The Buffalo News is under fire over a political cartoon published Monday that generalized the more than 100 fatalities in the Texas floods as a white male Trump voter being swept away in the waters wearing a MAGA hat.
“Government is the problem not the solution,” read the speech bubble over the submerged man holding a “help” sign in the cartoon. The work was generated by editorial cartoonist Adam Zyglis.
A New York Republican chair accused the Buffalo News of “mocking” Trump voters.
At least 120 people are dead from the flooding that struck Friday, including more than 35 children, 27 of whom were from Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp.
“This is absolute, heartless filth from the decrepit @TheBuffaloNews,” wrote Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., in a post to X on Wednesday.
Michael Kracker, chair of the Erie County Republican Committee, shared the image to X on Wednesday, writing, “@TheBuffaloNews ran a cartoon mocking Texas families who lost loved ones in a tragedy, just because they might’ve voted Republican.”
“Twisted, vile, and shameful. They owe those families an apology and should pull this filth immediately,” Kracker wrote.
A Houston pediatrician apologized after she was fired from her job after a social media post saying that Republicans in Kerr County, ground zero for the deadly floods, should get “what they voted for.”
“May all visitors, children, non-MAGA voters and pets be safe and dry. Kerr County MAGA voted to gut FEMA,” Dr. Christina Probst wrote in the post that went viral. “They deny climate change. May they get what they voted for. Bless their hearts.”
Probst later recanted.
“I understand my comment caused immense pain to those suffering indescribable grief and for that I am truly sorry. I would like to make clear that my regrettable comment was in no way a response to the tragic loss of human life. But the words written were mine and regardless of how they are being presented, that is a fact that I deeply regret,” Probst said in a lengthy statement on Wednesday.