SCRANTON, Pennsylvania — Former President Trump is once again taking aim at President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris over the federal government’s response to back-to-back destructive hurricanes that have targeted the Southeast.
“The worst hurricane response since Katrina,” the former president charged as he pointed to the much-maligned initial federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was heavily criticized for being slow and ineffective.
Trump, at a campaign event in battleground Pennsylvania, spoke as an extremely powerful and dangerous Hurricane Milton was hours away from slamming into Florida, and as the death toll rises and more than 100,000 people remain without power or running water nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene tore a path of destruction through the southeastern U.S.
BIDEN CANCELS OVERSEAS TRIP AS MILTON BEARS DOWN ON FLORIDA
With less than four weeks to go until Election Day in November, Trump and Harris are locked in a bitter margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election, the politics of federal disaster relief are again front and center on the campaign trail.
EYE OF THE STORM: BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IMPACT HARRIS-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Trump for nearly two weeks has repeatedly attacked Biden and Harris and accused them of being incompetent.
“THE WORST RESPONSE TO A STORM OR HURRICANE DISASTER IN U.S. HISTORY,” Trump claimed in a social media post on Tuesday.
“She’s just led the worst rescue operation in history in North Carolina,” Trump charged at his Wednesday campaign event, as he lobbed another political bomb at the vice president. “The worst ever, they say.”
Vice President Kamala Harris greets people who were impacted by Hurricane Helene in Augusta, Georgia, on Oct. 2 as Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson watches at right. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
And the former president once again made false claims that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) diverted money intended for disaster relief and spent it on undocumented migrants in the U.S. as he turned up the volume on his inflammatory rhetoric over the combustible issue of illegal immigration.
“You know where they gave the money to: illegal immigrants coming,” Trump said as the crowd of MAGA supporters loudly booed.
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A couple of hours earlier, as the president and vice president received their latest briefing from FEMA and other federal agencies on storm preparations in Florida and relief efforts across the Southeast, Biden said that “we have made available an unprecedented number of assets to deal with this crisis, and we’re going to continue to do so until the job is done.”
President Biden talks with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina, on Oct. 2 to survey damage from Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
And the president had a message for his predecessor in the White House.
“Over the last few weeks, there has been a reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people. It’s undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken, and it’s harmful to those who need help the most. There is simply no place for this to happen,” he said.
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Pointing to the Republican presidential nominee, Biden said that “former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies. Assertions have been made that property is being confiscated. That’s simply not true.”
Former President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biden said rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans was “beyond ridiculous” and that “it’s got to stop.”
“In moments like this, there are no red or blue states. There’s one United States of America, where neighbors are helping neighbors. Volunteers and first responders are risking everything, including their own lives, to help their fellow Americans; state, local and federal officials are standing side by side,” the president said.
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Harris, who in July replaced Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, had a similar message during an interview Wednesday on the Weather Channel.
“This is not a time for us to just point fingers at each other as Americans,” Harris said. “Anybody who considers themselves to be a leader should really be in the business right now of giving people a sense of confidence that we’re all working together and that we have the resources and the ability to work together on their behalf, on behalf of the people of our country. And that’s what I’m focused on.”
Earlier this week, Harris and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida traded fire over whether he ignored hurricane-related calls from her.
But when it comes to the federal response, DeSantis, along with other Republican governors in the storm-affected region, had no complaints about the federal assistance.
The governor reiterated those comments Tuesday morning in an interview on “FOX and Friends.”
“Every request that we’ve made — I’ve been in contact with the president, I’ve been in contact with the FEMA director. All of our requests have been answered,” DeSantis said.
Fox News’ Matthew Reidy and Matteo Cina contributed to this report.