Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, July 7, 2025

July 7, 2025 · The White House · 0:34:52

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed members of the media on July 7, 2025, carried on the White House channel, opening with the Texas flash floods. She said the President had “swiftly signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, Texas, to ensure our heroic first responders have every resource they need,” that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had traveled to Texas over the weekend, and that the administration was working “hand in glove with state and local officials.”

Leavitt rejected blame directed at the administration for the flooding — “Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning” — and laid out the National Weather Service timeline as she stated it: forecast briefings for emergency management on the morning of July 3, a flood watch that afternoon, flash flood warnings that night and in the early morning of July 4 with “more than three hours” of lead time, and extra staff on duty at the New Braunfels office during the storms.

Why it matters

This briefing is the White House’s formal first account of the federal flood response and of the warning timeline — the administration’s stated record, made three days into the disaster, against which the after-action reviews would later be measured.

Scoreboard watch

This briefing is a scoreboard reference point: the Press Secretary’s July 7, 2025 account of the National Weather Service warning timeline for the Texas floods, as she stated it, to be checked against the published NWS record.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, July 7, 2025” (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the Press Secretary.