Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell on Sunday criticized former President Donald Trump for spreading false information about how the Biden administration allocated disaster relief funding for Hurricane Helene recovery.
“It’s frankly ridiculous and just plain false,” Criswell said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” “This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people. It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people.”
As hurricane season ramps up, Trump falsely claimed last week that FEMA was running out of money to aid its disaster relief efforts, because the White House had used the funds “on illegal migrants coming into the country.”
CNBC reports FEMA and other agencies have since fact-checked that disinformation.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell torched MAGA lies about Hurricane Helene relief efforts calling them "ridiculous" today speaking with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) October 6, 2024
When asked if FEMA is ready for Hurricane Milton, Criswell says "we are absolutely ready."… pic.twitter.com/vrvKuw2Ggl
On FEMA’s “Rumor Response” webpage, the agency specifically addressed the claim that FEMA disaster relief funding “was diverted to support international efforts or border related issues.”
“This is false. No money is being diverted from disaster response needs,” the agency wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security and White House have issued their own statements fact-checking and condemning the false claims.
But the Trump campaign and the former president’s allies, such as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, have continued to boost information about the Helene recovery effort, working to turn the devastating hurricane into a campaign attack against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Criswell on Sunday called that rhetoric “demoralizing to all of the first responders that have been out there in their communities helping people.”
Though FEMA has been working with a tight budget over the past year, the agency received a roughly $20 billion cash infusion from the stopgap funding bill that Congress passed to avert a government shutdown, which went into effect last Tuesday.
White House officials and representatives from areas hit by Helene have said that Congress will likely need to pass a supplemental disaster relief package to further aid FEMA’s rebuilding effort.
Meanwhile, Fox News Digital reports Speaker of the House Mike Johnson slammed the Biden administration’s handling of Hurricane Helene relief efforts, calling the federal government’s response an "abject failure."
"At the federal level, this has been a massive failure. And you could just ask the people there on the ground. I have been there. I was in Georgia. I was in Florida, where Hurricane Helene made landfall there on the coast. And then we'll be going to the hardest hit parts of North Carolina on Wednesday of this week. When you talk to the people who are directly affected, they will tell you that this has been an abject failure," Johnson, R-La., told Fox News’ Shannon Bream during an interview on "Fox News Sunday."
Hurricane Helene has left more than 220 people dead after flooding devastated towns and cities across Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
What a lieing pos.
ReplyDelete