Trump visits Georgia hurricane web site, bashes Harris
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump provides temporary statements as he arrives at Valdosta Regional Airport to go to areas affected by Hurricane Helene on September 30, 2024 in Valdosta, Georgia.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Photographs
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump traveled to hurricane-blasted Georgia to ship remarks and assist hand out provides, at some point after he leveraged the devastating storm as a political assault towards Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Trump insisted his motive for Monday’s go to to to the southern metropolis of Valdosta was apolitical.
“We’re not speaking about politics now,” Trump mentioned in remarks to the press outdoors the closely broken brick facade of a constructing that had housed dozens of furnishings distributors.
However his presence in the important thing electoral battleground dovetailed together with his latest remarks bashing Harris for not instantly touring to the hurricane-affected zone.
Trump additionally appeared to slight President Joe Biden by falsely claiming that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, had been “calling the president [but] hasn’t been in a position to get him.”
However Kemp said that Biden had referred to as him on Sunday.
“The president simply referred to as me yesterday afternoon,” the governor mentioned earlier Monday. “I missed him and I referred to as him proper again. And he simply mentioned, ‘Hey, what do you want?'”
Trump in Valdosta additionally mentioned he had just lately spoken with billionaire Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, about utilizing Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite tv for pc web service, to assist restore communication within the area.
The Homeland Safety Division mentioned Monday that it had already supplied 40 Starlink satellite systems to assist communications and restoration in North Carolina.
Trump’s occasion was coordinated with Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian help group based by Franklin Graham, the son of influential evangelical chief Billy Graham.
The short-notice journey to Georgia got here as Harris scrapped deliberate marketing campaign stops in Las Vegas to be able to return to Washington, D.C., for a briefing with the Federal Emergency Administration Company.
Biden, in the meantime, mentioned earlier Monday that he and Harris hope to travel to hurricane-damaged areas as soon as they are often positive their presence is not going to disrupt emergency response efforts. He later mentioned that he expects to make a visit on Wednesday or Thursday.
Folks toss buckets of water out of a house because the streets and houses are flooded close to Peachtree Creek after hurricane Helene introduced in heavy rains over evening on September 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Megan Varner | Getty Photographs
The hurricane’s loss of life toll has mounted to 116 because it made landfall as a Class 4 storm in northern Florida on Thursday evening, in line with NBC Information’ rely.
At the least 25 folks in Georgia have been killed, Kemp mentioned Monday morning. Deaths have additionally been reported in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Ferocious rains, wind and floods have left tens of millions of individuals with out electrical energy, and full cities — together with these lots of of miles inland, like Asheville, North Carolina — have been submerged beneath ft of water.
On Sunday, Trump attacked Biden and Harris in politically charged phrases over their response to Helene.
“They elevate some huge cash from unhealthy folks, fundraising occasions with their radical left lunatic donors, when large components of our nation have been devastated by that huge hurricane, and is underwater with many, many individuals lifeless,” Trump mentioned at a marketing campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.
“She should be right here. She should be down within the space the place she must be. That is what she’s getting paid for, proper? That is what she’s getting paid for.”
The Harris marketing campaign and its allies had already lashed out at Trump for his remarks about Helene at a rally in Michigan on Friday, when he advised these affected by the hurricane, “We’re with you all the way in which, and if we had been there, we might be serving to you, and you will be OK.”
A Harris marketing campaign social media account rapidly shared that clip to recommend Trump was downplaying the catastrophe. The clip racked by Monday morning had racked up greater than 5 million views on X, in line with the location’s tally.
Trump’s allies mentioned the clip was taken out of context and defended his remarks, saying he was providing consolation to the storm’s victims.
However a few of the former president’s opponents drew parallels between the quote and Trump’s insensitive responses to earlier pure disasters, together with his tossing paper towel rolls right into a crowd of people that survived a hurricane in Puerto Rico in 2017.
