When the Waters Rise, Greg Abbott Hides... Behind the Locker Room
Greg Abbott Blames ‘Losers’ While Texans Drown: How GOP Negligence Turned Flood Warnings into a Mass Casualty
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Greg Abbott Says Only “Losers” Blame Greg Abbott for Cutting Emergency Funds—Which Killed his Constituents
by David Shuster
There is a long tradition in American politics of bluster standing in for leadership, and nowhere is this more evident than in Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s response to the catastrophic flooding that recently struck his state’s Hill Country.
After communities and youth camps were shattered and hundreds of lives were lost (130 bodies recovered so far, another 160 people are still missing) Abbott traveled to Kerr County—not to offer clarity or accountability. But to scold the public and the media for daring to ask who bears responsibility (and the corporate media didn’t push very hard, per usual).
“You know who talks about blame? Losers,” Abbott declared, comparing the loss of life and property to a botched football game. “You know what winners do? Winners go to the locker room, they talk about what they’re going to do to win the next game.”
It’s a revealing metaphor. In Abbott’s Texas, disaster is just another quarter to be played, grief a statistic to be managed, and blame—a word he utters with a sneer—something for “losers” to wallow in. But when countless people die and others remain unaccounted for, who failed and how is not finger pointing, it’s governance.
This isn’t a question of partisan gamesmanship or Monday-morning quarterbacking. It is about the failure of basic public safety systems. Local officials in Kerr County admitted they received little to no warning before the floodwaters rose.
Hydrologists and emergency management experts have long called for improved monitoring systems, better communication protocols, and real-time flood gauges in precisely the places where lives were lost. Those calls were often ignored or underfunded by state leadership.
Greg Abbott has led that leadership for nearly a decade. And now, when pressed about these failures, he bristles at the notion that anyone should be held to account, and as Republicans are wont to do, blames scapegoats.
Abbott has since promised an investigation—but only with a caveat: no talk of “blame.” In other words, he wants a probe that probes nothing. The governor appears less interested in learning from the disaster than in preserving a narrative in which Texas stands tall, questions be damned.
But credible governance requires more than hollow confidence. It demands humility, the kind that admits something went wrong and seeks to fix it. Abbott’s insistence that only “losers” look back and ask questions is not just tone-deaf—it’s dangerous.
It sends a message to every local official in Texas that accountability is optional, that optics matter more than outcomes.
The people of Texas deserve better than a governor who treats natural disasters like halftime speeches. They deserve someone who understands that leadership means owning failure as much as touting success.
And in this case, failure wasn’t a botched pass, or a fumble, or a missed tackle that allowed the other team to score. It was an antiquated flood warning and notification system that contributed to the deaths of countless people, with many more likely dead.
And this isn’t a one off. Failures in regulation in texas from the electricity grid to manure factories and guns have led to countless deaths. Not to mention the highest rate of children without healthcare in the country, a disgrace.
For all of those people, including dozens of children, there will not be another game or season.
I’d like to think Greg Abbott understands that. But I’m not so sure. His football analogy and talk of “losers” will go down in history as one of the most insensitive and disgusting moments in modern political history. Which, at this particular time in our politics, is truly saying something.
Texas deserves better. Not slogans, not football metaphors – but accountability.
And until someone demands serious accountability from GOP governance in Texas, and across the entire country, the human toll - the real heart-breaking losses - will keep piling up, as there is zero chance the storm clouds will recede.
David Shuster is an Emmy award winning broadcast journalist who is best known for his work at NBC News and as an anchor MSNBC. He is a contributor to Blue Amp Substack and co-host of our weekly show (Thursdays, 2pm et, on Substack), “Amped Up w/ Cliff Schecter.”
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Where does the GOP find these people? Misanthropes and haters anonymous? These “leaders” are the worst of the worst.
I watched MeidasTouch this morning with Michael Cohen. He stated that Texas has a $30 Billion disaster fund! Why hasn’t that been used their electricity problems and especially the flooding disasters? Seems like it’s being pocketed by someone if true.