Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) pushed back against accusations that former President Donald Trump is politicizing Hurricane Helene disaster relief, suggesting the Biden administration was “overmatched” by current events again.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell criticized how former President Donald Trump has stoked a “truly dangerous narrative” with his claims that the Biden administration is not helping in the Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, as the agency has directed over $110 million to help storm survivors. When asked if Trump’s claims are confusing storm victims, Cotton disagreed, arguing both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were “caught flat-footed” in their preparedness for this storm.
“If you hear from Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia who is very close to this, he’s monitoring it on the ground. Georgia’s response, he said that the administration’s response has been lackluster,” Cotton said on NBC News’s Meet the Press. “I think there’s an obvious difference between what happened in western North Carolina, northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee than the normal kind of hurricane impact we see. Most of the time, hurricanes are hitting on the coast, hitting, by definition, flat land. They can cause devastating damage, but within some reasonable period of time, the waters recede, linemen can come in, trucks can come in and bring supplies. If you look at the geography of where Helene did the most damage, it’s in the mountains where you have small, narrow valleys.”
Cotton explained that even when storms end, the areas that Hurricane Helene has mostly affected still have a long aftermath of dealing with the flooding that can happen. He contended the Biden administration should have stationed military assets ahead of the storm “from the very beginning,” noting how it took days to get rescue helicopters to the areas affected.
The Arkansas senator was then pressed on whether Trump should not have politicized the disaster relief provided by the Biden administration, prompting Cotton to reiterate that the administration was “slow to answer the bell.” Because of this, he argued rescue operations are still underway instead of moving on to recovery operations.
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Following Hurricane Helene, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced a bill that would redirect funds from a FEMA program for migrants to Hurricane Helene victims, and ban other federal funds for the initiative. The lawmaker argued it is “unacceptable” how the United States is still spending “hundreds of millions on a program sheltering illegal immigrants” instead of prioritizing its own citizens.
FEMA allocated $640 million toward its Shelter and Services Program aimed at assisting migrants, though these funds are separate from its disaster relief funds. Trump has suggested the government “stole” FEMA money to give to illegal immigrants. FEMA has pushed back on the former president’s claims, calling them false.