Donald Trump spoke Monday outside a furniture store destroyed by Hurricane Helene in Valdosta, Georgia, falsely claiming that Georgia Governor had been unable to reach Joe Biden.
Upon landing in Valdosta, Trump claimed to reporters that the president was “asleep” and that Brian Kemp, the governor, “called the president and couldn’t get a hold of him.” He repeated the claim when speaking outside the store.
Kemp refuted the allegation earlier in the day. He said he was on the phone with Vice President Kamala Harris, but also said, “The president called me yesterday afternoon and said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ … He offered that if we need anything else we could just call him directly, which I appreciate.”
At the White House press conference on Monday, Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall said the president offered Kemp “everything” Georgia needed in terms of storm response.
Related: More than 120 dead and a million without power after ‘historic’ Hurricane Helene
“So if the governor wants to speak to the president again, the president will obviously take his call,” Sherwood-Randall said.
Trump traveled to the area with evangelist Franklin Graham and truckloads of relief supplies in tow.
“We brought a lot of raw materials,” he said, without really describing what those raw materials were, other than a tanker truck with gasoline and some water. The Billy Graham Evangelical Association did not respond to a request for comment, although its website said it has sent chaplains to the affected areas.
“We are here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and all those suffering the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” Trump said in front of the crumbling brick storefront of Chez What, a furniture and fashion collective in Valdosta. As he spoke, Trump was flanked by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and local elected officials.
Located in southern Georgia, Valdosta is still digging out Hurricane Helene. At least 25 people have died in Georgia as a result of the storm. At the height of Helene’s destruction, about 1.3 million Georgians lost power, Kemp said Monday at a briefing in Augusta, a few hours before Trump arrived. Nearly 500,000 people were still without electricity Monday morning, Kemp said.
There has been, at least until now, no repeat of a scene from a disaster photo from seven years ago in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when the former president threw paper towels into the crowd two weeks after Hurricane Maria destroyed 93% of the island to leave. without electricity.
Harris canceled events on Monday and received a briefing from Fema in Washington DC.
“President Biden and I remain committed to ensuring that no community or state has to respond to this disaster alone,” she said. “Federal personnel are on the ground to support affected families so that critical resources such as food, water and generators are available. We also approved emergency declarations for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, providing resources and funding to maximize our coordinated response efforts at the local, state and federal levels.”
