News
‘Absolute Cringe’: DHS Ridiculed After Attacking CNN Report—by Confirming It
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is under fire after posting a hostile and defensive social media statement late Wednesday afternoon, lashing out at damning CNN reporting that exposed FEMA’s delayed response to the deadly Texas floods. Intended as a rebuttal, the DHS post instead confirmed several of CNN’s alarming findings. At least 120 people are confirmed dead, and over 160 remain missing.
Central to FEMA’s late response: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has instituted a new rule that contracts and grants over $100,000 require her personal signature. Under Noem, DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) as of last month was $1 billion over budget, leading some, including members of Congress, to question the legality of her actions.
CNN reported that “even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending [in] additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.”
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Sending in critical search and rescue teams days after the flooding began was not the only damaging finding.
CNN also reported that “the additional red tape required at FEMA added another hurdle to getting critical federal resources deployed when hours counted,” noting that “Texas did request aerial imagery from FEMA to aid search and rescue operations, a source told CNN, but that was delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract.”
Also, “FEMA staff have also been answering phones at a disaster call center, where, according to one agency official, callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.”
In its social media statement (below), DHS posted the CNN headline and wrote: “This is a FAKE NEWS LIE from CNN.” The headline read: “FEMA’s response to Texas flood slowed by Noem’s cost controls.”
“This reporting is an unapparelled display of activist journalism and distracts from the robust, coordinated federal response led by Secretary Noem that has saved over 900+ lives,” the DHS statement reads.
“President Trump approved a Major Disaster Declaration, hours after Governor Greg Abbott’s request. By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people.”
The flooding started Friday. Tuesday is four days later.
CNN also reported facts that DHS’s statement called “fake news,” but then confirmed in its own statement.
“By Monday night, only 86 FEMA staffers had been deployed, according to internal FEMA data seen by CNN — a fraction of the typical response for a disaster of this scale,” the news network reported. “By Tuesday night, the federal response expanded to 311 staffers deployed, the data showed.”
DHS wrote: “By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people.”
CNN also reported: “Multiple FEMA officials told CNN that they were taken aback by the agency’s relatively limited response in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.”
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Noem’s “office has delegated little authority to acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson, who, as of Wednesday morning, has yet to visit Texas since the flooding began, multiple FEMA officials told CNN.”
A DHS spokesperson in a statement to CNN and other news outlets wrote: “DHS and its components have taken an all-hands-on-desk approach to respond to recovery efforts in Kerrville.”
Critics pushed back against DHS’s statement, at times mocking the department’s remarks.
CNN’s Aaron Blake, whose byline is not on the report, on social media wrote: “This statement doesn’t actually dispute the reporting. In fact, it says, ‘By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers …’ Tuesday is, quite notably, after the 72-hour window.”
“Again,” offered Jason Kinney, a public affairs consultant and political communications expert, “this is what happens when your Administration lives in an alternative reality where improv lying is standard operating procedure. No one believes you, even when it’s really important stuff.”
“NONE of this below responds to the problems & delays CNN reported in its detailed, sourced article,” wrote Robert Elisberg, a political commentator. “CNN did not say FEMA did nothing. But that they didn’t do some important things they usually do. DHS has long lost credibility, & sadly their note below doesn’t improve on that.”
Mediaite reported: “DHS’s over‑the‑top rebuttal underscores the power of CNN’s reporting. The statement reinforces — not refutes — the 72‑hour timeline. That leaves us with a rhetorical shell game: furious denials wrapped in the very narrative they aim to quash.”
Former Bloomberg Opinion economics writer Noah Smith wrote of the DHS post: “This is just absolute cringe.”
Read the DHS post below or at this link.
This is a FAKE NEWS LIE from CNN. This reporting is an unapparelled display of activist journalism and distracts from the robust, coordinated federal response led by Secretary Noem that has saved over 900+ lives. While these “journalists” slept comfortably in D.C., Secretary Noem… pic.twitter.com/S4zIZwp8T2
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 9, 2025
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Image via Reuters
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A Reagan-appointed federal judge declared that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had “conspired” to chill First Amendment rights in a case involving pro-Palestinian student protesters.
Senior Judge William Young of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, on Thursday said that Rubio and Noem had “failed in their duty to uphold the constitution,” as Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported.
Judge Young’s remarks were reported in real time by journalists covering the proceedings and shared on social media as the hearing unfolded.
