Harris, Trump turn focus to Hurricane Helene relief efforts

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump shifted their attention Monday away from standard campaigning to focus on the emergency response to the fallout from Hurricane Helene, which devastated a region that includes the election battleground states of North Carolina and Georgia.

Mr. Trump traveled to Valdosta, Georgia, to deliver relief aid and survey the damage with state and local officials.

“Throughout the region, our hearts are with you, and we are going to be with you as long as you need,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference with the Rev. Franklin Graham, whose nondenominational evangelical Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse is providing aid to the hurricane victims.

Mr. Trump arrived with relief supplies.

“We have a lot of truckloads of different items, from oil to water to all sorts of equipment that’s going to help,” he said. “We’re here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and with all of those suffering.”

He said it was a time to put politics aside.

“As you know, our country is in the final weeks of a hard-fought national election, but in a time like this, when a crisis hits, when our fellow citizens cry out in need, none of that matters,” Mr. Trump said. “We are not talking about politics now. We have to all get together and get this solved.”

Mr. Graham, who has led Samaritan’s Purse’s humanitarian relief missions for more than 40 years, appealed for volunteers and support.

“Sometimes when a storm like this comes, people think, ‘Well, maybe God is mad at us. Maybe this is his judgment.’ No, God loves us,” Mr. Graham said. “How do I know that? Because the Bible tells us that God loves us and cares for us. Yes, there are storms in life — but God will take us through those storms if we put our faith and trust in his son, Jesus Christ.”

Ms. Harris cut short a West Coast campaign swing to return to Washington for a briefing on recovery efforts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She said the federal government would provide whatever assistance communities needed in response to the devastation.

“We will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” Ms. Harris said at FEMA headquarters. “I do believe the true character of the nation is revealed in moments of hardship.”

She called the damage and loss of life “heartbreaking” and thanked FEMA employees for their efforts.

“You are so selfless in the way that you serve our country,” Ms. Harris said as she turned away from the cameras to address workers behind her. “You all do that work around the clock as though these are your family members.”

Less than 40 days before Election Day, Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump are locked in a tight battle in swing states, including Georgia and North Carolina, which were hit hard by the storm. The storm has killed more than 120 people across six states, with more than 600 missing as of Monday.

In a social media post before arriving in Georgia, Mr. Trump raised doubts about whether the Biden administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, are committed to helping people in Trump-friendly areas.

“I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” Mr. Trump said. “MAGA!”

He targeted a photo Ms. Harris posted online of herself talking on the phone on the vice presidential plane, with a caption saying FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell had just briefed her on the storm’s damage.

“Another FAKE and STAGED photo from someone who has no clue what she is doing,” Mr.Trump said. “They have left Americans to drown in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and elsewhere in the South.”

In Georgia, he tempered that message.

“We do need some help from the federal government,” Mr. Trump said in Valdosta. “I am sure they are going to come through, but [Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp] has been calling the president [and] hasn’t been able to get him. But he will come through, I am sure.”

The Harris campaign said she had spoken with Mr. Cooper and contacted Mr. Kemp and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican.

On Monday, Mr. Kemp, a Republican, said he talked with President Biden on Sunday.

“The president just called me yesterday afternoon,” Mr. Kemp said. “I missed him and called him right back, and he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’

“I told him we got what we need. We will work through the federal process. He offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which, I appreciate that,” Mr. Kemp said.

Mr. Kemp said he had been playing “phone tag” with Ms. Harris, but the pair connected while the vice president was flying back East on Air Force Two.

Ms. Harris was raising money at political events in California, and Mr. Biden was at his beach house in Delaware while the storm ripped through the Southeast.

The president reacted angrily when a reporter asked why neither Mr. Biden nor Ms. Harris was physically in Washington over the weekend, given the need to direct the federal response.

“I was commanding. I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well,” Mr. Biden said. “I commanded. It’s called a telephone.”

The White House refuted the idea that Mr. Biden wasn’t taking Mr. Kemp’s calls. Officials noted that both men said they had spoken with each other.

“If the governor would like to speak to the president again, of course, the president will take his call,” Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall said at the White House.

Ms. Criswell traveled to Florida, Georgia and North Carolina over the past three days, and Mr. Biden directed her to remain in hard-hit Asheville, North Carolina.

“I want them to know we’re not leaving until the job is done,” Mr. Biden said.

The White House said Monday that 10 federal search and rescue teams were working in impacted areas and another nine teams were on the way, for a total of more than 900 personnel.

Mr. Biden said he expects to ask Congress for supplemental funding to help recovery efforts.

Lawmakers are on recess until November, and Mr. Biden said he “may” consider asking Congress to return to deliver storm funding.

Later, Mr. Biden brought reporters into the Oval Office, where he was on a video conference call with Mr. Cooper and Ms. Criswell. He announced that he would go to North Carolina on Wednesday, visit the FEMA Operations Center in Raleigh and take an aerial tour of the devastation.

He said he would travel to Georgia and Florida “as soon as possible” to survey the damage.

Mr. Biden responded angrily when a reporter asked about Mr. Trump’s claim that the federal government wasn’t helping Republican areas.

“He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Mr. Biden said. “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.”

He again defended spending the weekend at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, by saying it is 90 minutes from the White House.

“I was on the phone the whole time,” he said.