Fact check: Six days of Trump lies about the Hurricane Helene response

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So anyways, that next hurricane is headed straight for Florida, nearly the same landfall area as the last one. And FEMA will be out of money. How's that going to work out?

Not to worry BMW, that $750 already allocated for Helene victims will make it all go away, just like it never happened!
Now with Hurricane Milton bearing down on the Florida west coast, will Kamala still be on the campaign trail?
Will she be talking with Muslim leaders apologizing for Joe because he sided with Israel?
Or will she be where a VP needs to be, back in Washington, over seeing any FEMA response and aid that the Tampa/west coast of Florida will surely need?

Stay tuned....
(Awaiting clever replies from Harris/Walz ball washers....)

What exact oversight needs to be done in Washington? Is she physically bundling stacks of money or something? This is beyond stupid. The $750 is an initial amount with more forthcoming plus $42,500 in home repair assistance. Try to keep up.

[bmw]

Here's a fun comparison:

Washington Post on September 11, 2005 (13 days after Katrina)

The tour marked Bush's third visit to the region in nine days and came as he is struggling to assert his leadership after a calamity that has spawned bitter exchanges between local and federal officials. Bush's approval ratings have also tumbled to new lows.

Washington Post today (10 days after Helene)

The vice president has sought to show herself as a leader firmly in control in a crisis, while also visiting shelters to comfort victims. Vice President Kamala Harris took her second trip in four days to a hurricane-ravaged state, meeting with victims and first responders in North Carolina Saturday as the administration combats criticism and false claims that its storm response is too anemic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... na-helene/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... f72262ead/

Anybody notice a difference in the coverage?

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Here's a fun comparison:

Washington Post on September 11, 2005 (13 days after Katrina)

The tour marked Bush's third visit to the region in nine days and came as he is struggling to assert his leadership after a calamity that has spawned bitter exchanges between local and federal officials. Bush's approval ratings have also tumbled to new lows.

Washington Post today (10 days after Helene)

The vice president has sought to show herself as a leader firmly in control in a crisis, while also visiting shelters to comfort victims. Vice President Kamala Harris took her second trip in four days to a hurricane-ravaged state, meeting with victims and first responders in North Carolina Saturday as the administration combats criticism and false claims that its storm response is too anemic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... na-helene/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... f72262ead/

Anybody notice a difference in the coverage?

Yes… Bush blew it by being at McCains Birthday party after the levees broke… flying over the damage looking helpless and patting the FEMA guy on the back and saying “Heckuva job brownie” while people suffered in the Superdome. Not happening like that here. He had already blown it by the time he visited. The visits were an effort to fix it but it was too late.

[bmw]

Not happening like that here.

This is where I call BS.

Helene landfall - evening of Sept 26.
Kamala Harris - campaign event in Arizona Sept. 27
Kamala Harris - fundraising event in Los Angeles Sept. 28-29
Kamala Harris - Sept 30, decides to cut campaign trip short and head back to DC.

Took her 4 days just to get back to DC. Let alone actually go visit.

[lidoshuffle]

So anyways, that next hurricane is headed straight for Florida, nearly the same landfall area as the last one. And FEMA will be out of money. How's that going to work out?

Not to worry BMW, that $750 already allocated for Helene victims will make it all go away, just like it never happened!
Now with Hurricane Milton bearing down on the Florida west coast, will Kamala still be on the campaign trail?
Will she be talking with Muslim leaders apologizing for Joe because he sided with Israel?
Or will she be where a VP needs to be, back in Washington, over seeing any FEMA response and aid that the Tampa/west coast of Florida will surely need?

Stay tuned....
(Awaiting clever replies from Harris/Walz ball washers....)

What exact oversight needs to be done in Washington? Is she physically bundling stacks of money or something? This is beyond stupid. The $750 is an initial amount with more forthcoming plus $42,500 in home repair assistance. Try to keep up.

Yea you're hoping and praying that happens..too bad that $$$ can't get to those persons as fast as, oh say Ukraine, Israel and all those well fed, well housed "Undocumented Persons" in NY and other areas, right?
And Milton is on it's way, wonder how that's gonna end up with FEMA....??

[Mega Hertz]

I can't believe I'm actually going to try and put this shit in perspective, but...

In 2005, we were also smack dab in the middle of a very unpopular war (that had no plan of withdrawal), and bin Laden got through that worldwide "dead or alive" dragnet. Inflation also began to rise in 2005. So it's not like things were all peaches and cream at that point.

The fact is, had Biden and Harris been down there the next day, it would have been called nothing but a cursory photo op at best.

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Not happening like that here.

This is where I call BS.