“What happened here is an unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people, to twist the laws,” Judge Young said, denouncing the lack of any actual policy. “Two cabinet secretaries conspired … they intentionally, knowing what they were doing, counseled by professionals who cautioned them, nevertheless went ahead to pick off these people with the intention that your clients would be chilled. And did so rather effectively, by the way.”
Judge Young, 85, also invoked President Donald Trump.
“The big problem in this case,” Young said, “is that the cabinet secretaries and ostensibly the president of the United States are not honoring the First Amendment.”
Young, who has served on the bench for over four decades, continued, saying, “let’s talk the truth here,” as he denounced decisions made at DHS that directed professionals to be “taken off anti-terrorist investigations.”
“They were taken off human trafficking investigations all to look up … what dirt they could find on this group … the very highest levels of the DHS decided – that’s the best use of those people.”
He called it “chapter and verse about how the government can be weaponized against a disfavored group.”
According to All Rise News editor-in-chief Adam Klasfeld, Judge Young also slammed President Trump.
“It’s fairly clear that this President believes, as an authoritarian, when he speaks, everyone, everyone, in Article II, is going to toe the line absolutely.”
According to Reuters, Judge Young indicated that he would issue an order presuming immigration actions against the plaintiffs’ members were retaliatory unless the government could prove otherwise in court.
Image via Reuters
With a razor-thin margin, Speaker Mike Johnson is urging House Republicans to show up for work — in D.C., not their district offices — and warning their absences could hamper President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“It’s dicey some days,” Johnson told reporters. “I told everybody … ‘no risk-taking, take vitamins and stay healthy and be here,’” The Washington Post reported.
The White House is also keeping an eye on members’ attendance, and has instructed Republicans to forego appearing with President Trump if there is a House vote scheduled.
“The president does not like it when he hears about members missing votes,” one person close to Trump told the Post.
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At risk are bills that cannot be brought to the floor because, as happened this week, Democrats in Washington outnumbered Republicans.
One near-casualty was legislation close to the president’s long-term agenda, which had to be postponed for lack of Republicans. The bill was The Shower Act, which is officially named the “Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing Act.”
President Trump for years has complained about water pressure regulations, and demanded removal of requirements that lower the amount of water coming out of faucets and showerheads.
Republicans have been down several voting members this month, as the Post reported.
“One Republican missed House votes because of a car crash that left him badly bruised. Another is recovering from brain surgery, while yet another was away from Washington while caring for his wife, who is dealing with a bout of cancer,” the Post noted.
There is also the sudden resignation of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and the sudden death of U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA).
“And then there’s Rep. Wesley Hunt. The two-term Texan lawmaker, who is in a heated GOP primary for Senate, has spent so much time on the campaign trail back home that his missed votes have become a salient issue in the race,” the Post noted.
Hunt’s absence, and that of four other GOP lawmakers, forced Speaker Johnson to pull the Shower Act from a floor vote last week.
This week, it passed.
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Image via Reuters
If Democrats win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November, multiple investigations into senior Trump administration officials would begin, a Democratic lawmaker said.
“Stephen Miller should lawyer up,” said U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), responding to video of his remarks earlier Thursday.
Congressman Ryan had been speaking with Pablo Manríquez, the editor of Migrant Insider on Substack, who said to the New York Democrat that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller “seems to be operating sort of as a shadow president at this point.”
“Can you think of any legal liability he could face on the back end of this presidency?” Manríquez asked.
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“Well,” Ryan responded, “there’s gonna be legal, and I think criminal liability for multiple members of this administration, certainly including Stephen Miller.”
“They continue to just violate the law, violate the Constitution, violate our moral standing and values as Americans,” he alleged.
Ryan said that Democrats across multiple House committees “are already readying investigations … to be ready on day one, when we retake the majority, when the voice of the people are brought back here to the House.”
Democrats currently appear likely to get that chance.
According to Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report on Thursday, “House ratings show Dems as modest favorites for control, as Republicans would need to win two thirds of Toss Ups (67%) to keep the majority.”
Wasserman also noted that eighteen House races had moved in the Democrats’ direction.
.@PabloReports: Stephen Miller seems to be operating sort of as a shadow president at this point. Is there any legal liability he could face at the end of this presidency?
Ryan: There’s going to be legal—and I think criminal—liability for multiple members of this administration,… pic.twitter.com/5yKthdegNt
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 15, 2026
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