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Texas governor Greg Abbott<\/strong> claimed Tuesday it was \u201closer\u201d talk to assign blame for the failures that led to the disastrous flood that has killed more than 100 people in his state. Then he gave an extended speech about football.<\/p>\n Asked by a reporter if the governor would call for an inquiry into \u201cwho is to blame\u201d for the tragedy, Abbott responded: \u201cYou asked \u2018Who\u2019s to blame?\u2019 Know this: That\u2019s the word choice of losers.\u201d He added: \u201cLet me explain one thing about Texas. Texas, every square inch of our state, cares about football. You could be in Huntsville, Texas; Houston, Texas\u2014any size community, they care about football. High school, Friday-night lights, college football, or pro. And know this, every football team makes mistakes. The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who\u2019s to blame. The championship teams are the ones that say, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about it, man. We got this. We\u2019re gonna make sure that we go score again, that we\u2019re going to win this game.\u2019 The way winners talk is not to point fingers, they talk about solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not clear whom Abbott thinks his locker-room-esque pep talk was helping. Is hearing \u201cwe\u2019re gonna make sure that we go score again, that we\u2019re going to win this game\u201d supposed to be comforting to the families who lost loved ones, some of them children, in a horrific manner? Or to those still searching for missing relatives, whose hopes undoubtedly dim as the days stretch on? It was an analogy, yes, but we\u2019re not sure someone whose child went to summer camp and never came back wants their unimaginably tragic situation likened to being down at the halftime of a high school football game.<\/p>\n Abbott did say there would be an inquiry into the central Texas floods and how to prevent such events from happening again\u2014but given that said investigation will be undertaken by the GOP-controlled state legislature, it\u2019s not clear what will come of it. As The New York Times<\/em> notes<\/a>, Abbott \u201cand other prominent Republicans have pushed back against critics who have called for investigations into unfilled staff positions at National Weather Service offices in Texas, or a lack of emergency warning systems along the Guadalupe River.\u201d Senator Ted Cruz<\/strong>\u2014who reportedly amended Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s spending bill to eliminate<\/a> $150 million in funding for advances around weather forecasting\u2014criticized people \u201ctrying to blame their political opponents for a natural disaster.\u201d Representative Chip Roy<\/strong> said, \u201cfinger-pointing generally is just offensive when you\u2019re dealing with trying to find bodies, and trying to deal with families grieving.\u201d Roy also voted<\/a> for the weather forecasting cuts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nX content<\/h4>\n