Trump tours hurricane-ravaged Georgia, attacks Biden, Harris

Valdosta, Georgia: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the past few days has used the damage wrought by hurricane Helene to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, suggesting she and President Joe Biden are playing politics with the storm – something he was accused of doing when president.

Trump repeatedly lied on Tuesday (AEST) about the federal response to the disaster, despite claiming not to be politicising it as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.

Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump walks outside a furniture store as he visits Valdosta, Georgia, a town impacted by hurricane Helene.Credit: AP

More than 100 deaths across a half-dozen states were attributed to the powerful storm that slammed into Florida last week before cutting a destructive path through Georgia and into North and South Carolina.

Up to 600 people remain missing, US Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said at the White House, though she noted that the numbers could vary as responders reach more locations.

Upon landing in Valdosta, Georgia, the former president claimed that Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him”.

The Republican nominee repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Kemp said he had spoken to Biden.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at FEMA headquarters in Washington.Credit: AP

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back against Trump’s assertion, noting that Kemp himself told reporters he spoke to Biden on Sunday and that the president asked him what Georgia needed.

Sherwood-Randall, the president’s homeland security adviser, said Biden made clear that he offered Kemp “anything” Georgia needed for its response to the storm and remained available to the governor.

“So, if the governor would like to speak to the president again, of course, the president will take his call,” Sherwood-Randall said.

Trump said he spoke to billionaire Elon Musk about getting Starlink internet access to affected areas. Musk has endorsed Trump for the November 5 election.

“I just spoke to Elon,” Trump said in his remarks. “We want to get Starlink hooked up because they have no communication whatsoever and Elon will always come through.

“We are going to try and get the Starlink in there as soon as possible.”

Starlink, Musk’s satellite broadband company, is a unit of SpaceX. Starlink controls nearly two-thirds of the world’s active satellites and is the only high-bandwidth internet system covering the entire planet.

The White House previously announced that Biden spoke by phone with Kemp and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, as well as Valdosta Mayor Scott Matheson, and Florida emergency management director John Louk.

People line up to hear former president Donald Trump speak outside a furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene.Credit: AP

In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign. The hardest-hit states of North Carolina and Georgia are also two political battlegrounds.

Biden also faced questions about his decision to spend the weekend at his beach house in Delaware – rather than the White House – to monitor the storm.

“I was commanding it,” Biden told reporters after delivering remarks at the White House on the federal government’s response. “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well. I commanded it. It’s called a telephone.”

A family arrives at their flooded home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Florida.Credit: AP

Harris on Sunday flew back to Washington earlier than planned from Las Vegas, Nevada, where she was on a campaign trip, to take part in briefings at emergency management agency FEMA.

She called the devastation “heartbreaking”.

“We will continue to do everything we can to help you recover and to help you rebuild no matter how long it takes,” Harris said.

Trump, writing on his social media platform, also claimed without evidence that the federal government and North Carolina’s Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas”. Asheville, which was devastated by the storm, is solidly Democratic, as is much of Buncombe County, which surrounds it.

When asked by the Associated Press if he was concerned that his visit to Georgia was taking away law enforcement resources that could be used for disaster response, Trump said: “No.” He said his campaign instead “brought many wagons of resources”.

The Trump campaign partnered with the Christian humanitarian aid organisation Samaritan’s Purse to bring trucks of fuel, food, water and other critical supplies to Georgia, said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary.

During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster zones, including the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornadoes and shootings. But the trips sometimes elicited controversy such as when he tossed paper towels to cheering residents in Puerto Rico in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

It also took until weeks before the presidential election in 2020 for Trump’s administration to release $US13 billion in assistance for the territory. A federal government watchdog found that officials hampered an investigation into delays in aid delivery.

In another 2019 incident, Trump administration officials admonished some meteorologists for tweeting that Alabama was not threatened by Hurricane Dorian, contradicting the then-president. Trump would famously display a map altered with a black Sharpie pen to indicate Alabama could be in the path of the storm.

The White House said Harris would visit impacted areas “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations”. She also spoke with Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina and received a briefing from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell while travelling.

AP, Reuters

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