This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

As of this recording, at least 109 people have been pronounced dead from the devastating floods that have pounded down on Texas for five days.

Distressingly, 27 of those deaths occurred at a summer camp for girls, and the death toll continues to rise as search and rescue efforts grow more and more frantic.

This week, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt lashed out angrily at the news media

and at Democrats for raising questions about whether any of the administration's policies

bear any blame for the disastrous impact.

But what exactly is wrong with debating the role of public policy and producing such

horrible outcomes? Is that something we should debate? And when is the right time to debate it?

New Republic staff writer Kate Aronoff has a new piece arguing that Democrats absolutely should talk about GOP policies and priorities at times like this.

So we're talking to Kate about the whole situation.

Hey, Kate, thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me.

So, Kate, everything that's been reported about this disaster just boggles the mind.

The suddenness of the flooding, the scale of it, the speed of it, the sheer destructiveness in such rapid order.

It's all really hard to comprehend.

There's been a lot of debate about whether things like the staff shortages at the National Weather Service made things worse,

and some focus on Trump's promise to end the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA.

You looked into this.

Can you just bring us quickly up to speed on where the disaster is and on that debate about apportioning blame?

Yeah, so as you mentioned, over 100 people have been confirmed dead.

There's still ongoing search and rescue efforts, and there's more rain expected for that specific area of Texas this week.

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