Jessica Tarlov isn’t letting Jesse Watters’ hypocrisy surrounding the Texas floods and 2024 Hurricane Helene go unnoticed.
Tarlov went after his “The Five” co-host for not holding President Trump to the same standard regarding the Texas flooding that he did when Hurricane Helene arrived under the Biden administration. Particularly when it came to lies Trump was peddling about FEMA after the September 2024 storm.
Jessica: We were here around the table when Hurricane Helene hit. I didn’t hear Jesse Watters saying that Donald Trump should stop spreading lies about the Biden administration and FEMA funding. pic.twitter.com/pcdegck3yd
— acyn (@acyn) July 7, 2025
“I don’t think talking about preparedness or anything that might have helped qualifies as impugning the memory of those lost or detracting from the thoughtful conversation that needs to happen because this river has been flooding for a long time,” Tarlov said. “We were here around the table when Hurricane Helene hit. I didn’t hear Jesse Watters saying that Donald Trump should stop spreading lies about the Biden administration and FEMA funding.”
She continued: “Trump came out and he said, ‘They’re giving your FEMA dollars to illegals, they’re sheltering them with your FEMA dollars.’ Then he said you’ll only get $750 from FEMA—which was a complete lie, and there are Republican officials who testified to the fact that people didn’t get their FEMA assistance because of what Trump and other Republicans were saying.”
Tarlov concluded that the GOP lawmaker rejected “more than $54 billion in identified disaster resilience needs” that could have helped mitigate the damage from the Texas floods.
“This is something they can work on moving forward and hopefully prevent a tragedy like this again,” she concluded.
The flash flood disaster struck Texas over the Fourth of July weekend, with a current death toll of more than 100, according to the Associated Press, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic. That number is expected to rise as authorities continue searching for survivors amid the devastation.
“We are in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls,” Camp Mystic shared in a statement Monday. “We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from the community, first responders, and staff at all levels.”
You can watch Tarlov’s segment in the video above.
