Biden points finger at Texas state leaders for delay in federal Beryl aid as they accuse him of politicizing storm

President Joe Biden told The Houston Chronicle on Tuesday that federal officials had not been able to get in touch with Texas state leaders for days – leading to a delayed distribution of emergency-relief supplies in the wake of Hurricane Beryl.

President Joe Biden told The Houston Chronicle on Tuesday that federal officials had not been able to get in touch with Texas state leaders for days – leading to a delayed distribution of emergency-relief supplies in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. The president told The Chronicle he had been trying to “track down” the governor to start the process of requesting aid. “I’ve been trying to track down the governor to see – I don’t have the authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden told the paper. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been in Asia for the past several days, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has assumed the role of acting governor during the state’s response to the storm in his absence. The White House told the paper that officials have tried to reach Patrick and Abbott “multiple times.” CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. “We’ve been working on this for two days and we finally got the request,” Biden said, according to The Chronicle. “We positioned an awful lot of stuff in Texas ahead of time, but I had to get a specific request for this.” Biden’s statements to The Chronicle are a rare example of the president publicly airing disagreements with state officials as they contend with a major natural disaster. Presidents, including Biden, have typically worked to focus on unity and reaching across the aisle in the wake of major storms. Touring Louisiana in 2021 after a hurricane struck that state, Biden said “there’s nothing political about this. It’s just simply about saving lives and getting people back up and running, and we’re in this together.”