A devastating and deadly start to the 2024 hurricane season is embroiled in the politics of the presidential election, with Vice President Kamala Harris trying to demonstrate the administration's handling of two storms that battered the southeastern United States. Former President Donald Trump claimed Americans were being left behind due to mismanagement.
The storm adds another twist to a busy election year, as voters in many states have already begun casting their ballots.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida last week as a Category 3 storm, bringing with it a series of tornadoes, an 8- to 10-foot storm surge and leaving millions without power. While the damage was less severe than expected, the state is still in the early stages of recovery from Hurricane Helene, which caused massive flooding and destruction across much of the southeastern United States.
Helen destroyed roads, water lines and other infrastructure in places such as North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, straining disaster relief resources in several states and increasing challenges for communities to recover.
The hurricane also comes at a critical time in politics, less than a month before the presidential election, which is expected to be one of the most decisive in U.S. history. The hurricane is not an inherently political event, but the storm presents potential pitfalls for both candidates in the coming days.
It's uncertain what impact, if any, the hurricane will have on the presidential election. But beyond the political fallout, both campaigns are concerned that damage from the storm could deter some people from voting in key battleground states like North Carolina and Georgia.
The challenge for Harris is to demonstrate that her administration is prepared and doing everything it can to help the millions of Americans affected by the storm. She has revamped her campaign schedule over the past week to include briefings on hurricane response, meetings with local officials and calls to CNN and The Weather Channel to answer questions about the storm and resources available to people affected.
“These are huge disasters that would challenge any government,” said David Cohen, a political science professor and director of the Applied Politics Program at the University of Akron. “What the Biden administration has to do is keep reporting back to state leadership and governors, some of whom are Republicans, and they say the federal government has been very responsive and has given them everything they've asked for.”
Trump has spent the past two weeks blasting the White House's response to Helen, accusing the administration of failing to help people and claiming that FEMA was prioritizing Democratic-leaning areas and sending money to immigrants instead of storm victims, something the administration has vehemently denied these accusations.
“This is the worst hurricane response a president and vice president have had since Katrina, and it's unacceptable,” Trump said at a Pennsylvania rally. “They gave $750 to people whose houses were washed away. But we gave tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people had never heard of.”
The $750 payments mentioned are intended to help victims with direct costs, but are only a fraction of the federal funds they are eligible to receive.
The former president also made a quick trip to disaster areas in Georgia on September 30, even though the White House did not go there out of concern that they would interfere with recovery efforts.
Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator Vance, also criticized the administration for not acting quickly enough and wasting precious time before deploying troops to assist with search and rescue missions and other tasks.
The risk for both candidates appears to be politicizing natural disasters. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused Harris of politicizing the storm after reports surfaced that she ignored her call, while the vice president has frequently criticized Trump for politicizing the storm and its response.
“People who support Trump are not going to suddenly realize that he is sharing false information and then suddenly change their minds and vote for him,” Cohen said. “If independent voters and swing voters realize that Trump is deliberately sharing misinformation and that is very dangerous, , then they might be important.”
Harris' campaign also released ads from former Trump administration officials criticizing him for politicizing disasters in the past.
The White House has also been working for days to dispel misinformation and rumors about FEMA's hurricane response, even taking new steps such as creating a Reddit account to provide information about current hurricane response and recovery efforts. FEMA created a “Rumor Response” page to respond to rumors on social media.
Administration officials all the way up to Biden have expressed concern about the scope of false rumors circulating online and the danger they pose to hurricane victims.
“I think the biggest impact that I'm concerned about, the potential impact, is the distrust it creates in federal and state governments,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Dean Criswell said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “I need people to register for assistance, but they are misrepresenting the types of programs FEMA offers, and that scares some people.”
President Joe Biden, who has also been targeted for his administration's response, has strongly denied the claims and called on the country to come together to help each other in times of need.
“In times like this, there are no red states or blue states. There is a United States of America where neighbors help each other; volunteers and first responders risk everything, including their own lives, to help their fellow Americans; states, Local and federal officials stand side by side,” Biden said.
Have a news tip? Contact Austin Denean at atdenean@sbgtv.com or x.com/austindenean.
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