President Joe Biden has made phone calls to all governors of the states affected by Hurricane Helene in a bipartisan approach that is typical of most presidents during times of national disaster.
He has spoken with Govs. Brian Kemp (R-GA), Roy Cooper (D-NC), Henry McMaster (R-SC), and Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said he missed Biden’s call. He has received praise from Republican governors about the federal government’s handling of the hurricane.
“I’m incredibly appreciative of the rapid response and the cooperation from the federal team at FEMA. I’ve been on the phone over the weekend with the senior FEMA administrator. The team has been deployed,” Youngkin said.
DeSantis said he missed the call from the White House as he was in a plane surveying the damage. He said federal efforts should be directed to western North Carolina as Florida has “it handled.”
Biden plans to do an aerial tour of the damage in North Carolina on Wednesday. The death toll of Hurricane Helene has topped 100, with the most deaths occurring in North Carolina.
“I talked with both President Biden and Vice President Harris last night. They pledged their full support. This is going to be a tremendous effort in the short run, but looking at it in the long run, with the hundreds of roads that are destroyed, communities that were wiped off the map, we have to make sure that we get in there, are smart about rebuilding and doing it in a more resilient way,” Cooper told CNN.
Biden approved major disaster declarations for Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina, which will allow survivors to access relief funds and resources immediately. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies, as well as private entities and nonprofit charities, are responding to the disaster in at least seven states in the Southeast.
Former President Donald Trump visited Valdosta, Georgia, on Tuesday, where he falsely accused Biden of not calling Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA).
Trump said Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Kemp, saying the governor was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him.”
Earlier that day, however, Kemp said Biden did call him.
“I just spoke — the president just called me yesterday afternoon. I missed him and called him right back. And he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we got what we need. We’ll work through the federal process,” Kemp said.
“[Biden] offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which, I appreciate that,” Georgia’s governor continued.
Biden expressed his frustration at Trump’s claim. He said he was not angry at Trump’s personal attack but angry that Trump was using this talking point instead of directing help to the victims of the storm.
“Let me get this straight. He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said. “I’ve spoken to the governor, I spent time with him, and he told me he’s lying.”
“I don’t know why he does this, and the reason I get so angry about — I don’t care about what he says about me,” Biden said. “I care what he communicates to people that are in need, implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are. We are.”
“So that’s simply not true, and it’s irresponsible,” Biden added.
While Trump has accused Biden of playing politics with disaster relief, during his own time as president, he frequently withheld aid from areas in need and made false claims.
During Hurricane Matthew in 2017, the Trump administration provided North Carolina, which was run by Cooper at the time, 1% of the aid the state requested.
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Trump also said Alabama would be hit by Hurricane Dorian in 2019, but when he was told Alabama would not be in the path of the storm, he altered the storm map with a black Sharpie to extend the hurricane’s projected path to include Alabama.
During Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2018, in which tens of thousands of homes were destroyed and more than 2,600 people died, Trump delayed crucial aid to the areas for three years. He released the needed $13 million just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
