Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the Republican vice presidential nominee, condemned President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s response effort to Hurricane Helene, calling it incompetent and costly for those affected.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Tuesday, Vance wrote that Biden and Harris had delayed response in deploying assets to the disaster zones, noting that “the lack of prioritization had real-world ramifications.”
Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall on Sept. 26 and raged through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. The hurricane killed more than 200 people.
Vance argued that the administration’s response was delayed. Six days following the storm making landfall, the Department of Defense deployed 1,000 troops to hurricane response zones. As of Oct. 4, fewer than half of the 1,000 troops were conducting operations and deployed to western North Carolina, he said.
“In disaster response, every second counts,” Vance wrote.
“A week went by while the citizens of North Carolina suffered without the equipment and soldiers needed to save lives and begin recovery. This is the sort of bureaucratic hiccup that engaged political leaders solve,” he added. “A competent leader would have ordered those men and women into motion earlier, bureaucracy be damned. Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden treated the situation like a public-relations disaster instead of a real one.”
The White House did not respond to comment on Vance’s piece.
Vance said former President Barack Obama was better at deploying assistance in disaster zones, citing the response to the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. Vance added that Federal Emergency Management Agency staff are working hard but that “it too has been the victim of misplaced Biden-Harris political priorities.”
He noted that the administration funneled millions of dollars to nongovernmental organizations whose “goal is facilitating mass migration into the U.S.” Vance also claimed that FEMA is picking and choosing groups to help in disaster zones.
“Ordinary Americans of all backgrounds know that especially when it comes to disaster relief, federal agencies exist to serve all Americans, not to give some groups special treatment,” he said.
FEMA has pushed back against criticism of the agency’s response. The agency stated that it “provides assistance to survivors regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, English proficiency or economic status.”
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Vance also argued that additional active-duty forces were only deployed to disaster zones on Oct. 6, after an Oct. 4 statement from Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) calling for “an active-duty military leader” to lead the response efforts.
Vance’s criticism comes as Florida prepares to face Hurricane Milton, which is set to make landfall Wednesday evening. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said on Good Morning America that the storm could “be like nothing they have seen before” and urged those in evacuation zones to leave.