Throughout Saturday, CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein couldn’t help but work into her live shots blatant speculation about whether cuts to the National Weather Service by President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) played a role in the deaths of what was then 50 known dead in catastrophic flooding that struck Texas’s Hill Country.
Klein’s hijinks started in the 1:00 p.m. Eastern hour with an allusion to President Trump’s desire to reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a way to wonder if there would be a “full extent of this federal response” and “if there will be a request for additional aid from Congress.”
She upped the ante two hours later, adding for the doom and gloom effect that “the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that the President signed into law just yesterday does make cuts or even closes some weather research laboratories that are vital to forecasting and improving forecasts:
By the 5:00 p.m. Eastern hour, she added DOGE to the equation, alluding to the “cuts for hundreds of employees at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, as well as the National Weather Service” while also trying to claim “[i]t’s really too soon to say whether those cuts contributed to any of the lack of alerts here.”
For anyone who recognizes the game the liberal media play, merely introducing a possible narrative is as good as gold and more than enough to create doubt and sow division.
She doubled down an hour later, cloaking the DOGE mention in merely “people asking questions in the immediate aftermath of how something like this could happen”:
By the 7:00 p.m. Eastern hour, Klein had settled on a narrative (click “expand”):
KLEIN [at 7:36 p.m. Eastern]: Two other points I want to note. Number one, the President has been deeply critical of FEMA. He says he plans to phase out that agency at the end of this hurricane season. And second, going forward, the President’s budget for fiscal year 2026, which they are already starting to implement, does make cuts and even closes. Some of these weather research labs that are so critical for forecasting. They really give that data that we need for better forecasts. The tools that they use to collect that data are now experiencing cuts. DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency also cut hundreds of employees at NOAA, which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the National Weather Service. It’s really too soon to know at this stage whether this had any sort of impact on this notification effort. But Secretary Noem was pressed on the alerts from the National Weather Center. Here’s how she defended the administration.
NOEM: That is something and one of the reasons that when President Trump took office that he said he wanted to fix and his currently upgrading the technology and the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA, that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years. But I do carry your concerns back to the federal government, to President Trump and we will do all we can to fix those kinds of things that that may have felt like a failure to you.
KLEIN: Now, the storm that created the conditions for this flash flooding was completely unpredictable, truly unprecedented.
(....)
KLEIN [at 8:38 p.m. Eastern]: But I want to point out two additional things as we continue to track this federal response. Number one is that the President has been deeply critical of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He says that he plans to phase it out at the conclusion of this year’s hurricane season. Separately, the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget is which it’s already abiding by, offers massive cuts to some weather research labs that are vital to forecast extreme weather events like this. They collect better data for better forecasts and the tools that they are using here are experiencing cut right now. Now, DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency has also cut staffers at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the National Weather Service. But Secretary Noem was really pressed on the National Weather Service’s alerts leading up to this. Here’s what she said as she defended the administration.
NOEM: That is something and one of the reasons that when President Trump took office that he said he wanted to fix and is currently upgrading the technology. And the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years. But I do carry your concerns back to the federal government and to President Trump and we will do all we can to fix those kinds of things that may have felt like a failure to you.
KLEIN: Of course, this storm was extremely unpredictable. The water rising so quickly, so unprecedented.
In her final live shot of the night, she showed her mind wasn’t changing about speculating:
Before the first of two taped live shots for the 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Eastern hours, Situation Room co-host Wolf Blitzer gave her a just-asking-questions strategy a boost:
Meanwhile, the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary is strongly defending the federal government’s response to the disaster in Texas. Secretary Kristi Noem says President Trump is “currently upgrading technology at the National Weather Service.” However, the President’s mega bill, which he just signed into law, makes cuts and even closes some weather research labs that help make forecast improvements. And his DOGE team, as it’s called, fired hundreds of employees at the National Weather Service and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from July 5, click here.