President Joe Biden’s administration continued to push back against former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about hurricane recovery on Sunday, as the federal response to Hurricane Helen becomes a major focus of the final presidential race. .
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Dean Criswell said he has all the resources needed to respond to Helen, which has hit parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and other states. Said her agency has.
North Carolina and Georgia are key swing states, raising the political stakes in recovery efforts and the politics surrounding them.
Criswell defended FEMA’s response, saying he “candidly rejected President Trump’s claims that the agency is short on disaster relief funds because funds are being diverted to aid illegal immigrants and aid is withheld from Republican areas.” “It’s ridiculous and completely false,” he said, denying such claims.
“This kind of rhetoric doesn’t help people,” she added. “It’s really unfortunate that people are putting politics before helping people.”
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Criswell noted that state and local officials are pushing back against “this dangerous, really dangerous narrative that is creating fear.”
President Trump has repeated baseless claims about Helen’s recovery at multiple events in recent days. “Kamala spent all the FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal immigrants,” he said Thursday at a rally in Saginaw, Michigan.
“They have very little money, because they spent it all on illegal immigrants,” Trump said, adding, “They’re stealing FEMA money, just like they stole from banks, and giving it to illegal immigrants.” ” he added.
FEMA has a housing program called the Shelter Services Program, which, according to its website, provides “financial assistance to non-federal agencies to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen immigrants after they are released from detention facilities. ” is provided. This year, $650 million has been raised, but that money is separate from the disaster relief fund.
“No funds will be diverted to disaster response needs. None,” the White House said in a news release.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters at a White House press briefing last week that FEMA has enough disaster relief money to meet current needs, but cannot respond to additional storms. Ta.
“We are meeting immediate needs with the funds we have,” Mayorkas said. “We’re expecting another hurricane. We don’t have the money. FEMA doesn’t have the money to get us through the season and we don’t know what’s coming.”
Congress recently appropriated $20 billion in disaster funds, but Biden said in a letter this week that more money is needed.
Biden said the Small Business Administration especially needs the money, writing: “Without additional funding, FEMA will have to forego long-term recovery efforts to meet immediate needs.” .
Fact check Image of Donald Trump walking through flood waters was generated by AI
When asked about Biden’s letter on “Fox News Sunday,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said, “Congress established it and we will support people in disaster-prone areas.”
Pressed on President Trump’s conflation of FEMA shelter and services program funding with disaster relief funds, Johnson acknowledged that “the funding streams are different, but of course that’s not a false statement.” . But he argued that FEMA should not spend money “to resettle illegal aliens who have crossed the border.”
President Trump continued to criticize Helen’s recovery efforts Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He focused on the $750 payments FEMA is providing to disaster victims to address emergency needs.
“While we’re sending $750 to people whose homes were washed away, we’re sending tens of millions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of,” Trump said. “They’re offering $750 because it was destroyed.”
The $750 in critical needs assistance will help “cover necessities such as food, water, formula, breastfeeding supplies, medicine, and other emergency supplies,” according to a White House press release.
“There are other forms of assistance you may be eligible to receive, and the first payment you may receive while FEMA evaluates your eligibility for additional funds is Critical Needs Assistance,” the release continues.
The former president’s daughter-in-law, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, also answered questions about Trump’s Helen claims during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Host Dana Bash played footage of Sen. Thom Tillis, RN.C., praising his response to Helen.
“I’m actually impressed by how much attention has been paid to areas that wouldn’t have experienced the impacts that they did,” Tillis said. I want to say we’re doing a good job.”
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Lara Trump defended criticism of Helen’s recovery, saying it “comes directly from the people on the ground.”
“If you go online, you can see videos of people recording themselves and posting online saying, ‘I need help, no one’s coming here, I don’t have anything,'” Trump said. said.