Trump makes more debunked claims about FEMA as he surveys storm damage
in North Carolina
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[October 22, 2024]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and BILL BARROW
SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Surveying storm damage in North Carolina, former
President Donald Trump on Monday blasted federal emergency responders
whose work has been stymied by armed harassment and a deluge of
misinformation, but he said he was not concerned that the aftermath of
Hurricane Helene would affect election results in the battleground
state.
Trump was asked whether it was helpful to criticize hurricane relief
workers after the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently paused
work in the area because of reports they could be targeted by militia.
He responded by again assailing the agency and repeating the falsehood
that the response was hampered because FEMA spent its budget helping
people who crossed the border illegally. That claim was debunked weeks
ago by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., who stood behind Trump as he
spoke.
“Well, I think you have to let people know how they’re doing," Trump
told reporters in Swannanoa, outside Asheville. “If they were doing a
great job, I think we should say that, too, because I think they should
be rewarded. ... If they’re doing a poor job, we’re supposed to not say
it?”
Trump's campaign and that of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala
Harris, are ramping up their campaigns in the final two weeks before
Election Day.
Trump had three stops in North Carolina on Monday. After the Asheville
area, he held a rally across the state in Greenville and spoke at a
faith leaders event in Concord, where he appealed to Christian voters by
repeating his criticism of transgender athletes playing on women's
sports teams and his proposal to conduct a large-scale deportation
operation. Trump said that during his administration, he fought for
Christians “like no president has ever fought before.”
Harris on Monday focused her campaigning efforts on the “blue wall,”
traveling to suburban Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. She held a
series of conversations with Republican Liz Cheney moderated by GOP
strategist Sarah Longwell, publisher of the Bulwark, a commentary site
for anti-Trump conservatives, and conservative radio host Charlie Sykes.
Trump won those three states in 2016 and lost them in 2020, and Harris
could all but lock up the presidency if she swept them.
Cheney, a former Wyoming congressman who lost her seat after she spoke
out against Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, offered
advice to her fellow Republicans who are uneasy with Trump but not
comfortable broadcasting support for a Democrat.
“You can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to
anybody," Cheney said.
Hurricane Helene displaced thousands of voters
Many North Carolina counties affected by Hurricane Helene moved Election
Day precincts or changed early voting sites. Thousands of voters
remained displaced or without power or water as early voting commenced.
Both parties are scrambling to check their turnout operations.
“We’re working every channel we can, you know?” Republican National
Committee Chair Michael Whatley, a North Carolinian, said. “We’re going
to be doing phone calls. We’re going to be doing direct mail. We’ll be
doing emails and digital — basically anything we can do to let people
know where to go.”
Despite extensive damage across western North Carolina, Trump said he
saw no reason for the storm to cast doubt on the North Carolina election
results.
“No, I think in a way, it’s the opposite,” Trump said. “I mean, we’re so
impressed, and I think they have a pretty good system here.”
Republican Renee Kyro, who lives a short drive from the devastated
mountain town of Chimney Rock, said she knows “plenty of Trump
supporters who lost everything,” and others who remain in their homes
but don’t have reliable internet or phone connections and may not know
their polling location.
“I’ll go door to door if I have to,” she said.
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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump prays
with Mike Stewart, owner of Pine View Buildings, and others, after
delivering remarks on the damage and federal response to Hurricane
Helene, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, in Swannanoa, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan
Vucci)
State Sen. Natalie Murdock, who doubles as political director for
Democrats' coordinated campaign in the state, said the party has the
apparatus to reach their target voters in the disaster zone. Field
workers in some of Democrats’ two-dozen-plus offices around the
state have engaged in recovery efforts, distributing water and other
supplies to residents.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, urged Trump not to
"share lies or misinformation” about the storm recovery.
Many storm survivors lost everything, and they want help and truth,
Cooper said Monday at a briefing in Asheville.
“We should work together to give them both,” the governor said.
“Storm recovery cannot be partisan."
Edwards, who represents Asheville and surrounding areas in Congress,
put out a long statement last month debunking “outrageous rumors”
that FEMA was halting trucks from bringing in supplies, abandoning
rescue efforts to bulldoze Chimney Rock, running out of money and
more. He did not defend FEMA from Trump’s criticism Monday.
Instead, Edwards, who owns McDonald’s franchises, presented Trump
with what he called a “French fry certification pin" in a nod to the
former president's photo opportunity Sunday at one of the fast-food
restaurants.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Trump's FEMA
comments “dangerous” and said they had been debunked on a bipartisan
basis. She said 5,500 federal personnel were in North Carolina and
Florida after Helene and Hurricane Milton and noted that $2 billion
in federal assistance had been approved for those affected in North
Carolina.
“They are dangerous,” Jean-Pierre said of Trump’s remarks. “They are
unhelpful. It is not what leadership looks like.”
Democrats are running both on Helene and Mark Robinson
Even before Helene, North Carolina was all the more compelling
because of its history of split-ticket voting. It’s one of the few
states that features competitive governor’s races concurrent with
presidential contests.
Democrats have carried the presidential electoral vote just once
since 1992 — in Barack Obama's narrow win in 2008. Republicans have
won just one governor’s race in the same span. Four years ago,
Cooper won reelection by 4.5 points despite Trump outpacing Biden.
He's prevented by term limit laws from running again.
Democrats hope Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson’s
latest struggles, centered on CNN’s revelations that the state's
first Black lieutenant governor once called himself a “Black Nazi”
and posted lascivious statements on a porn website, turn thousands
of Cooper-Trump voters into supporters of Harris and Democratic
gubernatorial nominee Josh Stein. Robinson has denied the
allegations and sued CNN, calling its report defamatory.
Trump demurred Monday when asked whether voters should support
Robinson, whom Trump has endorsed and has referred to as “Martin
Luther King on steroids.”
“I’m not familiar with the state of the race right now,” he said. “I
haven’t seen it.”
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Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa,
Colleen Long in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix
contributed to this report.
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