WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s top disaster relief official said Sunday that false claims and conspiracy theories about the federal response to Hurricane Helene — spread most prominently by Donald Trump — are “demoralizing” aid workers and creating fear in people who need recovery assistance.
“It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do. We have had the complete support of the state,” she said, referring to North Carolina. misinformation are clouding the recovery effort from Hurricane Helene.
Republicans, led by the former president, have helped foster a frenzy of misinformation over the past week among the communities most devastated by Helene, promoting a number of false claims, including that Washington is intentionally withholding aid to people in Republican areas.
Trump accused FEMA of spending all its money to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally, while other critics assert that the government spends too much on Israel, Ukraine and other foreign countries.
There also are outlandish theories that include warnings from far-right extremist groups that officials plan to bulldoze storm-damaged communities and seize the land from residents. A falsehood pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., asserts that Washington used weather control technology to steer Helene toward Republican voters in order to tilt the presidential election toward Democrat Kamala Harris.
Criswell said on ABC’s “This Week” that such baseless claims around the response to Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to at least 230, have created a sense of fear and mistrust from residents against the thousands of FEMA employees and volunteers on the ground.
“We’ve had the local officials helping to push back on this dangerous — truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear of trying to reach out and help us or to register for help,” she said.
President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday that his administration “will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders –- regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
Meantime, FEMA is preparing for Hurricane Milton, which rapidly intensified into a Category 5 storm on Monday as it heads toward Florida.
“We’re working with the state there to understand what their requirements are going to be, so we can have those in place before it makes landfall,” she said.
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Bullshit. You guys even got the storm sixe wrong, calling it a cat 1 when in fact it is a cat 5.
I’m
From NC and have friends and family still there.
FEmA is a joke. Withholding supplies that everyday Americans are trying to deliver, fema sucks. Is useless and should be defunded.governors from other states have been more helpful than this tit of an agency. .
Since when does the editor allow opinions? The article should have read there are theories. Not outlandish. Regardless of what side you are on, you should report facts not opinions. The AP has gotten sloppy. See that might be a fact but it is in this case opinion because someone else might not consider it sloppy. The AP has started putting opinions in their articles. See that is fact because you used the word outlandish which as people might be thinking it, not everyone does and no one was quoted saying it.
For someone being so dedicated to the one that “remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats”, you don’t really do a great job. We al noticed the word unbiased…. Just sayin.
I didn’t know that the trucker got there news from such a lying news outlet like the AP. Biden and Harris did use FEMA money to pay for illegal’s. They said they may not have enough to finish the year out. Waiting on congress to return to get more money. That came from FEMA. Harris is also giving over a hundred million to Lebanon , but she can only give $750.00 to the hurricane survivors. Dam liberals lies
Well, his boss just last week, said they were out of funds. And local reporting via video shows FEMA , is missing in so many places.
Trump wasnt spreading rumors. The local people were telling the stories.
Did you silence me too?
I can guarantee that your story has created a firestorm. I know that I commented and it hasn’t been posted. It tends to make it look like your editors are as biased as the AP news organization. Tends to make you as dirty as a garbage truck.
I don’t need to listen to a Washington DC insider spreading her BS about what is happening in Appalachia. The people themselves are speaking about the failures of a bureaucratic nightmare caused by these political hucksters and hacks.
This woman is a modern equivalent to Hitler’s Goebels. These main stream media, and failing newspaper conglomerate blow hards, are no longer the heralds standing on the walls warning us of dangers, instead they are the lap dogs of the evils wishing to destroy our Constitutional Rights and freedoms.
For trying to share this, I was considered a bad apple or like a scammer hitting on women. But like I told the person who censored my freedom of speech and my comment, “I am not a bad apple. I am an apple that doesn’t like worms trying to get under my skin!”
People November is coming. Get out and vote! Make it too big to rig. God bless America!