Kamala Harris said she was “political” on disaster relief amid mounting criticism that former President Donald Trump tried to exploit Hurricanes Helen and Milton with a spate of lies and disinformation to gain an advantage in the race for the White House. He accused her of playing “pretend”. .
The US vice president’s comments came amid mounting evidence that two storms that left a trail of death and destruction in several southern states threaten to upend the calculations for next month’s presidential election.
At a town hall held in Las Vegas by the U.S. Spanish-language television network Univision to address complaints about the federal government’s response, Harris made sharp comments about Trump, although she did not name him. directed.
“In this crisis, as with many issues that affect people in our country, I think it’s very important that our leaders recognize the dignity (of those affected),” she said. .
Campaigning in the battleground state of Nevada on Thursday, she added: “I have to emphasize that this is not the time for people to be playing politics.”
Harris’ comments come in response to Joe Biden’s criticism of Trump, who has unfairly accused the White House and Harris of intentionally withholding aid from Republican areas and diverting funds to illegal immigrants, among other things. This follows a full-scale attack on Trump.
The US president has accused Republican presidential candidate Trump of spreading “blatant lies”.
“The way they’re talking about this is completely un-American,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday. Addressing President Trump in particular, he said: Please help these people. ”
President Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, intentionally engineered a poor response to Hurricane Helen in Republican voting districts after the storm hit Georgia and North Carolina. He continues to harshly criticize Biden and Harris for doing so. The two battleground states are critical to the outcome of the Nov. 5 election, even as fellow Republicans praise the recovery efforts.
The former president said the relief effort was more important than the response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the surrounding area in 2005, killed 1,400 people and left an indelible stain on George W. Bush’s presidency. He claimed it was terrible.
“This hurricane was bad, and they’re stuck because of Kamala Harris,” he said at a rally in Juneau, Wisconsin. “This is the worst response to a storm, a catastrophe, a hurricane, that we’ve ever seen. Probably worse than Katrina, and hard to beat, right?”
Harris took some time off from the campaign trail this month to attend White House Situation Room meetings and meet with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), which led the hurricane response. Helen had the worst death toll since Katrina.
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Some Democratic strategists have expressed concern that the need to respond to the twin storms is taking away critical time from Harris’ bid to defeat Trump as the campaign enters its final weeks. There is.
Fema director Deanne Criswell called the onslaught of disinformation and conspiracy theories “absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen” and warned that it was hampering relief efforts.
Trump is paying particular attention to Harris, as polls show the race closer than ever. “She didn’t send anything, to anyone, at all. Days went by. Men, women and children were drowning and there was no help,” he told a rally in Pennsylvania.
He is particularly focused on North Carolina, where the two candidates are tied in the polls and is home to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Some Republican politicians have blamed the spread of misinformation, but generally have not mentioned President Trump by name.
Harris also spoke to CNN on Wednesday. “It’s dangerous. Frankly, it’s dangerous for people who think of themselves as leaders to mislead desperate people so that they don’t get the help they deserve. It’s unconscionable,” she said.
