One of many first questions former president Donald Trump would ask if a state wanted catastrophe help whereas he was in workplace was, “Are they my folks?” according to Stephanie Grisham, who served because the White Home press secretary beneath Trump from 2019 to 2020 and is now supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s marketing campaign.
Because the final weeks have proven, pure disasters, worsened by climate change, don’t discriminate based mostly on what number of registered Democrats or Republicans are within the state.
Harris stated this week that she wished to “personally take a look at the devastation, which is extraordinary.” She expressed admiration for a way “individuals are coming collectively. Individuals are serving to excellent strangers,” in line with the Related Press.
Since Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern United States in late September, over 200 people have died, making it the fourth-deadliest hurricane to make landfall on the mainland since 1950.
Trump has visited areas impacted by Helene in latest days to survey the injury carried out—and to prop up unfounded conspiracies in regards to the Joe Biden-Harris administration’s dealing with of catastrophe aid.
In a Monday Reality Social post, Trump introduced he was touring to the area and claimed that he doesn’t “just like the experiences that I’m getting in regards to the Federal Authorities, and the Democrat Governor of [North Carolina], going out of their technique to not assist folks in Republican areas. MAGA!” On Thursday, the previous president additionally stated that “Kamala spent all her FEMA cash, billions of {dollars}, on housing for unlawful migrants.” That’s not true. Based on the Occasions, “no catastrophe funding has been spent on these shelters.”
Throughout a Tuesday look in Augusta, Georgia, Harris announced that Biden permitted the governor’s request for 100% federal reimbursement of native prices, including, “I wish to thank the native leaders for, collectively, making a activity force-like response, figuring out that we’re at our greatest after we work collectively and coordinate assets, coordinate our communications to the utmost impact for the neighborhood that has been impacted.”
As Trump spreads these unfounded theories, Republican governors throughout the area have presented a different tone.
Republican South Carolina governor Henry McMaster said at a Tuesday press convention that federal help had “been excellent.” “Thanks to President Biden,” Governor Glenn Youngkin wrote in a press launch, including throughout a Monday address that he was “extremely appreciative of the speedy response and the cooperation from the federal workforce at FEMA.” Invoice Lee, Tennessee’s Republican governor, said that the “response was fast from the federal authorities.”
On Saturday, Harris is headed to North Carolina to proceed monitoring the state of devastation within the southeast. Concurrently, Trump will likely be again in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the web site of the primary failed assassination try towards him in July. Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump following the taking pictures, will reportedly even be in attendance. Trump has blamed Biden, Harris, and Democrats extra broadly for each of the makes an attempt on his life.
Throughout the 2018 California wildfires, the deadliest in its historical past, Trump initially opposed sending federal monies to the state, per reporting from The New York Occasions based mostly on two former administration officers. “However Mr. Trump shifted his place after his advisers discovered information exhibiting that enormous numbers of his supporters had been being affected by the infernos,” the Occasions’ Tim Balk writes.
Vice President Mike Pence’s homeland safety adviser, Olivia Troye, stated that at the beginning, Trump instructed these in cost to not ship “any cash” to California. “We noticed quite a few situations — this was only one — the place it was politicized,” Troye informed the Occasions. “It was purple states vs. blue states.”
“None of that is true and is nothing greater than a fabricated story from somebody’s demented creativeness,” Steven Cheung, a marketing campaign spokesman, stated in a press release to the Occasions. “Out and in of workplace, President Trump has proven as much as present help and aid to People within the wake of pure disasters.”