Helene landfall - evening of Sept 26.
Kamala Harris - campaign event in Arizona Sept. 27
Kamala Harris - fundraising event in Los Angeles Sept. 28-29
Kamala Harris - Sept 30, decides to cut campaign trip short and head back to DC.

Took her 4 days just to get back to DC. Let alone actually go visit.

She’s the Vice President. The President is the lead person on this. The VP doesn’t really do a whole lot. It’s not like a co-President. She breaks ties in the senate and calls once a day to see if Biden’s alive. Not a whole lot more than that.

You’re trying to make this into some big thing because you are desperate for something to stick and nothing has yet. You also started this thread after Trump called it Harris’s Katrina. There’s that pattern of you repeating talking points again.

[bmw]

I'm just calling it how I see it. Not parroting talking points (if other people happen to independently see it the way I do, then so be it), not trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

And so we're clear here, my criticism is as much (if not moreso) of the media than it is of Kamala or Biden. Where's all the on-scene reporters that couldn't wait to plaster the victims all over TV during Katrina? Granted, I haven't watched much news this past week, but what I have watched, I haven't seen it. They excoriated Bush (some of which was justified) and are, in my opinion, intentionally going out of their way to protect Biden and Harris in an election year.

Also, nobody has yet chimed in to explain how FEMA went from having plenty of money 3 months ago to being broke after one major storm.

[Matt]

Here's a fun comparison:

Washington Post on September 11, 2005 (13 days after Katrina)

The tour marked Bush's third visit to the region in nine days and came as he is struggling to assert his leadership after a calamity that has spawned bitter exchanges between local and federal officials. Bush's approval ratings have also tumbled to new lows.

Washington Post today (10 days after Helene)

The vice president has sought to show herself as a leader firmly in control in a crisis, while also visiting shelters to comfort victims. Vice President Kamala Harris took her second trip in four days to a hurricane-ravaged state, meeting with victims and first responders in North Carolina Saturday as the administration combats criticism and false claims that its storm response is too anemic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... na-helene/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... f72262ead/

Anybody notice a difference in the coverage?

Blaming Bush for Katrina is just as bad as blaming Biden or Harris for Helene. Both claims are idiotic.

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I'm just calling it how I see it. Not parroting talking points (if other people happen to independently see it the way I do, then so be it), not trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

And so we're clear here, my criticism is as much (if not moreso) of the media than it is of Kamala or Biden. Where's all the on-scene reporters that couldn't wait to plaster the victims all over TV during Katrina? Granted, I haven't watched much news this past week, but what I have watched, I haven't seen it. They excoriated Bush (some of which was justified) and are, in my opinion, intentionally going out of their way to protect Biden and Harris in an election year.

Also, nobody has yet chimed in to explain how FEMA went from having plenty of money 3 months ago to being broke after one major storm.

The only thing this storm response and that one have in common is a hurricane. Comparing them is apples and oranges. Complaining that the VP wasn’t somehow personally ordering the deployment of pallets of supplies or handling 911 calls or whatever weird things you want to assert is insane. We have photographs of the VP on the phone with the folks in Washington as this was unfolding. We have the technology… zoom, FaceTime, Skype… the idea that someone must be physically somewhere or it’s a terrible thing is just outdated. Such things weren’t possible in 2005. Now they can have all their meetings and still attend to the business they were supposed to be doing and not flinch.

They’ve glossed over A LOT of Trumps crazier statements with nary a mention. He said his opponent was mentally impaired from birth. If the media were in the tank for Harris we would have gotten wall to wall coverage until the end of time for a remark like that. Instead we got Jack shit for coverage. The media is in the bag for Trump at this point. He’s a cash cow for them. Never mind the fact some of them are on his enemies list of folks he wants to get arrested on Trumped up charges.

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This is out of hand… an engineered storm to mine lithium? They can control the weather? These people are insane.

Oct 5 (Reuters) - In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene in the United States this week, a new storm emerged on social media - false rumors about how disaster funds have been used, and even claims that officials control the weather.
Local and national government officials say they are trying to combat the rumors, including one spread by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

One of the more far-fetched rumors is that Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits. Others accuse the administration of President Joe Biden of using federal disaster funds to help migrants in the country illegally, or suggest officials are deliberately abandoning bodies in the cleanup.

Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X Thursday night: "Yes they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done."

The conspiracy theories come at a pivotal time for rescue and recovery efforts following the storm, one of the deadliest U.S. hurricanes this century. And the presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is just over a month away.
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Republicans and Democrats alike say the rumors are causing problems.

