INVESTIGATIONS

We regret to inform you that Univision joined the race to the bottom to attempt to blame the catastrophic Texas floods on the Trump administration and on DOGE. An exchange on the network’s morning Despierta América suggested to viewers that the alleged cuts “had an effect” on the deaths in Texas Hill Country.

Watch as anchor Satcha Pretto and weekend anchor Felix de Bedout do the dance and plant the seed of Trump administration malfeasance in viewers’ minds:

UNIVISION DESPIERTA AMERICA

7/7/25

7:05 AM

SATCHA PRETTO: Felix, and we know there’s controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service and also FEMA. Is it known whether they may or may not have had an effect on this tragedy? What are they saying in Texas?

De Bedout proceeds to give Pretto a word salad answer wherein he neither answers nor refutes her question, therefore leaving it open for interpretation in the minds of viewers. Of course, this is total nonsense. As has been widely reported, the National Weather Service responded to the crisis with “surge staffing”, and issued multiple warnings in advance of the deadly flooding.

None of this matters to the Trump-deranged Univision, which insists on politicizing a tragedy even as little girls are being dug out of the mud and from under debris. The stories of courage under the worst conditions are beginning to emerge and we are only now beginning to comprehend the staggering scope of human loss resulting from this flood.

None of that matters beyond trying to score cheap political points off of a tragedy. Disgusting.

Click “expand” to view the cited portion of the aforementioned report as aired on Univision’s Despierta América on Monday, July 7th, 2025:

UNIVISION DESPIERTA AMERICA

7/7/25

7:05 AM

SATCHA PRETTO: Felix, and we know there’s controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service and also FEMA. Is it known whether they may or may not have had an effect on this tragedy? What are they saying in Texas?

FELIX DE BEDOUT: That’s the debate right now, and the president’s words yesterday were a little, I don’t know… disconcerting, because he was talking about President Biden’s responsibilities, but he said it wasn’t his fault. And we have to emphasize something I was mentioning to you. Natural tragedies, whoever the president is, are going to happen as expected – and what’s needed is the necessary prevention so that the consequences aren’t catastrophic, as has happened here. And here, although there were alerts, because in the area the alerts went off- and many people are wondering why no evacuation call was made. Several reasons were: it was very difficult to get so many people out in the middle of those conditions, but the questions are increasing, and this will have to be resolved as the days go by, especially so that if anything remains from this tragedy, it’s that the lessons are learned and nothing like this happens again.

PRETTO: And I hope not, Felix. Even one of the mayors in the area said they’re used to this kind of flash flooding and thought it might be just another one. And we saw that wasn’t the case. Felix de Bedout, thank you for bringing us this live report in Kerrville, Texas.

 

On Sunday, ABC featured a Democrat citing an estimate from the “Yale Policy Lab” that Trump’s “big beautiful bill” would kill 100,000 people over ten years. Last week, NBC promoted a report claiming 14 million people would die from Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Reporters hinted that adorable little girls drowned in a Texas flood because of Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service. But the media claim they are “fact-based.”

When news is breaking on a tragic natural disaster, there is great uncertainty in the first few days on how government performed in life-and-death matters. It should be a time for sensitivity, neutrality, and humility. It should not be a time where liberal journalists quickly start ginning up a conspiracy theory that DOGE-squad cuts in government may have led to little girls dying needlessly.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos warned of “significant staffing shortfalls to the National Weather Service’s offices in the region.” CNN’s Dana Bash claimed the local Weather Service in Texas “are missing some key staff members. A director of the NWS union told CNN that the Austin, San Antonio, office is missing a warning coordination meteorologist due to the Trump administration’s buyouts.” She wondered if that “played a role” in the deaths.

Last October, close to the election, Bash fiercely defended the Biden-Harris response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, and now she’s attacking Trump over these Texas flash floods. You can either call that wildly inconsistent, or you can call it perfectly consistent, that she lines up with the Democrats after every scary weather event.

It’s just sad that every disaster threatens to devolve into a squabble over which politicians are guilty of manslaughter. I’d at least want to wait a week or two or three for congressional hearings or something. To pounce on this, to seize on it, in the first few days, it’s just gross.

Earlier, after both houses of Congress passed the same version of Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” Democrats took to their fundraising emails and suggested the Republicans were creating a “dark and deadly moment” when food would be ripped out of the mouths of children. Nancy Pelosi called it “sinful.”

Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

On Sunday night, MSNBC’s The Weekend Primetime ran a segment comparing President Trump and his administration to the Corleone family from The Godfather, a movie about an Italian mob boss. This group struggle session had panelists drooling over themselves to spew out any anti-Trump rhetoric they could think of while relating him to a fictional character. 

While mispronouncing Corleone as Caponey (a mispronunciation of Capone, who’s not involved in the movie), MSNBC co-host Elise Jordan delusionally said: “One of the greatest movies ever made now feels more like a blueprint for dealing with the Trump presidency. Kiss the ring or feel the wrath of the Don.”

 

 

Her peak journalism led to this response from former New York Democratic Representative Max Rose, where he compared the Trump administration to a criminal enterprise, going as far to say “there’s no doubt” about it:

I mean, I do think that Donald Trump is running a criminal enterprise here. There’s absolutely no doubt. And no member of the Republican Party will stand up to him to include members of the House or the Senate. And that was actually the purpose of the separation of powers, that this wasn’t about political parties. But what I hear from members, you know, still serving is that they’re astounded the degree to which these Republicans will hold overnight hearings, will do anything, will contradict themselves. It does not matter how embarrassing they are to themselves, they will do whatever Donald Trump needs them to do.

Rose never proffered any evidence of the supposed “criminal enterprise,” leading viewers to base his claims off of, well, nothing. Ironically, in The Godfather, the Corleone family paid off multiple New York politicians. 

MSNBC author Hayes Brown tried to join in on the fun but ended up looking ignorant while crying authoritarianism over the Trump vs. Paramount settlement:

BROWN: Yes, absolutely. They need to face consequences and they need to see that there is an alternative to just caving. Because what baffles me is how, time and again, we see the “don’t hit me” response to Donald Trump, where you see groups cave before anything has really been done. We just saw it – I’d forgotten that The Godfather was a Paramount picture until we just showed that clip and there was a little bug at the top. And it’s wild because Paramount just signed over, what was it, several million dollars?

JORDAN: 16.

BROWN: $16 million to the Trump Presidential Library fund in order to make a lawsuit that was entirely frivolous go away. That is a prime example of the urge to say, ‘I have no power here,’ and make that into a truism, like, by saying, oh, there’s nothing we can do here. They make that into fact.

As much as Hayes made it seem as though the Paramount settlement with Trump over editing of a 60 minutes interview with Kamala Harris in 2024 was “frivolous,” he was operating with the same amount of evidence as the rest of America, yet still claimed that Paramount would have won had they just fought back.

He operated on this assumption despite their settlement of $16 million and agreement to release unedited interview transcripts with presidential candidates from now on. 

Co-host Antonia Hylton ran from the terrible Godfather comparison to continue with the Paramount outrage (Click “expand”): 

HYLTON: How alarmed are you by the Paramount/CBS – I mean, the implications for our industry, really? I mean, it’s obviously part of this long line of examples Catherine just spelled out here, but at a time when our industry is trying to gain trust, rebuild relationships, this certainly can’t help.

BROWN: No, I feel like the terribly ironic thing is they – probably the people at the top of the corporations who are making those decisions which are separate from CBS News or ABC News when the Disney corporation signed over their $16 million agreement, they’re looking out. They think – they probably do think that they are acting in their own best interest, that they are working to make sure that their other deals don’t get hindered by the FCC. They’re making to – working to make sure that it –  really does boil down to giving favors in order to get favors the way that –

So, I am worried that without a solid, independent, financially stable media, that it’s going to be impossible to push back on that. If you have to worry about what is going on at the level so much higher above you when you’re trying to tell the truth, that is a terrible recipe for democracy and for our country.

While Hylton claimed the media was “trying to gain trust, rebuild relationships,” you certainly don’t gain trust from the majority of American voters by comparing their president to a fictional crime boss! 

Brown responded by saying that media outlets can’t “tell the truth” when they were being sued for lying. Remember when MSNBC had to settle for defaming a doctor by calling him the “uterus collector?” Maybe people would trust the media more if they didn’t whine about the truth right after lying!

