Lying His Way to the White House

Disasters have traditionally caused Americans and their leaders to set aside partisan differences and pull together in the common cause of healing. But Donald Trump has now done away with that norm. On the campaign circuit, he is using the
devastation of Hurricane Helene to advance only his own purposes, absent of any concern for the miseries that have befallen the people of hardest hit western North Carolina. He tells his audiences,

“This is the worst response to a storm or a catastrophe or a hurricane that we’ve ever seen ever…They’re not getting water, they’re not getting anything.”

The Biden administration has “left Americans to drown” in North Carolina and other states, per Trump.

All of this is a total fabrication. Trump has no knowledge or interest in what has actually happened on the ground.

“He really lacks empathy on a very basic level, to care about the suffering of other people”, was Kamala Harris’s reaction, when she appeared on ABC’s “The View”.

”It is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who would consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled.”

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the falsehoods are dissuading survivors from seeking help and hurting morale among responders. Trump slanders the 10,000 brought in from other states who have been here for two weeks working non-stop (unlike Trump, your correspondent is in Hendersonville, just south of Asheville, where power was restored a few days ago by crews in from Missouri). About Trump's lies Criswell told reporters, “It is absolutely the worst I have ever seen”. The misinformation has hit a level “that I’ve never seen before.”

Trump immediately claimed that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was out of money.

“Kamala spent all her FEMA money – billions of dollars – on housing for illegal migrants…and now they have no money “

Untrue, but former Marine turned Trump sycophant, JD Vance, has no inhibitions about spreading the same lie, that FEMA has been "deployed repeatedly to deal with Kamala Harris’s wide-open border and the migrant invasion" and is short on funds.

”Focusing instead on illegal immigrants, I guarantee that it has made the disaster response worse”.

False. FEMA has multiple programs, separately funded. Money to manage the migrant overflow went to the Shelter and Services Program, "which was authorized by Congress to
support communities that are providing services to migrants", says the FEMA website. It is Congress in its appropriation bills that dictate how money is to be spent; the sheltering service funds are a separate authorization that does not impact the funds for disaster relief.

That doesn’t stop Trump. “For one thing a billion dollars was stolen from FEMA to use it for illegal migrants”, he says, “many of whom are criminals that they want to have vote for them”. Trump has a history of accusing others of doing what he has done himself. In the middle of the 2019 hurricane season, Trump took $155 million from the FEMA disaster fund and redirected it to pay for locations and detention space for immigrants seeking asylum. So Biden-Harris didn’t take FEMA relief money to use on migrants, but Trump did.

The lie that money was diverted from disaster relief to migrants became a universal Republican meme. Trump flunkey Sean Hannity at Fox News didn't seem to notice that the FEMA message about congressionally separated funding that we quote above was right there on his screen contradicting him as he reiterated Trump's and Vance's lies, saying

"The Biden-Harris administration was caught red-handed dedicating a massive amount of money that was supposed to be there for emergency relief for Americans”.

Based on nothing, in his studio remote from the storm-ravaged areas, he amplifies the lies, telling us about “the terrible hurricane response, the worst in American history”.

The knowledgeable say the opposite. North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis says he wished the government had moved more quickly but is now impressed with the federal response, saying that “they’re doing a great job". The state's governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, has called the federal response “unprecedented”. Virginia’s governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, says, “I’m incredibly appreciative of the rapid response and cooperation from the federal FEMA”. Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has said that he is receiving all the help he has asked for. South Carolina Governor, Republican Henry McMaster, called the federal response to Helene “superb”. Brian Kemp, the Republican Governor of Georgia, said “we’ve had FEMA embedded with us since, you know, a day or two before the storm hit.”

But there was Trump creating his own world, saying, “Kamala and Sleepy Joe are universally being given POOR GRADES for the way that they are handling the Hurricane, especially in North Carolina. It is going down as the WORST & MOST INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED ‘STORM,’ AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL, EVER SEEN BEFORE”.

President Biden has attempted to counter Trump’s sociopathy:

“Over the last few weeks there’s been reckless and irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies…There are thousands of fellow Americans who are putting their lives at stake…to do the dangerous work that needs to be done now. And it’s harmful to those who most need the help. Quite frankly, these lies are un-American. Former president Trump has led this onslaught of lies.”

Helene seems to have whipped up a collective lunacy on the right. Biden is battling nut cases like Trump sidekick Laura Loomer who tweeted,

“The people in Appalachia should NOT comply with FEMA. This is a matter of survival. Do not comply with FEMA.”

Self-appointed commentators on the Internet are telling us that "the government figured out how to build a storm into a super storm that will destroy everything in its path aimed right for where they want to.” Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene dispelled any remaining doubt of her being an idiot, tweeting how "they" are controlling hurricanes—and aiming them at Trump counties:

”Yes they can control the weather.
It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.
Anyone who says they don’t, or makes fun of this, is lying to you.
By the way, the people know it and hate all of you who try to cover it up.”

