybody did.
Then he criticised the reporter for disrespecting the efforts of first responders and for trying to place blame on officials in the middle of such an unprecedented disaster. "Only a bad person would ask a question like that. To be honest with you, I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that. This has been heroism," he added.
Mr Trump continued that it's easy for people to question others' decisions when such disasters happen. "It's easy to ask, to sit back and ask, 'What could have happened here or there? Maybe we could have done something differently.' This is something that's never happened before," he stated.
Catastrophic floods in Texas have claimed the lives of at least 120 people, with more than 160 still missing, reported BBC. Residents have blamed the government, saying more lives could have been saved if alerts had come earlier.
Earlier, Trump reacted strongly to a reporter who asked about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's possible ties to intelligence agencies, as well as a missing minute of CCTV footage from the night of his death.
He snapped at the reporter, saying, "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" adding, "There were more pressing issues to focus on, like the great success and current tragedy in Texas. It seems like a desecration."
