Loser Talk

Projection, deflection, misdirection, and evil

Monday marked the one-month anniversary of the July 2025 Central Texas floods. While the news cycle has moved on, my thoughts keep returning to the tragedy. My heart goes out to the survivors and all those affected by the floods. It is hard to wrap my head around the losses and the devastation.

I also keep thinking about what Governor Greg Abbott said at a press conference and what President Trump said at a roundtable when asked questions from reporters. At the press conference, a reporter asked Governor Abbott about investigations into what happened with the floods. The reporter then mentions the Uvalde school shooting investigation and then asks who is to blame (starts around 24:47) for this situation.

Personally, I don’t think it was a great question. Governor Abbott had just said there will be investigations. Without an investigation, it is too easy to start pointing fingers without really understanding all the factors that led to the tragedy. Premature pointing of fingers leads to scapegoats and possibly no changes to save lives in future natural disasters.

At the same time, if the people in power contributed to the tragedy-will they take ownership for their inaction? Will the investigations find the root causes or paper over culpability? If people in power realized the risks and chose not to act will this be exposed? If people were negligent in their jobs, will this be revealed? Will anyone explore how cuts to the federal government might have impacted the disaster?

Getting the Governor’s point of view on blame could give a sense of whether we can trust the investigations. Will they be honest and thorough? Or will they look to scapegoat their political enemies? Better questions would be: Who in the Texas legislature will do the investigations and how do we know we can trust their conclusions? Governor, what goals or hopes do you have for the investigations?

While the question was poor in some ways, Governor Abbott’s repose was worse. He responded that the Texas legislature will investigate. What does that mean exactly? Unclear. What do they hope to achieve? Unclear, beyond some generalities that say nothing and could be used in any press conference in the wake of a tragedy. It would have been nice for the Governor to give some clear goals to show that they are going to take seriously the responsibility aspect of the tragedy to address the blame question.

Then the Governor attacks the reporter. He throws the question back in the reporter's face. The Governor says, “know this, that’s the word choice of losers.” He then uses the metaphor of football to explain how losers look for people to blame. Winners, apparently say, “don’t worry about it, man, we got this. We’re going to make sure that we go score again and we’re going to win this game.” Which is not really an answer, but an insult to the reporter.

If you keep listening to his answer, he says they will respond to the floods. Not with “blame” or “bitterness”. Basically with actions done with love. Which is all good as far as it goes, but does it go far enough?

I am not an expert on football. But it is my understanding that football teams (at least coaches) watch their past games. Look for ways they could do better. I imagine if a play did not go well, they might look for how and why the play did not go well. Was it a bad play call? Did someone not execute? Did the opponents do something surprising? Were mistakes made? What factors are to blame for the play not working? Ultimately, how did we get to the final score on the scoreboard?

I believe based on my casual observations; winning teams take responsibility for their actions and preparation for the games. Perhaps they don’t “blame” people for mistakes, but I imagine coaches hold players accountable for how they play. Management holds coaches accountable for their coaching and the program’s health. A good football player holds himself accountable for his own play. Takes ownership of his mistakes or lack of preparation.

Bad things in life happen. Sometimes disasters are sui generis. No reason to expect or prepare for them. Other times, there is nothing reasonable or prudent that can be done to prevent the harms from the disaster.

With the Texas floods though, people knew this could happen (it has happened in the past). Governmental entities contemplated warning systems. Experts drew flood maps. Are there people who could have acted differently? Using the lens of reasonable and prudent actions, did people make bad choices?

Blame might not be the best way to frame this, but when a person in power attacks someone who asks a question, I wonder did the question hit too close to home? Has the Governor had the best priorities for keeping Texans safe? Should the buck stop with him or do only losers take responsibility for how they use their office and power?

Governor Abbott was not the only one to attack a reporter in Texas. President Trump hosted a roundtable after the floods in Texas. He took some questions from reporters. A reporter noted families devastated by the tragedy are upset. They contend warnings or alerts didn’t go out in time. People could have been saved. The reporter asks, “what do you say to those families?”

Trump responds by not answering the question directly. Instead, he says people did an “incredible job under the circumstances.” Then he talks about the unique nature of the flood. How he admires the job people did. Then he attacks the reporter. Trump contends, “only a bad person would ask a question like that to be honest with you. I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.” The President goes from not answering the question to attacking the reporter.

The President could have told those families how sorry he is for their losses. That he will ask some part of the federal government to investigate. State concrete actions he will take to ensure this does not happen again. Show some kind of compassion towards people who are hurting.

It is perverse to attack a reporter for asking a question (after deciding to take questions). We should desire people, let alone reporters, to ask questions to people in power. Asking questions to people in power about natural disasters is not evil or bad. Reporters need to ask politicians questions in the face of death and destruction.

We should condemn a politician calling a reporter a bad person and evil for asking a question in the harshest language possible. In the United States, we should celebrate the exercise of free speech by the press, not attack it. Again, did the question hit too close to home?

Questions will not undo what has happened. The right questions might lead to changes that can save lives in the future. Politicians who attack reporters for asking questions undermine human decency and democracy.

You might not like the question, but you should not attack the reporter. Change the framing if you think it’s wrong, but you don’t have to make it personal. Attacking questions and questioners is what losers do.

Winners wrestle with hard questions and respect other people even when they think the question is not fair. No one ever said that life is fair. If you want to wear the crown of leadership, accept the responsibility and accountability that comes with it, especially when it does not feel fair. When you attack a reporter for asking about a natural disaster, I think it is fair to ask, why are you deflecting?