‘His Lies Can Hurt People’: Trump Condemned for Relief Disinformation
Even Fox News criticizes storm-related lies
Donald Trump is being roundly rebuked for the lies and disinformation he’s spreading about federal disaster relief in the wake of two powerful hurricanes that ravaged the southeastern United States.
The former president and his current running mate have been actively lying about the federal storm response, almost since Hurricane Helene damaged wide swaths of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and elsewhere last month.
Others have begun joining President Biden in calling out those lies, since he first spoke out strongly last week.
Among them is Kentucky’s popular Democratic governor, Andy Beshear.
“It’s just amazing. Apparently, there is no lie too big for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance,” he said. “I mean, when you ask him about the last election, all you're asking him to do is admit reality. We deserve to have a vice president who believes in democracy and can say, yes, Donald Trump lost the last election, and now we're running in this election.
“And then the lies on — on FEMA and disaster response, listen, in Kentucky, we went through our worst tornado disaster and our worst flood disaster in our history, and I didn't have to deal with any of the shenanigans that Donald Trump is putting out right now,” Beshear added. “And his lies can hurt people. I mean, lying that $750 is all that's available, that means that individual might not apply for the $40,000-plus in individual assistance.
“Like, if you truly care about the people that are harmed more than yourself, you wouldn't politicize this. You wouldn't be putting out all this misinformation,” he said. “And as somebody who has led through natural disasters, it hurts.”
Even Trump allies, like Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, have joined the disinformation campaign.
Johnson lied Sunday during an appearance on the NBC News program, Meet The Press, even after host Kristen Welker corrected the record during a contentious conversation.
“Mr. Speaker, we should note that FEMA funds were actually redirected on Donald Trump's watch to deal with the migrant issue,” she said.
However, when he tried to continue to lie to Welker, even Johnson conceded that the program in question dates to a year before Biden took office as president.
“That is a new program that started in 2020 under Joe Biden,” Johnson said.
However Trump was very definitely president in 2020 and Biden wasn’t president until 2021.
But even Fox News host Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman, said that storm-related lies should end.
“In the wake of natural disaster, people need help and hope. That help comes in many forms: neighbors, churches, charities and yes, even government, because government comes in many forms. First responders, law enforcement, firefighters, schoolteachers, men and women in uniform, it's part of the so-called government trying to help after death and destruction. What does not help or provide hope is misinformation,” Gowdy said, on-camera. “There’s enough in life to complain about without manufacturing things. We saw it after Katrina and hurricanes in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands that somehow people did not care or they cared less because the victims did not look or sound like we do. It’s an awful thing to allege.
“And now, after Helene and Milton, wild claims rooted in a desire for attention, claims that could not withstand scrutiny from the third-grader, if you can help, help. If you can't help, hope. But whatever you do, do not hurt. And misinformation hurts,” he added.
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