Angry Joe Biden rips ‘lying’ Trump for criticizing his Hurricane Helene response and defends spending weekend at the beach
A indignant President Joe Biden blasted Donald Trump for claiming he was giving the stiff-arm to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp over hurricane relief Monday and accused his rival of lying.
He hit back amid the ultra high-stakes clash over storm recovery, with Trump jetting to Georgia and claiming Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were mismanaging the crisis. He even said Biden was blowing off a key figure in the response, Kemp – an occasional Trump critic who is supporting his campaign.
‘He’s been calling the president, he hasn’t been able to get him,’ Trump claimed on a trip to Valdosta, Georgia.
That comment was directly contradicted by Kemp’s own comments Monday about his conversation with Biden Sunday, and Biden teed off on his rival when he got asked about it.
‘He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying. The governor told him he’s lying. I’ve spoken to the governor, spent time with him, and he told him he’s lying. I don’t know why he does it … that’s simply not true, and it’s irresponsible,’ Biden said.
He also defended his decision to spend most of the weekend in Delaware even as the wrath of the storm was unfolding.
President Joe Biden said Donald Trump was ‘lying’ when his rival said the Georgia governor hadn’t been able to get through to him. Gov. Brian Kemp’s comments about speaking to Biden contradicted Trump, as the response to Hurricane Helene rocked the political campaign
‘Come on. Stop with the game will you,’ he fumed at a reporter who asked about it. He said where he lived ‘it’s ’90 miles from here, okay. And I was on the phone the whole time,’ Biden said.
He also defended the positioning of resources before the storm, which had impacts far beyond Florida where it made landfall. ‘It’s hard to get it form Point A to Point B,’ he said, mentioning impassable roads and other challenges. ‘If I sound frustrated, I am,’ he said.
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Biden had also defended the trip earlier in the day when he got asked ‘Why weren’t you and Vice President Harris here in Washington commanding this this weekend?’
‘I was commanding it. I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well. I commanded it,’ he said, before snapping: ‘It’s called a telephone.’
Trump levelled the accusation while getting the jump on a visit to tour hurricane damage, with two politically crucial states – Georgia and North Carolina – getting hammered by the storm with the death count mounting and massive damage.
Former President Donald Trump got a jump on Biden and VP Kamala Harris by visiting Georgia
Trump was greeted by Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, on the ground in Georgia
‘The president just called me yesterday afternoon. I missed him and I called him right back,’ Kemp said. ‘And he just said, “Hey, what do you need?”‘
Biden had earlier taken a preventive shot by saying he didn’t want to do anything to disrupt recovery efforts, and the White House spoke to the large ‘footprint’ the president brings on such a visit. Trump also brings a phalanx of security with him when he travels.
‘I also want you to know I’m committed to traveling to impacted areas as soon as possible. But, I’ve been told that it’d be disruptive if I did it right now, we will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any, any of the response assets needed to deal with this crisis,’ Biden said Monday morning. ‘My first responsibility is to get all the help needed to those impacted areas.’
By the evening, Biden announced that he would go to North Carolina Wednesday.
Harris, meanwhile, flew back to Washington from a West Coast swing Monday, cancelling some scheduled campaign events and attending a FEMA briefing.
Trump, a New York transplant who now lives in Florida, is well versed in the long line of politicians who have seen an election season storm reshuffle a race.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s embrace of Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy is widely seen as giving a boost to the Democrat’s reelection. Former New York Mayor John Lindsay lost a Republican primary following a winter snowstorm. And George W. Bush’s popularity tanked after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Biden, 81, insists ‘I was commanding’ when asked why he wasn’t at the White House as Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the U.S.
President Joe Biden said he expects to visit the areas devastated by Hurricane Helene this week as he defended spending the weekend at his beach house when the storm hit.
‘I’ve told the governor of North Carolina I’ll go down and I expect to be down there by Wednesday or Thursday when it is clear for me,’ he told reporters at the White House.
‘I’m committed to traveling to impacted areas as soon as possible, but I’ve been told that it would be disruptive if I did it right now,’ he noted.
The president became defensive when asked how he was in command while spending the weekend at his Rehoboth Beach vacation home while the hurricane was devastating parts of the South.
‘I was commanding, I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday, and the day before, as well. I commanded, it’s called a telephone,’ he said.
‘I was commanding, I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday, and the day before, as well. I commanded, it’s called a telephone,’ President Joe Biden said
He noted he spoke with the governors of Georgia and North Carolina, two of the states hardest hit by the storm.
At least 121 deaths in six states have been attributed to the storm — a toll that climbed Monday as a clearer picture emerged of the devastation it inflicted on an area stretching from Florida’s Gulf Coast northward to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.
More than 600 are missing.
‘We’re not leaving until the job is done,’ Biden said.
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Roads and I-64, a major interstate, have been wiped out in parts of these areas, making it difficult to bring in necessary supplies. Local and federal officials, along with the National Guard, are racing to bring relief.
More than 460,000 people are without power and more than 1,000 had taken refuge in 24 shelters.
Search and rescue teams from 19 states and the US government have converged on North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said, adding that some roads could take months to repair.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump heads to Georgia on Monday to address the efforts to help victims of the hurricane.
Biden refused to comment when asked if the former president would be disruptive.
‘I don’t have any idea,’ he told reporters.
Flooding in Asheville, N.C., caused by Hurricane Helene
And Kamala Harris is cancelling her planned campaign stops for Monday in order to return to Washington D.C. for briefings on Hurricane Helene.
She will leave Las Vegas in the morning and be in Washington for a briefing at FEMA on Monday afternoon, according to her campaign. She will also visit the devastated areas when it won’t disrupt the emergency response efforts.
Damage estimates ranged from $15billion to more than $100billion, insurers and forecasters said over the weekend, as water systems, communications and critical transportation routes were affected.
Property damage and lost economic output will become clearer as officials assess the destruction.
Roughly 2.7 million customers throughout the South were without power on Sunday, a US Energy Department official said, down 40 per cent from Friday after unprecedented storm surges, ferocious winds and perilous conditions extended hundreds of miles inland.
