Leah Millis/Reuters
President Joe Biden speaks at an event marking the 75th anniversary of the NATO alliance in Washington, July 9, 2024.
CNN
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President Joe Biden told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday that federal officials have been unable to communicate with Texas leaders for several days, slowing the distribution of emergency relief supplies to those affected by Hurricane Beryl.
The president told the Chronicle that he had been trying to “go after” governors to begin the process of requesting aid. “I’ve been trying to go after governors, but I don’t have the authority to do that without a specific request from them,” Biden told the paper.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been in Asia in recent days and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is acting as governor for the state’s storm response in his absence. White House officials told the paper that officials had attempted to contact Patrick and Abbott “multiple times.”
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
“We’ve been working on this for two days, and finally we’ve received the request,” Biden told The Chronicle. “We’ve had a lot of supplies pre-positioned in Texas, but we needed a specific request for this.”
Biden’s comments to the Chronicle were a rare time a president has publicly expressed disagreement with state officials battling a major natural disaster. Previous presidents, including Biden, have typically focused on unity and bipartisan cooperation after major storms. “There’s nothing political about this,” Biden said while touring Louisiana after a hurricane struck the state in 2021. “This is just about saving lives and helping people get their lives back, and we’re in this together.”
Patrick denied Biden’s comments about the White House outreach and accused him of politicizing the deadly storm. Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, and Patrick said he spoke with the president for the first time on Tuesday.
Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images
An aerial view of destroyed homes in Surfside Beach, Texas, after Hurricane Beryl made landfall on July 8, 2024.
“I am disappointed that President Biden is trying to politicize Hurricane Beryl,” Patrick said on X. “I had a cordial call today and he finally granted my request for a major disaster declaration. But that’s not enough for him. He is falsely accusing me of being out of touch. He obviously didn’t know that FEMA workers were with me for three days! All he could do was call them and have them hand me the phone.”
Patrick wrote that state officials needed to determine Texas’ needs before asking the federal government for help, which required them to visit affected areas.
“In the words of President Biden, this is bullshit. He’s just whitewashing it!” Patrick wrote, using a term Biden often uses.
In his own posts, Governor Abbott criticized Biden’s mental health: “Biden has once again lost his memory,” he tweeted, adding that Biden has his phone number but “during this time he has never called me.”
Andrew Maharelis, a spokesman for Governor Abbott, also called Biden’s statement a “total lie,” writing to X: “Biden and his administration know exactly how to communicate with the Governor and have done so many times in the past, most recently on Friday when FEMA called and spoke with the Governor.”
Since making landfall earlier this week, Beryl has killed at least eight people and knocked out power to more than 2 million customers in Texas and Louisiana.
Biden’s interview with The Chronicle came as the White House and Biden campaign have been pushing to make the president available to more reporters following his poor performance in last month’s presidential debate.
Patrick criticized Biden’s debate performance, saying he “appeared completely lost” and “got knocked out by Trump in every round.”
CNN’s Nikki Carvajal contributed to this report.