The full transcript is below. Click “expand” to view:

MSNBC’s The Weekend: Primetime
July 6, 2025
8:15 p.m. EST

ELISE JORDAN: One of the greatest movies ever made now feels more like a blueprint for dealing with the Trump presidency. Kiss the ring or feel the wrath of the Don. Vanity Fair made the mafia comparison, calling the Trump White House, quote, “the godfather presidency,” adding, quote, “even the mighty Caponey  – Capone was brought down by the government. Trump, in contrast, has made the executive branch, indeed the three branches of the US government, his. And has done so swiftly, effectively, and in a manner that makes him, for now at least, untouchable.”

Okay, well, we’re going to discuss it now. Joining us now is Hayes Brown, MSNBC daily columnist and editor, and former Democratic Congressman Max Rose of New York. He’s also a senior adviser for VoteVets.

(…)

8:17 p.m. Est

FRM. REP. MAX ROSE (D-NY): I mean, I do think that Donald Trump is running a criminal enterprise here. There’s absolutely no doubt. And no member of the Republican Party will stand up to him to include members of the House or the Senate. And that was actually the purpose of the separation of powers, that this wasn’t about political parties. But what I hear from members, you know, still serving is that they’re astounded the degree to which these Republicans will hold overnight hearings, will do anything, will contradict themselves. It does not matter how embarrassing they are to themselves, they will do whatever Donald Trump needs them to do.

CATHERINE RAMPELL: There are other institutions, of course, that have caved beyond the Republican Party. You’ve seen a lot of universities cave, law firms cave. Actually, the thing that I like most about the law firm arc is that a lot of those law firms thought that they were acting in their own narrow financial interest by caving to Donald Trump on these, you know, ludicrous things that he was asking them to do, and then they lost all their clients. So it’s like, nice to see some comeuppance here. 

What would it take, do you think, for other institutions to start fighting back more?  Like, do they need to face consequences that incentivize them to stand up?

HAYES BROWN: Yes, absolutely. They need to face consequences and they need to see that there is an alternative to just caving. Because what baffles me is how, time and again, we see the “don’t hit me” response to Donald Trump, where you see groups cave before anything has really been done. We just saw it – I’d forgotten that The Godfather was a Paramount picture until we just showed that clip and there was a little bug at the top. And it’s wild because Paramount just signed over, what was it, several million dollars?

JORDAN: 16.

BROWN: $16 million to the Trump Presidential Library fund in order to make a lawsuit that was entirely frivolous go away. That is a prime example of the urge to say, ‘I have no power here,’ and make that into a truism, like, by saying, oh, there’s nothing we can do here. They make that into fact.

ANTONIA HYLTON: How alarmed are you by the Paramount/CBS – I mean, the implications for our industry, really? I mean, it’s obviously part of this long line of examples Catherine just spelled out here, but at a time when our industry is trying to gain trust, rebuild relationships, this certainly can’t help.

BROWN: No, I feel like the terribly ironic thing is they – probably the people at the top of the corporations who are making those decisions which are separate from CBS News or ABC News when the Disney corporation signed over their $16 million agreement, they’re looking out. They think – they probably do think that they are acting in their own best interest, that they are working to make sure that their other deals don’t get hindered by the FCC. They’re making to – working to make sure that it –  really does boil down to giving favors in order to get favors the way that –

So, I am worried that without a solid, independent, financially stable media, that it’s going to be impossible to push back on that. If you have to worry about what is going on at the level so much higher above you when you’re trying to tell the truth, that is a terrible recipe for democracy and for our country.

LAMPELL: So, Max, let me ask you a version of the question that I asked Hayes, which is what would it take for Republicans to, like, what incentives would they need to face for them to finally grow a spine, or does it not exist? Like I keep thinking, well, maybe if they just lose really, really badly in the next election, that will teach them that they need to weigh, at least politically, some of their other instincts against the instinct to bow to Trump. But that doesn’t happen.

(…)

9:22 p.m. Est

BROWN: But I think part of it is that they are hoping that their constituents just don’t notice because of the way they built this bill, the way that they’ve structured it. Honestly, the fact that – that’s part of what makes it feel so shady and criminal in nature is they know exactly what the bad things are. And so they’re frontloading…

JORDAN: The timing, exactly!

BROWN: The timing of it. They’re pushing all of the bad cuts, the Medicare cuts, the making states have to pay more for food stamps until after the midterm elections. They’re pushing – they’re making it so that the tax cuts that they’re putting in there, the extra no – the extra money you get to keep from Social Security, the taxes on tips thing, that expires after Trump’s term. They know that they have to – that they – that in defending this bill they only have to do it for so long and they just have to keep Trump happy until then.

(…)