Hurricane Beryl struck Texas, leaving millions across the Lone Star state in the dark. With many in the state facing numerous days without power, tension has increased between Texas leadership and the Biden Administration. President Joe Biden (D) said this week that Texas' leadership has been difficult to reach while Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) rebukes the claim, arguing that President Biden is trying to generate a "hurricane hoax."
During an interview with the Houston Chronicle, President Biden commented on the federal government's delay in releasing aid to Texas. If there's any delay, he says, it's because state leaders have not made a formal request for a major former disaster declaration. "I've been trying to track down the governor to see - I don't have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor," President Biden said.
However, Lt. Governor Patrick is rebuking the claim, calling it "a load of malarkey."
I am disappointed that President Biden is turning Hurricane Beryl into a political issue. We had a cordial call today that ended up with him granting my request for a major disaster declaration. But that’s not good enough for him. He is falsely accusing me that I was not…
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) July 9, 2024
Taking to social media to respond to the president's comments, the lt. governor shared that he is "disappointed that President Biden is turning Hurricane Beryl into a political issue." Noting that he had "a cordial call" that resulted in the president granting his request for a major disaster declaration, Lt. Governor Patrick explained that "his own employees from FEMA were side-by-side with me for 3 days!"
"All he had to do was call them and have them hand their phone to me. I even took a photo with them! Before we made an official ask, we needed to determine what our outstanding needs were," he wrote. "We were working on that with local officials as we traveled the impacted areas. As I was being briefed today, the president called."
The lt. governor further shared that the writer of the Houston Chronicle asked him for his call log to verify that President Biden was lying.
𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐚𝐱
Last night, the @HoustonChron reporter, who wrote the story with Biden’s lie, that he couldn’t find me or Gov. Abbott, asked for the state call log of my conversation with the president. We sent them the log.
The log showed only a 3… https://t.co/NZP76CrOE2
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) July 10, 2024
