Donald Trump is spreading lies about the Biden-Harris hurricane response

Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Florida panhandle last week. Florida is well-versed on hurricane preparedness, and panhandle Floridians got several days’ warning to evacuate. Meteorologists seemed to know what to expect when it came to Florida. The problem was, Helene was still a monster storm and a huge flooding event as it barreled through the South. Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia all saw major flooding. The worst was in Asheville, NC and throughout Appalachia. Many North Carolinians were caught off-guard by the flooding and massive destruction. One of the biggest issues is that people so far inland, people who live in the mountains, so far above sea level, never thought they would get this kind of historic flooding. How could people get to higher land when they were already there?

Helene’s destruction in the South has become a political football, sort of. The extreme left and the MAGA cult are trying to make this situation into a political catastrophe for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. The cries of “why aren’t they in North Carolina?” fall flat – the emergency workers and first responders are focused on getting to people in need, and many of those people would have to stop what they’re doing to prepare for Biden or Harris’s visit to the affected area. President Biden has been managing the situation from the start, making emergency declarations and freeing up federal funds and resources, and staying in close contact with people at the state level. VP Harris has also been monitoring the situation and speaking to governors. She visited FEMA’s headquarters yesterday as well. Meanwhile, Trump just settled on a new conspiracy:

Donald Trump spoke in front of a furniture store gutted by Hurricane Helene in Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday, claiming falsely that Georgia’s governor had not been able to reach Joe Biden. Upon landing in Valdosta, Trump claimed to reporters the president had been “sleeping” and that Brian Kemp, the governor, had been “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him”. He repeated the false claim when speaking in front of the store.

Kemp refuted the allegation earlier in the day. He said he had been playing phone tag with vice-president Kamala Harris, but also said: “The president just called me yesterday afternoon and he just said: ‘Hey, what do you need?’ … He offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which, I appreciate that.”

During the White House press briefing on Monday, the homeland security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall said Biden had offered Kemp “anything” Georgia needed in terms of storm response.

“So, if the governor would like to speak to the president again, of course, the president will take his call,” Sherwood-Randall said.

When a pool reporter on Monday evening questioned Biden on the former president’s comments, Biden angrily interjected before the question was finished. “He’s lying and the governor told him he was lying. The governor told him he’s lying. I’ve spoken to the governor, spent time with him, and he told him he’s lying. I don’t know why he does it … that’s simply not true, and it’s irresponsible.”

[From The Guardian]

Gov. Kemp, a Republican, absolutely stood by the federal response, as did Virginia’s horrible Republican governor Glenn Youngkin. NC’s Democratic governor Roy Cooper has been in close contact with Pres. Biden and the White House. There is complete and total coordination between state governments and the federal government, all without drama and without those governors playing politics. Trump wants to lie about the Biden-Harris response because when he was president, he routinely used natural disasters and hurricanes to play politics. Trump even withheld federal disaster relief to North Carolina in 2017.

Donald Trump is a liar.

I’m working with governors and local officials to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene. pic.twitter.com/N2rzfFEftV

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 1, 2024

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty, Backgrid.