Greg Abbott Compares Deadly Flood That’s Killed Over 100 to Being Down at the Halftime of a Football Game

Texas governor Greg Abbott claimed Tuesday it was “loser” 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.

Asked by a reporter if the governor would call for an inquiry into “who is to blame” for the tragedy, Abbott responded: “You asked ‘Who’s to blame?’ Know this: That’s the word choice of losers.” He added: “Let me explain one thing about Texas. Texas, every square inch of our state, cares about football. You could be in Huntsville, Texas; Houston, Texas—any 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’s to blame. The championship teams are the ones that say, ‘Don’t worry about it, man. We got this. We’re gonna make sure that we go score again, that we’re going to win this game.’ The way winners talk is not to point fingers, they talk about solutions.”

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It’s not clear whom Abbott thinks his locker-room-esque pep talk was helping. Is hearing “we’re gonna make sure that we go score again, that we’re going to win this game” 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’re 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.

Abbott did say there would be an inquiry into the central Texas floods and how to prevent such events from happening again—but given that said investigation will be undertaken by the GOP-controlled state legislature, it’s not clear what will come of it. As The New York Times notes, Abbott “and 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.” Senator Ted Cruz—who reportedly amended Donald Trump’s spending bill to eliminate $150 million in funding for advances around weather forecasting—criticized people “trying to blame their political opponents for a natural disaster.” Representative Chip Roy said, “finger-pointing generally is just offensive when you’re dealing with trying to find bodies, and trying to deal with families grieving.” Roy also voted for the weather forecasting cuts.