This is an adapted excerpt from the October 10 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
On Thursday, former President Barack Obama took aim at Donald Trump for his misinformation about the hurricane. During a speech in Pittsburgh, Obama called Trump “a man who only lies… to score political points.”
“The idea of deliberately misleading people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments,” the former president continued. “My question is: when did that become okay? I’m not looking for applause right now. I want to ask Republicans, people who are conservative and didn’t vote for me – I have friends who disagree with me on every issue – when did that become okay?”
It is shocking to see how far and wide the lies surrounding Hurricanes Helene and Milton have penetrated. But it becomes a little less shocking when you consider how right-wing forces — and one politician in particular — have spent the better part of a decade eroding the relationships of trust Americans share with their elected officials, civil servants, scientists and even each other.
It’s exactly what we faced during Trump’s first term during the Covid-19 pandemic. He searched wildly for an angle on the pandemic that would make him look better — that was always the north star, day in and day out. Trump downplayed the dangers of the disease and spread quackery about medical treatments. He suggested that scientists and government officials wanted to deprive you of your freedom and were actively undermining confidence in life-saving vaccines. In the end, thousands of Americans died who didn’t need to, victims of lies from Trump and many of his supporters.
And now that dynamic is back, in the wake of Helene and Milton. Trump is promoting dangerous lies that he thinks will bring him back to the Oval Office.
That makes life difficult for Republicans who support Trump but also want to save the lives of their voters.
Just look at the mental gymnastics performed by Rep. Ana Paulina Luna, a far-right Republican whose district was criticized by both Helene and Milton. On Thursday she tried to reassure residents that the government was on their side.
“I just called [President Joe] Biden,” she posted on
But where would Luna’s voters get the idea that FEMA doesn’t have the resources they need and isn’t coming to help them? Maybe from a video she posted last week, full of false claims.
“North Carolina is underwater, 1,000 people missing,” Luna said in the video. “While we were in Pinellas County, there were 11 deaths and the majority of our residents will not be able to return to their homes because they are completely destroyed. You have Mayorkas, the Biden-Harris administration and radical leftists in Washington, especially in the Democratic Party, [giving] illegal $1.1 billion in housing assistance.”
“And the government says it’s okay, we’ll give you $750,” she continued. “Meanwhile, they send our tax money abroad to fund countries that don’t need it, and give it to illegal immigrants.”
That’s all a lie. FEMA is fully funded. They don’t use disaster relief money to house migrants. And the $750 in aid is just an immediate start to the relief the storm victims will receive.
But that was Luna last week, spreading crude and racist lies about storm relief and now, this week, she is trying to walk back and reassure the people she represents in Congress that the government will help them.
The disinformation is not just an accident or a byproduct of Republican politics: it is central to their entire political project. They want to cut people off from relationships of trust with public authorities, with the media, with experts and create an alternative universe in which reality is what the great leader says it is.
It’s extremely dangerous. It claimed lives during the pandemic. And it is endangering lives in disaster areas today.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