"I just talked to one Senator that has had 15 calls TODAY about why we don't stop ........ 'fill in the blank,'" said Kevin Corbin, a Republican in the North Carolina Senate - a state that is one of the hardest hit by Helene. "98% chance it's not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it," he wrote on Facebook.

"I'm growing a bit weary of intentional distractions," he added.

The memo highlighted a claim by Trump during a rally this week that Biden and Harris had used federal emergency funds "on people that should not be in our country."

"This is FALSE," the memo said. "No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All."

In response to a request for comment for this article, the Trump campaign repeated accusations that FEMA funds had been spent on housing migrants in the country illegally.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has the funds for immediate response and recovery efforts for Helene, the White House memo said, and has provided millions of dollars in relief to those recovering.

FEMA has been the target of so many falsehoods it has set up a rumor response page on its website to try to tamp them down.

Helene slammed into Florida a week ago and has killed over 200 people and devastated a half dozen states in the U.S. Southeast.
Some officials are trying to combat the disinformation themselves on social media. Katie Keaotamai, who works at FEMA but said she was speaking on social media in a personal capacity, explained FEMA's disaster response processes in several TikTok posts with thousands of views.

Disaster events are often politicized, said Kate Starbird, co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, adding that social media rewards "sensationalism and outrage with attention."

"Manipulating the sensemaking process (e.g. spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation) and politicizing the event will both make it harder to respond and recover now — and to make informed decisions about how to prepare for and mitigate the next one," Starbird said.

[zzand]

An engineered storm, very interesting. Sounds like the tin foil brigade to me. But then again that nutbag MTG will say just about anything. As for the misuse of funds that had been explained many times by legit news sources. Only MAGA types believe the lies at this point.
'

and the hits keep on coming

Donald Trump campaigned in Juneau, Wisconsin, on Sunday and rebuked his “stupid” campaign staff for showing the “wrong picture” as he once more attempted to answer liberal mockery over his dwindling crowd sizes.

The Republican presidential nominee told his crowd again that he plans to be a dictator for one day if he regains the presidency and warned that the country is “finished” if he doesn’t.

He also told his audience of working people that he “hated to pay overtime” as an employer, spread paranoia about exploding eco-friendly cars and continued to push the lie that the Biden administration is not helping victims of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern states.


edit

I am reading this morning about how since Helene didn't do everything the storm engineers wanted they cooked up Milton to finish things off. The world has become totally unhinged.

[bmw]

This is out of hand… an engineered storm to mine lithium? They can control the weather? These people are insane.

Did Trump spread rumors about the storm being engineered? If not, Reuters sure worded their article in a way to deceptively imply that he did.

And yes - there are nutjobs out there. And yes, MTG is one of them.

It is also fair to point out, however, that every single time a natural disaster strikes, the mainstream media blames climate change, thereby suggesting that man is unwittingly engineering the weather. Even in the immediate aftermath of Helene - the day after landfall, CBS's top news story wasn't focused on the destruction or the devastation or the deaths or the people in need; nope, it was focused on climate change.

Here - found it. Sept 28. This is the story that was at the very top of their news feed:

"Climate Watch: Protecting the Planet | How climate change threatens plant and animal species"

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This is out of hand… an engineered storm to mine lithium? They can control the weather? These people are insane.

Did Trump spread rumors about the storm being engineered? If not, Reuters sure worded their article in a way to deceptively imply that he did.

And yes - there are nutjobs out there. And yes, MTG is one of them.

It is also fair to point out, however, that every single time a natural disaster strikes, the mainstream media blames climate change, thereby suggesting that man is unwittingly engineering the weather. Even in the immediate aftermath of Helene - the day after landfall, CBS's top news story wasn't focused on the destruction or the devastation or the deaths or the people in need; nope, it was focused on climate change.

Here - found it. Sept 28. This is the story that was at the very top of their news feed:

"Climate Watch: Protecting the Planet | How climate change threatens plant and animal species"

If you aren’t in grade school it’s pretty easy to follow the Reuters article and figure out that MTG is the weather control wench since they literally quote her saying that and then describe something Trump said later. This is extremely nit picky of you.

So is the idea that CBS can’t run an article totally unrelated to hurricanes on the subject of climate change if there is a hurricane going on. You are grasping at straws so small you’re using tweezers.

[bmw]

CBS has an RSS news feed. That was the top story on that feed on the day after the storm made landfall. That to me is evidence of a news organization that is completely out of touch with what is going on.

In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene in the United States this week, a new storm emerged on social media - false rumors about how disaster funds have been used, and even claims that officials control the weather. Local and national government officials say they are trying to combat the rumors, including one spread by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. One of the more far-fetched rumors is that Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits.

Sorry, but that is deceptively worded up to that point.