As communities across the Southeast, particularly North Carolina, try to recover from Hurricane Helene and its aftermath, Donald Trump has blatantly lied for several days about the government’s response to the deadly storm. State and local officials, including many Republicans, have asked him to stop misleading the public, but he has ignored the calls.
The former president indeed continues to ignore the professions.
The consequences of Trump’s duplicity are real: As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim explained, officials have said the election season lies and conspiracy theories are “hampering relief efforts” while forcing agencies to waste time and resources fighting of lies that are overstated. people fall for it.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who started the week with a site visit to North Carolina, has begun pushing back against her Republican rival in earnest. NBC News reported:
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday criticized former President Donald Trump for false claims he made about disaster relief for Hurricane Helene victims. Harris told reporters that there is a lot of “misinformation being spread by the former president about what is available, particularly for Helene survivors,” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It’s extremely irresponsible,” the Democratic candidate said, adding in reference to Trump: “It’s about him; it’s not about you.”
VP Harris is warning Americans about the misinformation she says the former president is spreading about what is available, especially for Hurricane Helene survivors. She says FEMA has many resources available for those who desperately need them. pic.twitter.com/K5EYYlCxDs
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 7, 2024
It was an important point. For months, the core of the Democratic Party’s election-season message has been a clear condemnation of the former president: Trump’s only priority is what’s best for Trump. Period. Point.
It is against this backdrop that the Republican saw devastated communities and human suffering, which apparently led him to see a political opportunity: If he repeatedly lied about the heartbreaking circumstances, Trump concluded, it could benefit his campaign.
The whole idea behind the so-called ‘October surprises’ is that there are sometimes unexpected developments that shake up the public discussion in the run-up to election day and influence the results. Except Trump has given himself an October surprise in 2024: With four weeks to go, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate was caught trying to exploit human suffering while lying about a deadly natural disaster to advance his own interests.
It turns out that in American politics we have a word for situations like this. That word is “scandal.” Trump’s actions – which draw new attention to his lack of integrity and character – deserve to be seen and characterized as scandalous.
Making matters worse, these developments are also a timely reminder that Trump’s own record of disaster response is abysmal — a point Harris’ campaign hopes to make clear in a hard-hitting new television advertising.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