Biden lambasted Greene calling her notions “beyond ridiculous, it’s so stupid”. And yet Trump matched harebrained Greene, actually saying,

“You know it’s largely a Republican area, so some people say they did it for that reason. I don’t even think they’re that bad, but they probably, maybe they are.”

Trump falsely claims residents are only being offered $750 even though they qualify for more.

“[S]he sends this money to foreign nations. He and she, they send hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations and you know what they giving our people — $750m bucks. “

This is a lie. The Biden administration added the $750 a few months ago as an on-the-spot stopgap for people to buy food, baby formula, diapers, whatever – a supplement to the regular and substantial relief to follow. Beyond irresponsible, at great harm to people in trouble, Trump telling his believers there is only the $750 causes people to believe there is no help and do not reach out for the assistance that awaits them. These imaginary conspiracies damage the institutional faith that people had in their government, and that damage will be lasting.

Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards, who represents western North Carolina says,

"To date, FEMA has delivered 5.4 million meals and 6.3 million liters of water utilizing the $20 billion in funds that I helped to draft and pass for disaster relief just two days before Hurricane Helene hit."

This was from a week ago, reporting numbers that have only swelled since. Edwards just e-mailed his constituents that,

”These conspiracy theories…have done more harm than most people realize. The spreading of falsehoods has diverted state, local, and federal resources from helping NC-11 [his district] recover.”

Not naming Trump, he urged his constituents not to believe everything they see on social media and warned,

”Amidst all of the support, we have also seen an uptick in untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains. I’m here to dispel the outrageous rumors that have been circulated online.”

Asheville's River Arts District destroyed.

There are hardcore Trumpers in western North Carolina who so believe what their leader says that they refuse to accept anything from FEMA in the belief that the agency will take their house, in reaction to outlandish rumors that the government is seizing land in devastated Chimney Rock, NC, a village washed away by a 30-foot wall of water that has left uncounted dead. “I don’t understand how so many people are under the spell of this freaking con man”, said a man who called into the Dan Abrams show on News Nation. The caller, on the other side of the country unable to help, was talking about his father-in-law outside Asheville:

“I don’t understand it. I mean, he lost almost everything, and he’s refusing all help from the federal government and complaining to us that he doesn’t have food, doesn’t have the stuff he needs…It’s a cult. He’s a cult member”.

Countering the lies about FEMA out of money, U.S. Secretary of Human Services Alejandro Mayorkas says FEMA has the money for Helene and Milton but that "we are operating on a continuing resolution that is not stable". The resolution extends funding of the federal government only until December 20. “We need a real budget for the long haul and not a band aid". Mayorkas says. But Speaker Mike Johnson won't bring the House back before the election to vote for more hurricane relief.

Incidentally, what was Trump's record as president when Nature struck? Kevin Carroll, a former senior counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, says “[Trump] would suggest not giving disaster relief to states that hadn’t voted for him.” Mark Harvey, who served on the staff of Trump’s National Security Council, said that, after deadly wildfires struck California in 2018, Trump initially refused disaster aid because the state votes Democratic.

The lies about Helene followed on the heels of the lies about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. Trump in the debate with Kamala Harris:

”In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

These lies did incalculable damage to a town in mid-America, setting up a racial schism that may not subside. Hate groups have descended on the town; Ku Klux Klan fliers and swastikas have sprouted, as Trump’s faithful believers think this true and adopt his bigotry. Haitians, who had rebuilt their lives in a peaceful town, are now afraid to go out in public.

In the debate with Harris’s running-mate Tim Walz, the Republican candidate for vice-president, JD Vance, was unapologetic about Springfield and let slip that lying is policy for the Trump campaign: "If I have to create stories" to get media attention "then that's what I'm going to do", he admitted. And he objected to the moderators that, "The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check." Vance claimed that Trump “salvaged” Obamacare, a stupendous lie in the upside down world he hoped to create. Trump had tried to have Obamacare repealed! The deciding vote against him was dramatically cast by Senator John McCain.

Trump then refused to be interviewed by “60 Minutes”, which every major candidate for the presidency has done for over fifty years. The problem? That he would be fact-checked — which “60 Minutes” does for every story it runs — did not fit in with his plan to lie his way to the presidency.

Trump gulls his flock with inversions of reality — the economy is a disaster, except that it is booming — crimes is rampant, except that it has been declining sharply the last few years — but there's no use listing. Ultimately we get to the biggest Big Lie — that Trump won in 2020 and the election was stolen from him. Do you believe that?, Vance was asked in the debate with Walz. He would not answer, saying that he is focused on the future. Just now, in an interview with the New York Times's Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Vance refused five times to say whether former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. So far has gutless Marine Vance fallen in his obsequious servitude to Donald Trump that he went on in the debate to tell the biggest lie of all, that Trump “peacefully gave over power on January 20” of 2021.