Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Thursday pushed back against claims that the Biden administration is withholding Hurricane Helene relief from Republican areas.
Some of the hardest-hit areas in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are red counties that supported former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
While touring Helene’s devastation earlier this week, Mr. Trump accused North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and the Biden administration of refusing to offer more aid to the region for political reasons.
Mr. Trump said Mr. Cooper and President Biden were “going out of their way not to help people in Republican areas.”
The Harris campaign pushed back on Thursday, without directly addressing his claims of political partisanship.
Instead, the campaign pointed to news stories alleging Mr. Trump was “flagrantly partisan” as president when doling out disaster relief. The campaign then linked to an E&E News story that alleged Mr. Trump had to be shown voter data before deciding to release disaster aid.
The article heavily quotes Mark Harvey, who was Mr. Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council, that Mr. Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after the deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings. Mr. Harvey told the outlet that Mr. Trump changed his mind after being told that Orange County, California, a Republican stronghold, was heavily impacted by the fires.
“Trump’s own former aides just revealed that Trump was the one who was ‘flagrantly partisan in response to disasters as president — with one aide saying Trump had to be shown voter data in order to release disaster aid,” the Harris campaign said.
Mr. Biden commented on the E&E story on social media.
“You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you,” Mr. Biden wrote on X. “It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy [Mr. Trump] knows nothing about it.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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