As hurricane season plows its way across the coastlines of North and South America, natural disasters have stolen the national spotlight. While brain-addled Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene are claiming the storms are manmade, normal humans can only watch and pray for those affected.
Greene isn’t the only MAGA weirdo using the deadly storms for clout. Donald Trump has taken it upon himself to visit the devastated areas for his reelection campaign. As usual, Trump’s peculiar relationship with the truth has gotten in his way, and the septuagenarian is has rankled half the country by spouting hateful nonsense. When asked about his lies on The View, Kamala Harris showed what a real leader sounds like and shut down the garbage rhetoric.
Ana Navarro, a native Floridian, brought up the recent Trump story while asking Harris about the incoming Hurricane Milton. The storm, which was recently downgraded from a category 5 to a category 4, is currently hurdling towards Florida’s Tampa Bay region. Coming just weeks after Hurricane Helene, its has forced millions to flee their homes and is projected to hit the area late Wednesday.
“Trump is lying, claiming that the Biden administration is withholding aid from the areas where Republicans live and that FEMA funds are being redirected to migrants,” she said, referring to a claim Trump made in Georgia on October 3.
While visiting an area affected by the hurricane, the former president told reporters, “$1 billion was stolen from FEMA to use it for illegal migrants.”
Of course he couldn’t stop there, as he expanded his phony narrative, “FEMA has not done the job, meaning the federal government, Kamala and Joe, have not done the job obviously. They have $1 billion, $1 billion with a ‘B,’ missing that’s supposed to be used for hurricanes and things like that and they don’t have any money.”
Trump has repeated the claim at least 4 times since, though it’s easily disproven. FEMA makes all information about its funding available on its website. And while emergency orders and executive actions can move the funds around, Congress decides how much money a given program can have. FEMA does have two programs under its authority to help migrants, but the funds are separate from those used during a disaster. But the ludicrous claim gets worse, and as Navarro pointed out, there’s more than a little irony laced in the claims.
“That is something [Trump] did in 2019,” she reminded the audience. That year, Trump’s administration shifted $271 million from the Department of Homeland Security – which included $155 million from the Disaster Relief Fund – to use in detaining and transporting undocumented immigrants. That same year, Hurricane Dorian (of the infamous Sharpie debacle) struck the coastline.
The easily debunked lie is just the latest in misleading and outright false things the former president has said. And just like the rest of us, Harris is over his toxic BS.
“it’s profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and, frankly, callousness,” she said, after considering her words, warning “Lives are literally at stake right now.”
“We’re talking about real human beings and their lives and them losing everything. Everything.” As she spoke, the co-hosts could be heard murmuring their agreement. “The idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself – this is so consistent about Donald Trump – he puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level.”
Anyone who has really been paying attention to Trump’s antics has made the assessment a million time before, but it’s validating to hear nonetheless. Decent people have been scratching their heads over the cult of Don, wondering how so many people can be duped into thinking the man has any business in office. But as unqualified as Trump is, Harris is fit and ready for the office, reminding us “The role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up, especially in a time of crisis.”