It's been a week and a half since Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction through the southeastern United States, with the death toll rising and about 250,000 people left without power or running water. attacking the area.
Hurricane Milton, now a Category 5 extremely dangerous storm, is on track to hit Florida on Wednesday evening.
With just four weeks left until November's election day, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump face off in a tight margin-of-margin showdown in the two hardest-hit states in the race to succeed President Biden in the White House. is unfolding. From Helen – Among the seven major battleground states likely to determine the outcome of the 2024 election – North Carolina and Georgia – the politics of federal disaster relief are once again at the center of the campaign.
President Trump has been attacking the vice president and his boss for more than a week over the federal response to Hurricane Helen. Harris fired back Monday, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of misinformation and disinformation.”
For the latest FOX News weather updates on Hurricane Milton, go here.
Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks outside the Chez Wat furniture store during a visit to Valdosta, Georgia, which was affected by Hurricane Helen, on Monday, September 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The former president has repeatedly accused Biden and Harris of incompetence in handling relief and recovery efforts.
President Trump last week claimed that “this is going down as the worst and most incompetently managed 'storm' we have ever seen at the federal level.”
On Monday, he claimed in a social media post that his administration's response to the storm was “the worst rescue operation in American history.”
And Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, President Trump's running mate, denounced the administration's efforts as “incompetence of the highest order” in an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
The Trump campaign claimed that Harris had “completely left North Carolina behind in the wake of Hurricane Helen” when she announced that Vance would hold a town hall in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday.
And in a blatant vote tout, the former president wrote, “North Carolina has been virtually abandoned by Kamala!!! Drop her the same way she dropped you – vote for President Donald J. Trump. Please MAGA2024!”
Click here for the latest FOX News report on the storm
Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims targeting Biden and Harris, including that Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, was the first to make it through the Peach State. It also includes claims that they could not be contacted. Kemp later admitted that he had already been in contact with the president.
Despite the former president's lies, he blasted Biden and Harris to go to the scene and survey areas hit by storms two days earlier last week.
The optics put the president and vice president on the defensive, forcing them to repeatedly correct the record.
President Joe Biden and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper greet first responders after touring areas affected by Hurricane Helen at the airport in Greenville, South Carolina, Wednesday, October 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The White House announced FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) efforts to assist hard-hit states. Mr. Biden made consecutive visits to the Southeast last Wednesday and Thursday, stopping in the four hardest-hit states, and Ms. Harris also visited twice to assess the damage.
“At times like this, we should put politics aside, or at least put everything aside,” Biden said last week at a gathering with Democratic and Republican politicians from the region. There are no Republicans, only Americans.” Our job is to help as many people as possible, as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. ”
President Trump, along with allies, claims FEMA funds used for rescue and relief efforts in North Carolina are being diverted to aid illegal immigrants, linking the storm response to the combustible issue of border security. I've been aiming for that over and over again.
The Harris campaign responded, saying Trump, Vance and their allies are “spreading falsehoods about the response to Hurricane Helen.”
Asked about the charges on a Sunday talk show, Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina's top Republican, said, “I believe we have to continue to focus on rescue operations, recovery operations, mop-up operations, and none of that is necessary.” said. These distractions on the ground. ”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris greets those affected by Hurricane Helen on Wednesday, October 2, 2024 in Augusta, Georgia. Augusta Mayor Garnet Johnson looks on on the right. (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer)
Harris said Monday that Trump's actions were “highly irresponsible.”
“This is about him. It's not about you. And the reality is that FEMA has the resources to make sure people have access to resources that are in dire need right now and people to get back on their feet, rebuild, and have a place to go.” There are many resources out there to help,''' Harris emphasized.
But longtime Republican strategist David Kochel said Trump was “very aggressive” in his first quick trip to storm-hit areas.
“I think he put a lot of pressure on them to do something,” Kochel, a veteran of numerous Republican presidential campaigns, told Fox News. “He's pushing the line that they don't care, they're not doing anything, and I think they're responding to that.”
As Hurricane Milton hits Florida, the Biden administration says, “Federal assistance for Hurricane Helen exceeds $210 million, and FEMA ramps up dual response preparations for Hurricane Milton as it heads toward Florida's Gulf Coast.'' The company highlighted its efforts in the release with the headline:
After Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida on Monday, Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference that 5,000 National Guard troops were activated in the state, with 3,000 more expected. He said there is.
“We're getting what we need from federal authorities,” DeSantis said. “The president approved everything we asked for…and we're grateful for that. Everything we asked President Biden for, he approved.”
This is not the first time a tropical storm has affected a presidential election.
Then-President George H.W. Bush politically criticized FEMA's chaotic efforts to provide relief to Florida from Hurricane Andrew, which hit the then-key battleground state weeks before Election Day. .
Ten years later, his son, then-President George W. Bush, made a political turnaround in Florida during his 2004 reelection thanks to his aggressive response to Hurricane Charlie, which struck in August of that year. It is highly likely that they enjoyed it.
Bush narrowly won reelection in part due to his success in the Sunshine State, but the following year, the failure of Louisiana's response to Hurricane Katrina dealt a major blow to the Bush administration's image in storm response.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
When he ran for re-election in 2012, then-President Barack Obama's aggressive response to Superstorm Sandy, which hit the East Coast just days before the election, likely helped him win.
President Trump faced criticism in his first year in office as Puerto Rico struggled to recover from a powerful storm. During a visit to the island affected by the storm, the president was criticized for throwing paper towels at a crowd during a stop at a relief center.
But the incident occurred three years before his re-election bid and has been largely overshadowed by his handling of the coronavirus crisis, the worst pandemic to hit the world in a century. It's gone.
Get the latest on the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more with Fox News Digital's Election Hub.
