In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, former President Donald Trump has once again shown more leadership in responding to a disaster than the current occupants of the White House. Meanwhile, the media has entirely ignored Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s disgraceful lack of action.
As rescuers begin to sift through the destruction from one of the worst storms to hit the southeast in living memory, the death toll has already topped 100, with hundreds more still missing. In western North Carolina, where some areas saw as much as 30 inches of rain, entire towns have been wiped off the map by flooding, while others remain only accessible by air.
Trump was on the ground in Georgia on Monday surveying the damage, meeting with first responders and volunteers beginning cleanup efforts. “We’re here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and with all of those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” Trump said.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump added that he would be delivering “a lot of relief material, including fuel, equipment, water, and other things to the State.” He also announced that he had been in communication with Elon Musk to set up Starlink satellite internet for victims amid widespread power outages and destroyed cell phone towers.
Trump’s visit could not have presented a starker contrast to the lethargic – if not outright disinterested – response from the Biden-Harris administration. Though the White House, to its credit, quickly approved disaster declarations for affected states, unlocking some emergency funds, Biden and Harris themselves were completely missing in action.
As vast swaths of the country were decimated by flooding, President Biden – as he has been for so many other disasters, from the Maui wildfires to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio – was on the beach in Delaware for a long weekend. When he finally did return to the White House, Biden snapped back at a reporter who asked the president why he was on the beach instead of in Washington. “It’s called a telephone,” he said.
Harris, meanwhile, was on the campaign circuit, including attending a swanky fundraiser in San Francisco.
It was only after Trump said that he would be visiting the affected areas that the White House scrambled to announce plans for Biden to visit as well. Shortly thereafter, Harris’s official account posted a picture on X of the vice president supposedly receiving a briefing from FEMA on Air Force Two – just a few minutes after Trump’s plane touched down in Georgia.
As Daily Mail reporter Charlie Spiering pointed out, Harris’s photo op bears a striking resemblance to the infamous photo of George W. Bush surveying Hurricane Katrina damage from Air Force One in 2005. Yet while Bush was eviscerated by the corporate media, there has been no similar reaction to Harris this time around.
The Helene response is just the latest in a shameful pattern of inaction from the Biden-Harris administration. It took Biden more than a year to visit the East Palestine train derailment site, even though the president found time to fly halfway around the world to Ukraine in the meantime.
In contrast, Trump visited the Ohio town just a few weeks after the incident, along with organizing truckloads of supplies and purchasing lunch for first responders at a local McDonald’s. The former president also directly called out Biden for ignoring the crisis, appearing to prompt increased attention from the administration.
When deadly wildfires decimated the town of Lahaina in Hawaii last August, Biden likewise expressed a callous disinterest, twice telling reporters “no comment” when asked about the disaster while reclining on the beach. The president finally made it to Hawaii weeks later – following a stop at billionaire Tom Steyer’s Lake Tahoe mansion.
In both cases Kamala Harris was nowhere to be seen.
For Harris’s campaign, this latest delayed response has the chance to become something akin to what Hurricane Sandy was for Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. That storm, which battered the northeast just weeks before Election Day, gave Barack Obama the chance to seize the national spotlight by beating Romney to the impacted area and flooding the airwaves with footage of the president “looking presidential.” The media also pounced on prior comments from Romney suggesting that he would pursue cuts to FEMA and other federal emergency response operations.
An analysis of exit poll data from the American Enterprise Institute shows Obama’s Hurricane Sandy moment may have made a critical difference for him in the final days of the race, and Romney himself later acknowledged that it was a tough way to close out a campaign.
The effect from Hurricane Helene won’t be exactly the same this time around, primarily because the media is in the tank for Kamala Harris and not Donald Trump. But Americans have always respected leaders who are active and hands-on, something Trump displayed throughout his first term and reminded voters of this week.
Politics aside, Trump’s visit did what presidential visits are supposed to do – lift the spirits of the people picking up the pieces of their broken lives and keep the attention of the country focused on communities in desperate need of assistance. On both of those fronts, Biden and Harris have come up woefully short.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
Biden and Harris have done zero to halt illegals pouring into this country scooping up any freebies they can. So why would one think that they would help US citizens in time of crises?
Yet another example of how much Democrats actually care about the American people.
Criticizing Biden and Harris about their less than enthusiastic response to national disasters is like shooting fish in a barrel. Pretty much everybody understands the agenda of the Democrats, and it doesn’t include concerns about any kind of trauma on the common American citizen.
What’s more disconcerting about Kamala in particular, is that she is profoundly obtuse even without the dementia like affliction of Joe Biden. However, the worst aspect about the people who usually vote for Democrat candidates is that millions of them routinely vote for bigger government, (read larger government checks). It does not matter a wit that Kamala is just as clueless as Biden. The taxsuckers would vote for a garden slug if it had a name, and that name appeared on the line of Democrat candidates.
NYT/WT headlines: “Biden Catatonic while Harris Awaits for Orders from Whoopi, Sources Say!”
Gee good thing they’re not George W Bush cuz I sure remember the criticism he took for Katrina… such as “he hates black people”. Napping on the Delaware beach, mouth open, and fundraising in Las Vegas and LA? Good look. Remember “Kamala cares about the middle class”! BS
Lame duck?? I think a real dumb duck. He is just doing what is his normal presidential actions. The beach house and the beach is much more important than millions of peoples lives, right?? And meanwhile kackels knee pads is hobnobbing in hollywood with all the filthy rich liberal socialists, on her knees for money?? Meanwhile The President Trump is bringing relief to some of the poor displaced Americans. I bet slow joe will print a few billion $$dollars$$ for the ukraine and maybe a little bit for the hurricane victims?? Biden and Harris themselves were completely missing in action. Please Vote, and Vote for the children and the Republic…..VOTE ***MAGA 2024***
Those two are a disgrace. President Trump does care about the American people; all classes. MAGA
They are what they are and no more. To expect them to be what they are not, to do that, which they are incapable of doing is our inability to see or refusing to see the ugly reality. This is real not a fantasyland. Might as well expect the fish to fly.
Why are WE paying for Harris to fly around campaigning on AF2?
How do you get this information out to the rest of the folks, those in the mainstream media blackout area (almost everywhere in the US), so they can see who is really interested in their plight? We know, but do they?
Biden Harris don’t care about Americans. This has been shown again and again. In the Ohio train disaster, the fire in Hawaii, and the invaders coming across the border by the millions. They get an allowance, housing, health care and education ahead of poor and hungry Americans. The lack of empathy shown by Biden. On Sunday or maybe it was Saturday he had a smile on his face when asked about the disaster in N.C., Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. And then no reaction from Harris only a video of her laughing with the Hollywood elites. We know where her priorities are. Then we get a fake photo op in her plane back to DC. She is not even capable to hold a press interview. And what is the reaction of MSM? Total silence. Just like the iCE report about the criminals that have come into the country under Biden Harris. The White House calls it misinformation. Everything is blamed on someone else. The only one that was presidential and cared was Trump. Of course that is totally ignored by the MSM. VOTE TRUMP/VANCE if you want a caring strong president to save us from the evil that is currently governing America.
Those of us whose insurance companies wouldn’t pay for legitimate damages on our claims (anyone watch 60 Minutes on this the other night) are still waiting on the Senate to vote on legislation to help those very much left hanging financially.