WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, who as president withheld hurricane aid to Puerto Rico and threatened to withhold wildfire aid to California, falsely accused President Joe Biden on Monday of failing to help victims of Hurricane Helene in western to help North Carolina and Georgia, because he had ‘abandoned the Americans to their fate’. drowning” in the South.
“He called the president, he couldn’t get a hold of him,” Trump said of Georgia governor, fellow Republican Brian Kemp, in his remarks to reporters in Valdosta, a city in the southern part of the state.
It was a lie that Kemp himself had refuted earlier that day.
“The president called me yesterday afternoon. I missed him and called him back right away,” Kemp told reporters. “And he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?'”
That untruth was the latest in a series of lies Trump has made about the response of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, to the Category 4 storm that made landfall late Thursday.
Just before flying to Valdosta, the former president who attempted a coup posted on social media about western North Carolina: “I’ll be there soon, but I’m not happy with the messages I’m getting about the federal government and the Democratic governor . of the state, who do everything they can not to help people in Republican areas. MAGA!”
He then posted an even more inflammatory claim, again without any evidence of wrongdoing: “They have drowned Americans in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and elsewhere in the South.”
And at the Valdosta Regional Airport, when asked by a reporter if he had contacted Biden about the response, Trump, wearing his red MAGA campaign hat, replied: “No, I haven’t contacted him. I think he’s sleeping now, actually.’
In fact, just minutes earlier, Biden had detailed his administration’s actions to date and planned next steps to reporters at the White House. He also explained that he plans to visit the hardest-hit areas in North Carolina, but not until later in the week, so as not to interfere with on-the-ground operations with his large traveling entourage and security personnel. “This could be disruptive,” he says.
As Trump left Valdosta, he was confronted by a reporter whether he had any evidence that aid was being withheld from Republican areas. Trump has provided nothing. “Just look,” he said.
The accusations, which have been amplified in the right-wing, pro-Trump media, appear to have been concocted out of hand.
While residents of North Georgia, Western Carolina and East Tennessee may have been surprised by the amount of rain they received that led to the rapid flooding, forecasters from Biden’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Hurricane Center had warned of that danger when Helene was still in the country. the Gulf of Mexico.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said during a White House briefing Thursday that residents of states in the Southern Appalachians should pay attention.
“Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and those Appalachian Mountains will receive up to 20 inches of rain in an area that could cause significant flash flooding. And that is really life-threatening, and it comes so much faster than what we see with a storm surge,” she said. “They’re going to have less warning once the rain starts there, so they need to know what they’re going to do next, make those plans today for where they’re going, how they’re going. to contact their family and friends, what they need to take with them – such as medicines or electrical appliances for medical reasons.”
Hours later, National Hurricane Center forecasters also warned of threats to areas north of Helene’s expected landfall in Florida’s Big Bend in their 5 p.m. advisory.
“Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding and urban flooding, including numerous significant landslides, are expected in parts of the southern Appalachians through Friday,” the forecast said. “Significant to locally catastrophic flooding and urban flooding are likely through Friday for northwest and northern Florida and the southeast. Widespread, significant river flooding and isolated major river flooding are likely.”
In anticipation of this, Criswell said that in addition to Florida, FEMA Incident Management Assistance Teams had already been deployed in Georgia and Alabama, and one was also on its way to North Carolina. In addition, Biden had already approved emergency declarations for Florida, Georgia and North Carolina before landfall to help boost funding for the response.
Trump took no questions during his 13-minute speech in Valdosta. However, despite his four years in office, he betrayed a continued ignorance of hurricanes and hurricane season.
He said no one had ever seen a storm as big and powerful as Helene, and that it was especially surprising because “it’s so late in the season for hurricanes.”
In fact, the hurricane season for the North Atlantic Ocean basin begins on June 1 and ends on November 30, with August, September and October being the peak months. Moreover, there have been many storms over the years that were bigger and more powerful than Helene’s.
However, Trump’s accusations that Biden is deliberately withholding aid from areas where residents are largely critical of him do reflect his precise behavior as president when he withheld $20 billion in congressionally approved aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and threatened withhold federal aid. to California to fight wildfires.
The issue of federal aid in the event of natural disasters could come into question if Trump wins back the White House. Under the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — which Trump initially praised for laying out “exactly what our movement will do” if he returns to office but has disavowed in recent months as Democrats made its contents public — federal programs that helping individuals and businesses are being scaled back. The massive proposal would also scrap the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and hand forecasting and presumptive control of a fleet of weather satellites paid for by many billions of tax dollars to private companies.
