Ex-NOAA Administrator On Trump's Staffing Cuts

前NOAA局长谈特朗普政府裁员

What A Day

2025-07-11

22 分钟
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President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to central Texas today to tour damage of the devastating July 4th weekend floods. More than 100 people have been confirmed dead, and nearly 200 are still missing a week later. As people in the region continue to mourn their loved ones and assess the destruction, there has been a lot of finger-pointing over whether more could have been done to alert people about the flood risks. If staffing cuts at the National Weather Service played a role, and who’s to blame for the mounting death toll? Richard Spinrad, the former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, talks about how staffing cuts make the agency’s job harder. And in headlines: A federal judge in New Hampshire blocked the Trump Administration’s order ending birthright citizenship after a class-action challenge, retiring Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tills unloads during a CNN exclusive interview, and former Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil filed a claim against the Trump administration for $20 million in damages. Show Notes: Call Congress – 202-224-3121Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
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  • It's Friday, July 11th.

  • I'm Jane Coaston, and this is What A Day,

  • the show wishing Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy the best,

  • as he takes on also being the interim administrator of NASA.

  • Of course, he's no Marco Rubio, who is secretary of state, supposed acting administrator of the U.S.

  • Agency for International Development, acting archivist for the National Archives,

  • interim national security advisor, and also should really finish picking up my dry cleaning.

  • On today's show,

  • a federal judge in New Hampshire blocked President Donald Trump's efforts to end birthright citizenship after a class action challenge.

  • And retiring Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis unloads during a CNN exclusive interview.

  • But let's start with the massive floods in Central Texas that have so far killed at least 120 people.

  • President Trump is scheduled to arrive today to offer thoughts and prayers and hopefully not reflexively sort of blame the flood damage on former President Joe Biden again.

  • But I'm not counting on it,

  • because we've gotten to my least favorite part of any horrible disaster, the blame game.

  • And honestly, with some good reason.

  • From the National Weather Service to the Federal Emergency Management Agency,

  • many of the institutions tasked with every step of disaster mitigation have faced massive staffing cuts under the Trump administration.

  • So sorry, Texas Governor Greg Abbott,

  • but using a football metaphor isn't really going to help you here.

  • Who's to blame?