{"id":33159,"date":"2024-10-08T11:36:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33159"},"modified":"2024-10-31T21:23:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T02:23:01","slug":"harris-calls-trump-incredibly-irresponsible-for-spreading-misinformation-about-helene-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33159","title":{"rendered":"Harris calls Trump \u2018incredibly irresponsible\u2019 for spreading misinformation about Helene response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Vice President Kamala Harris<\/u><\/a> on Monday called former President Donald Trump<\/u><\/a> \u201cincredibly irresponsible\u201d for spreading falsehoods about the federal response to Hurricane Helene<\/u><\/a> \u2018s destruction, offering especially sharp words as a new storm<\/u><\/a> bears down on Florida with just weeks until Election Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of mis- and disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, particularly to the survivors of Helene,\u201d Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two to fly to New York. \u201cIt\u2019s extraordinarily irresponsible. It\u2019s about him. It\u2019s not about you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helene has killed more than 220 people in six states, and Category 5 Hurricane Milton is on a path toward Florida\u2019s Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has made a series of false claims in the wake of Helene, including saying incorrectly that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid<\/u><\/a> to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris said \u201cthe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are entitled to these resources, and it is critically important that people apply for the help that is there to support,\u201d the vice president added. \u201cAll those resources were created for just these types of moments, in an emergency situation, knowing that folks are entitled to have the relief that they so rightly need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump also said during a visit Valdosta, Georgia, last week<\/u><\/a> that President Joe Biden was \u201csleeping\u201d and not responding to calls from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Biden had, in fact, spoken with Kemp and said of Trump, \u201cHe\u2019s lying, and the governor told him he was lying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris also criticized another high-profile Republican, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, suggesting he\u2019s \u201cplaying political games\u201d and engaging in \u201cpolitical gamesmanship\u201d in Helene\u2019s aftermath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris office says the vice president reached out to DeSantis after the storm. DeSantis said Monday afternoon that he \u201cdidn\u2019t know that she had called\u201d and \u201cthey didn\u2019t call me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t anything anybody in my office did in saying that it was political,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Harris, asked about DeSantis, said \u201cpeople are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations \u2026 is utterly irresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first,\u201d Harris said without naming DeSantis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis later spoke with Biden to discuss preparations for Milton. The president, according to the White House, asked DeSantis \u201cto call him directly if there is anything that can be done to further support the response and recovery efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida\u2019s governor latter responded to Harris, telling Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity that the vice president was \u201cdelusional\u201d for criticizing him when he\u2019s been focused on the people of his state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe has no role in this,\u201d said DeSantis, who noted he\u2019d been in contact with Biden and federal officials. \u201cIn fact, she\u2019s been vice president for three and a half years. I\u2019ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration, and she has never contributed anything to any of these efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis said Harris was \u201ctrying to blunder into this,\u201d adding that he\u2019d worked well with Biden and Trump during past hurricanes and the vice president is \u201cthe first one who\u2019s trying to politicize the storm and she\u2019s doing that just because of her campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have time for political games,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday called former President Donald Trump \u201cincredibly irresponsible\u201d for spreading falsehoods about the federal response to Hurricane Helene \u2018s destruction, offering especially sharp words as a new storm bears down on Florida with just weeks until Election Day. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of mis- and disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2084,2302,30623,21395,1489,1230],"class_list":["post-33159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-false","tag-harris","tag-helen","tag-hurricane","tag-speech","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33161,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33159\/revisions\/33161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}