Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris criticized her opponent, Donald Trump, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another Republican, for “political gamesmanship” around the recovery from Hurricane Helene and preparations underway for Hurricane Milton.
Harris said Trump was spreading disinformation about the resources available to victims of Helene, which devastated a wide swath of the US Southeast last month with punishing winds and flooding.
“There’s a lot of mis- and disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available in particular to the survivors of Helene,” Harris told reporters before departing to New York. She called Trump’s words “extraordinarily irresponsible” and said those impacted by the storm were entitled to “critically important” federal resources.
The former president falsely suggested that Americans whose homes had been destroyed were only being offered $750 in federal aid during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, and has repeatedly suggested that federal funds that would have been used for disaster relief had instead been “stolen” for a program providing housing to undocumented migrants.
Victims of the storm can apply for significantly more relief, and Trump is conflating a separate migrant program authorized by Congress with emergency funding, which cannot be spent on other matters.
Harris was then asked about an NBC News report that DeSantis, who himself sought the Republican presidential nomination before being defeated by Trump, was ignoring phone calls she made to offer support ahead of Hurricane Milton.
The storm, which strengthened Monday to a Category 5, is expected to slam into central Florida — which is still recovering from the aftermath of Helene — on Wednesday.
Harris did not dispute the NBC report, saying “moments of crisis, if nothing else, should be the moment that anyone who calls himself a leader says they’re going to put politics aside.”
“Playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — is just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship,” Harris said.
Harris called on Florida residents in the path of the storm to listen to evacuation guidance issued by local officials.
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