(AFP) – Hurricane Milton crashed into the US presidential election on Thursday, whipping up a political tempest that embroiled Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden, even as Florida reeled from the impact of the real-life storm. Republican former president Trump and his allies have attacked the White House over its handling of both Milton and Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, while unleashing a flood of misinformation about the US government’s relief efforts.
“Hopefully on January 20 you’re going to have somebody who’s really going to help you,” Trump said in a video message to the people of Florida, where he lives at his huge Mar-a-Lago resort complex. Democratic vice president and presidential nominee Harris and President Biden have both hit back strongly over the Republican’s “onslaught of lies” — but have also taken extra pains to show that they are in control. Stung by criticism that they were both out of Washington when Helene hit in late September, Biden and Harris have kept up a hyperactive schedule during Milton’s rampage, including a rare twice-daily media briefing by the president.
Harris tore into Trump on Thursday, a day after the Republican returned to one of his favorite themes of wind turbines in a campaign speech where he mocked its proponents for thinking it “sounds so wonderful.” “Yesterday, I met with members of the federal team that is working around the clock to deliver relief to Americans affected by Helene and Milton,” Harris said on X. “Meanwhile, Donald Trump spread lies and educated us about the sound of the wind.”
Far from fostering national unity in the face of catastrophe, the double whammy of hurricanes has fueled US political divisions less than four weeks before an agonizingly close and bitterly fought election. A particular flashpoint has been the relationship between the White House and the governors — often Republican — in storm-hit states. Hurricane Helene’s rampage took on a particularly sensitive political importance given that two of the worst-hit states, North Carolina and Georgia, are among the seven swing states where the election is likely to be decided.
And as Milton left a trail of devastation across Florida and at least four dead, Republican governor and former presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis stirred up a political storm over claims that he’d refused to take calls from Harris. “I didn’t even know she was trying to reach me. But she has no role in this process,” DeSantis, who ran against Trump for the Republican nomination, said in a briefing on Thursday. “I’ve been dealing with these storms in Florida under both Trump and Biden. Neither of them ever politicized it… So what she’s doing is she’s trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign.”
DeSantis added: “I don’t have time for those games. I don’t care about her campaign. Obviously I’m not a supporter of hers.” For his part, Biden said on Wednesday just before Hurricane Milton made landfall that DeSantis had been “very gracious, he’s thanked me for all we’ve done.” But the 81-year-old president, who dropped out of the White House in July after a disastrous debate against Trump, brutally criticized the tycoon for his storm “lies.”
A visibly angry Biden branded Trump “un-American” and criticized him for peddling falsehoods about money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) being diverted to migrants; about flood-hit property being confiscated; and about storm victims only getting $750 in compensation. Biden also slammed conspiracy theories spread by pro-Trump Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene that the hurricanes were geo-engineered. “It’s so stupid,” he said. “It’s got to stop.”
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
