White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt drew criticism after suggesting that the deadly flash flood in Texas -- which has claimed more than 100 lives -- was an "act of God."
The death toll from the July Fourth flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris looking for scores of people still missing.
During a press conference on Monday (Jul 7), Leavitt stressed that local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings.
"That was an act of God. It's not the administration's fault that the flood hit when it did, but there were early and consistent warnings," she said.
Internet users criticized Leavitt for failing to mention how the government had weakened the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as these agencies were underfunded and had too few staff when the tragic events occurred.
Some slammed her for lack of accountability for the issue, which they attributed to the administration's "fault."
"The more she denies it, the more it seems like it's kinda the admin's fault," one wrote in the social media post.
