Because the demise toll rises and roughly 1 / 4 of one million folks stay with out energy or working water every week and a half after Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction by way of the southeast United States, one other highly effective storm is bearing down on the area.
Hurricane Milton, now a particularly harmful Class 5 storm, is heading in the right direction to slam into Florida Wednesday night.
With 4 weeks to go till Election Day in November and Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump locked in a bitter margin-of-error showdown within the race to succeed President Biden within the White Home, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the many seven key battlegrounds that may seemingly decide the end result of the 2024 election – the politics of federal catastrophe reduction are as soon as once more entrance and heart on the marketing campaign path.
Trump has been attacking the vp and her boss over the federal response to Hurricane Helene for nicely over every week. Harris, on Monday, fired again, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of mis and disinformation.”
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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks exterior the Chez What furnishings retailer as he visits Valdosta, Ga., a city impacted by Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photograph/Evan Vucci)
The previous president has repeatedly charged that Biden and Harris have been incompetant of their dealing with of rescue and restoration efforts.
“It is going down as the WORST & MOST INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED ‘STORM,’ AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL, EVER SEEN BEFORE,” Trump claimed final week.
On Monday, he argued in a social media put up that the administration’s storm response was “the WORST rescue operation in the history of the U.S.”
And Trump’s working mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, charged Monday in a “Fox and Friends” interview that the administration’s efforts have been “incompetence of the highest order.”
The Trump marketing campaign, in saying Vance would maintain a city corridor Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina, argued that Harris “completely left North Carolina behind in the wake of devastation post-Hurricane Helene.”
And in a blatant pitch for votes, the previous president claimed that “NORTH CAROLINA HAS BEEN VIRTUALLY ABANDONED BY KAMALA!!! DROP HER LIKE SHE DROPPED YOU – VOTE FOR PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP. MAGA2024!”
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Trump’s repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims as he is focused Biden and Harris – amongst them that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia had been unable to succeed in Biden when Helene first tore by way of the Peach State. Kemp later confirmed that he had already been in touch with the president.
Regardless of the untruths from the previous president, he did beat Biden and Harris to the scene, surveying the storm-damaged area two days earlier than they did final week.
The optics put the president and vp on protection, they usually’ve been pressured to repeatedly right the report.
President Joe Biden and Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina greet first responders after touring areas impacted by Hurricane Helene, on the ariport in Greenville, S.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photograph/Susan Walsh)
The White Home has publicized FEMA’s [Federal Emergency Management Agency] efforts in aiding the hard-hit states. Biden made back-to-back journeys to the southeast final Wednesday and Thursday, as he stopped within the 4 hardest hit states, and Harris additionally made two journeys to survey injury.
Huddled with Democratic and Republican politicians from the area final week, Biden emphasised that “in a moment like this, we put politics aside, at least we should put it all aside. We have here — there are no Democrats or Republicans, only Americans — our job is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can, and as thoroughly as we can.”
Trump – alongside along with his allies – has repeatedly aimed to tie the storm response to the flamable difficulty of border safety, as he claimed that FEMA funds for the rescue and reduction efforts in North Carolina have been being diverted to assist undocumented migrants.
The Harris marketing campaign, firing again, mentioned that Trump and Vance and their allies have been “pushing debunked lies about Hurricane Helene response.”
A prime North Carolina Republican – Sen. Thom Tillis – requested in regards to the costs, mentioned on the Sunday discuss exhibits that “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris greets individuals who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene in Augusta, Ga., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, as Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson watches at proper. (AP Photograph/Carolyn Kaster)
Harris, on Monday, known as Trump’s actions “extraordinarily irresponsible.”
“It’s about him. It’s not about you. And the reality is that FEMA has so many resources that are available to folks who desperately need them now, and resources that are about helping people get back on their feet and rebuild and have places to go,” Harris emphasised.
However longtime Republican strategist David Kochel famous that Trump had been “very aggressive” along with his preliminary fast journey to the storm-damaged area.
“I think he put a lot of pressure on them to try to do something,” Kochel, a veteran of quite a few GOP presidential campaigns, informed Fox Information. “He’s out there pushing a line that they don’t care, they’re not doing anything, and I think they’re reacting to it.”
Now, with Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida, the Biden administration highlighted their efforts in a launch headlined “Federal Assistance for Hurricane Helene Exceeds $210 Million, FEMA Prepares for Dual Response with Hurricane Milton Strengthening as it Moves Toward Gulf Coast of Florida.”
As Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida on Monday, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida mentioned throughout a information convention that 5,000 Nationwide Guardsmen had been mobilized in his state, with one other 3,000 on the best way.
“We have gotten what we need from the feds,” DeSantis mentioned. “The president has approved what we asked for….I’m thankful for that.. Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he’s approved.”
That is removed from the primary time {that a} tropical storm has impacted a presidential race.
Then-President George H.W. Bush took a political hit over FEMA’s disorganized efforts to supply reduction in Florida from Hurricane Andrew, which pounded the then-key battleground state weeks earlier than Election Day.
Quick-forward a decade and his son – then-President George W. Bush – seemingly loved a political bounce in Florida throughout his 2004 re-election due to his aggressive response to Hurricane Charley, which hit in August of that yr.
Bush was narrowly re-elected, thanks largely to carrying the Sunshine State, however his administration’s picture in dealing with storms took a significant hit the subsequent yr, over the botched response in Louisiana to Hurricane Katrina.
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As he ran for re-election in 2012, then-President Barack Obama’s aggressive response in coping with Superstorm Sandy -which slammed into the Jap Seaboard days earlier than the election – seemingly boosted him to victory.
Trump, in his first yr in workplace, confronted criticism as Puerto Rico struggled to get well from a robust storm. The president was pilloried for throwing paper towels to the group as he stopped by a reduction heart throughout a storm-related go to to the island.
However the incident – which occurred three years earlier than his re-election effort – was vastly overshadowed by his response to the COVID disaster, the worst pandemic to hit the globe in a century.
