Editor’s Note 10/23/24: Since this story was first published, officials in Buncombe County, North Carolina, home to Asheville, have reported they overcounted the death toll in their region by as many as 30. Some of the death toll figures in this story are no longer accurate.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said she thinks former President Donald Trump has no empathy for others as he continues to spread misinformation about the federal response in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness. … Lives are literally at stake right now,” Harris said during an interview on ABC’s “The View.” “I mean we’re talking about real human beings and their lives and they’re losing everything, everything.”
She added, “The idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself – but this is so consistent about Donald Trump.”
“He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up especially in a time of crisis,” she added.
Following Hurricane Helene, and with Hurricane Milton barreling toward Florida, Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed, without evidence, that the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs. While FEMA does manage grants for housing and helping migrants, that is a separate account and unrelated to the disaster relief funds.
Trump has also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s response to Helene, including falsely saying that the president wasn’t picking up the calls and that there is an anti-Republican bias in how President Joe Biden and Harris are responding to the crisis.
Harris described traveling to both Georgia and North Carolina to survey the impact of the hurricane, emphasizing the “pain” and “shock” people are still in. At least 235 people have died due to Helene, and Milton is expected to pound Florida in the coming days after quickly intensifying into a major hurricane, at one point reaching Category 5. It’s expected to remain a powerful Category 4 storm before it hits landfall on Wednesday night.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has lamented the state of disinformation around relief efforts to date.
“I’m going to divorce the disinformation that is being spread from any one individual and just say this: Disinformation harms survivors of a disaster because they lose trust in their government and they don’t seek the assistance that they need and to which they are entitled and that we can deliver,” Mayorkas said on CNN on Tuesday.
Biden warns that spreading storm misinformation is ‘un-American’
Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, sharply condemned a spate of dis- and misinformation surrounding Hurricanes Helene and Milton, calling those who spread such inaccurate information “un-American.”
Biden did not directly reference Trump, who has been among those actively spreading misinformation about the federal response to the storms, referring broadly to “others on the internet.” The Biden administration has grown increasingly alarmed about the state of misinformation around relief efforts, with multiple officials speaking out about the politicization and mistrust.
The president downplayed the reputational impact on his administration as he lambasted the significant impact it is having on affected Americans.
“Those who do it, do it to try to damage the administration. We can take care of ourselves. But it misleads people and puts people in circumstances where they panic. They’re really, really, really worried. They think we’re not taking care of them,” Biden told reporters in the Roosevelt Room.
He continued: “It’s un-American. It really is. People are scared to death. People know their lives are at stake – all that they worked for, all they own, all that they value.”
Biden noted that he’s been in touch with each of the governors impacted by the two storms and they are “satisfied with everything they’re getting.”
Asked about the risk of misinformation shared by political figures, Biden said, “If past is prologue – it’s real.”
A break between Biden and Harris over DeSantis
Speaking almost simultaneously Tuesday from the White House and the set of “The View,” Biden and Harris painted very different portraits of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state is bracing for impact from Hurricane Milton.
In the Roosevelt Room, speaking after a hurricane briefing from officials, Biden said DeSantis had been “cooperative” and “supportive” of the federal response, adding he’d provided DeSantis his personal phone number in case he needs anything.
Harris, meanwhile, suggested during her interview that DeSantis was using the storm for political ends.
“First of all, I have called and talked with, in the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, Democrat and Republican governors. Called, taken the call, answered the call, had a conversation. So obviously, this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders — but maybe is for others,” she said, when questioned directly about DeSantis.
The difference in approach to DeSantis was striking, given Harris serves as Biden’s vice president and they have taken pains to avoid major differences as she runs for president.
Yet in her interview, Harris maintained a line of criticism of DeSantis which began a day earlier during remarks to reporters, when she said he was playing “political games” with the storm and called it “irresponsible.”
“We have to have an agreement that at some point we all need to work together to combine resources, especially federal, state and local resources, around these kinds of disasters,” she said on “The View.” “I think it’s a shame that hasn’t happened, but it has at the local level and with other state electeds.”
Her suggestion that federal-state cooperation “hasn’t happened” in Florida is at odds with how Biden was describing the situation almost simultaneously from the White House.
“The governor of Florida has been cooperative, he says he has everything he needs. I talked with him yesterday. And I’ve said — I said, ‘No, you’re doing a great job, it’s all being done well, we thank you for it,’” Biden said. “And I literally gave him my personal phone number to call. Do I don’t know — there was a rough start in some places but every governor for Florida to North Carolina has been fully cooperative and supportive and acknowledged what this team is doing.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.