{"id":33421,"date":"2024-10-14T06:20:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T11:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33421"},"modified":"2024-10-31T22:37:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T03:37:04","slug":"from-the-pulpit-harris-calls-out-trump-for-hurricane-misinformation-biden-surveys-floridas-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33421","title":{"rendered":"From the pulpit, Harris calls out Trump for hurricane misinformation. Biden surveys Florida\u2019s damage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Kamala Harris<\/u><\/a> used an appearance Sunday before a largely Black church audience in battleground North Carolina<\/u><\/a> to call out Donald Trump<\/u><\/a> for spreading misinformation<\/u><\/a> about the government\u2019s hurricane response<\/u><\/a>. President Joe Biden<\/u><\/a> visited Florida for the second time this month to survey storm damage<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, did not speak Trump\u2019s name, but he is most prominent among those promoting false claims about the Biden administration\u2019s response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene<\/u><\/a>. Florida was in the path of both storms, with Helene also hitting North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, while Milton headed for the open Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vice president spoke at the Koinonia Christian Center about the \u201cheroes\u201d all around who are helping residents without regard to political affiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet, church, there are some who are not acting in the spirit of community, and I am speaking of these who have been literally not telling the truth, lying about people who are working hard to help the folks in need, spreading disinformation when the truth and facts are required,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe problem with this, beyond the obvious, is it\u2019s making it harder, then, to get people life-saving information if they\u2019re led to believe they cannot trust,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the pain of it all, which is the idea that those who are in need have somehow been convinced that the forces are working against them in a way that they would not seek aid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including saying that Washington was intentionally withholding aid<\/u><\/a> from Republicans in need across the Southeast. The former president falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money to help them because it was spent on programs to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pressed that argument on Fox News\u2019 \u201cSunday Morning Futures,\u201d saying the White House response was \u201cabsolutely terrible\u201d and repeating the claim about FEMA\u2019s dollars. \u201cIt came out from there and everybody knew it,\u201d Trump said in an interview that was taped Thursday and broadcast Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Harris spoke in church, Biden was surveying hurricane damage on a helicopter flight between Tampa and St. Pete Beach on the Gulf Coast. From the air, he saw the torn-up roof of Tropicana Field<\/u><\/a>, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. On the ground, the president saw waterlogged household furnishings piled up outside flooded homes. Some houses had collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president said he was thankful that Milton was not as bad as officials had anticipated, but that it still was a \u201ccataclysmic\u201d event for many people, including those who lost irreplaceable personal items. He also praised the first responders, some of whom had come from Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in moments like this we come together to take care of each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans,\u201d Biden said after he was briefed by federal, state and local officials, and met some residents and responders. \u201cWe are one United States, one United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris opened her second day in North Carolina by speaking at the Christian center in Greenville, part of her campaign\u2019s \u201cSouls to the Polls\u201d effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before the Nov. 5 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vice president later spoke to roughly 7,000 supporters at a Sunday afternoon rally at East Carolina University\u2019s arena, suggesting that Trump\u2019s team has stopped him from releasing medical records or debating her again because they might be \u201cafraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North Carolina appearances mark the start of a week that will find Harris working to shore up support among Black voters, a key constituency for the Democratic Party. She is counting on Black turnout in competitive states such as North Carolina to help her defeat Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and has tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, she will appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black registered voters have overwhelmingly favorable views of Harris and negative views of Trump despite his attempts<\/u><\/a> to appeal to nonwhite voters, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.<\/u><\/a> But the poll<\/u><\/a> also shows that many Black voters aren\u2019t sure whether Harris would improve the country overall or better their own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Florida, which Biden had visited the Big Bend region on Oct. 3 after Helene struck, the president announced $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in hurricane-affected areas to bolster the region\u2019s electric grid. The money includes $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a little more than three weeks before the election, the hurricanes have added another dimension<\/u><\/a> to the closely contested presidential race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has said the Biden administration\u2019s storm response was lacking, particularly in western North Carolina after Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods<\/u><\/a> about the federal response<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said Trump was \u201cnot singularly\u201d to blame for the spread of misinformation but that he has the \u201cbiggest mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey blame me for everything. It\u2019s OK,\u201d Trump told Fox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden has pressed for Congress to act quickly to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees FEMA, said the hurricane season is far from over and there are other natural disasters for which the agency must ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming tomorrow, whether it\u2019s another hurricane, a tornado, a fire, an earthquake. We have to be ready. And it is not good government to be dependent on a day-to-day existence as opposed to appropriate planning,\u201d Mayorkas said on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said there was plenty of time and that lawmakers would address the funding issue when Congress comes back into session after the Nov. 5 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll provide the additional resources,\u201d Johnson told CBS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power. Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. ee<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Kamala Harris used an appearance Sunday before a largely Black church audience in battleground North Carolina to call out Donald Trump for spreading misinformation about the government\u2019s hurricane response. President Joe Biden visited Florida for the second time this month to survey storm damage. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, did not speak Trump\u2019s name, but he is most prominent among those promoting false […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2261,618,1230],"class_list":["post-33421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-disaster","tag-rumors","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33421","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=33421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33423,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33421\/revisions\/33423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}