So every single day now, it feels at least to me like someone from the Trump administration

is absolutely lying to our faces, to everyone in the American public.

I mean, here's a pretty stunning case in point.

This is President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem describing FEMA's response

to the flooding in Texas just this weekend.

You had people there as fast as anybody's ever seen. FEMA went to an enhanced level immediately, but as soon as you signed the major disaster declaration,

we were able to get them resources and dollars right away.

We're cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it, much like your vision,

of how FEMA should operate, and it's been a much better response.

Trump and Noem want the public to believe that this weekend FEMA responded as fast as anybody has ever seen, and that they cut through the paperwork for a streamlined faster response than ever.

It's as if we can't check these things, but the thing is we can. And the truth appears to be exactly pretty much the opposite.

CNN reported just this morning that FEMA's response in Texas was actually slowed down,

taking a full 72 hours because of a bureaucratic paperwork process of Noam's own creation.

Noem recently enacted a role that makes it so every contract and grant over $100,000 requires

personal sign-off from her directly, which I guess maybe sounds good on the surface.

But the problem is, on the ground, what it means, and we saw this in Texas, what it meant this

weekend is that while central Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials

realized they couldn't pre-position urban search and rescue crews. Like they normally would, like they would in any scenario like this.

A source told CNN that Texas requested aerial imagery from FEMA to aid in search and rescue,

but that was also delayed because they needed Nome's personal approval.

And another source told CNN that callers faced longer call times at disaster call centers

as the agency awaited Noam's approval for a contract to bring in additional staff.

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