Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, got caught in a bald-faced lie Monday after falsely asserting that President Joe Biden had not contacted Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the state and several others last week.
Trump made the bogus remarks during a campaign appearance at a damaged furniture store in Valdosta, in south Georgia, where he told a phony story that Kemp “has been calling the president, but has not been able to get him.”
Trump, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, praised Kemp, saying, “The governor’s doing a very good job,” while claiming that the real issue was Kemp’s difficulty in reaching Biden by phone.
However, earlier that day, Georgia’s Republican governor clarified that he had initially missed President Joe Biden’s call but later spoke with him on Sunday night to discuss the state’s emergency needs in the wake of the disaster.
“He just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’” Kemp told reporters about his conversation with Biden, which took place the day before Trump’s false claim. “And I told him, you know, we got what we need. We will work through the federal process.”
Kemp mentioned that Biden assured him he could reach out directly if any additional resources were needed, saying Biden told him “that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly — which, I appreciate that.”
He also noted that he had been “playing phone tag” with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, but still commended the bipartisan cooperation in responding to the disaster.
It was not clear whether Trump had called either Kemp or North Carolina’s governor himself, but observers said that was not likely because Trump had no power to offer federal aid.
The day before the storm made landfall, the White House issued an emergency declaration for Georgia, allowing federal funds to be quickly allocated for protective measures across all affected counties in the state.
Biden also granted emergency declarations for Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama. Additionally, he approved further disaster declaration requests from Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina to fund debris removal and offer direct financial assistance to storm victims.
However, Biden and Harris had not yet visited the disaster zones, as they were awaiting safety assessments from FEMA, which advised postponing visits due to the hazardous conditions caused by flooding and downed trees and power lines.
“The president wants to get in there as soon as they can,” said Craig Fugate, former FEMA administrator under Barack Obama, according to Politico. “We were, in many cases, having to make that judgment call: ‘Yeah, we’re at a point where it’s stable enough that them coming in is not going to be a disruption.’”
Despite this, Trump suggested on Sunday night that Harris should be in the affected areas where the storm had struck.
While Valdosta lawmakers commended Trump for his visit on Monday, they also noted he should have waited until more order had been restored following the devastation caused by the storm, according to reports.
David Paulison, who led FEMA under former President George W. Bush, criticized Trump’s visit to Georgia.
Trump also started a GoFundMe on Monday described as an “official response” for “MAGA supporters” to financially support storm victims.
As of Wednesday morning, over 24,000 people have donated nearly $4 million. Two of the top donors are Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Steve Witkoff, who gave $500,000 each. Loeffler served as a Republican senator from Georgia, a state hit by the hurricane. Witkoff is a Bronx-born real estate mogul and longtime golf buddy of Trump, known for his efforts to humanize the former president publicly.
Questions have been raised about whether the funds will get to hurricane victims.
Harris reiterated that she is following established federal protocols by not traveling to the affected areas as Trump had in Georgia.
“President Trump coming, I’m not sure how that helps because he has no power right now. But if people are very supportive of him, then maybe it’s good for him to be there also and talk to people that support him,” he said, according to Politico. “That’s not bad. But it does eat up resources on the ground. You’ve got to be judicious with it.”
Throughout the disaster, Harris has remained stationed at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington. There, she told reporters on Sunday night that she had spoken with Kemp, along with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, as well as other local officials on the ground.
“I have shared with them that we will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” Harris said in a statement. “And I’ve shared with them that I plan to be on the ground as soon as possible. But as soon as possible without disrupting any emergency response operations, because that must be the highest priority and the first order of business.”
By Monday afternoon, upon hearing Trump’s misleading claims in the media, Biden expressed outrage from the White House, blasting both Trump’s dishonesty and his apparent indifference to the critical situation in Georgia, where the storm left dozens dead.
“He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office. “I don’t know why he does this. And the reason I get so angry about — I don’t care about what he says about me, I care what he what he communicates to people that are in need, implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are.”
On the day of Trump’s Georgia visit, Biden said that more than 3,600 federal personnel had been deployed to assist in the multi-state recovery efforts.
On Monday, President Biden announced he would visit North Carolina on Wednesday to survey storm damage there and then signed off by calling Trump’s claims “simply not true, and it’s irresponsible.”
Hurricane Helene struck the Florida Panhandle on Thursday night before tearing through Georgia, where it left more than 500,000 residents without power. The storm then moved north, triggering record flooding across eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.
The death toll stands at 116 across six states, with one-third of the victims stemming from the disaster in North Carolina, according to NBC News.
Before arriving in Georgia, Trump told reporters that Biden was “sleeping” and criticized Harris for being “out somewhere campaigning, looking for money” just a day earlier — while he was rallying in Pennsylvania.
At the campaign event in Valdosta, Trump emphasized that it wasn’t the time for political games amid a deadly natural disaster, even as the election was just five weeks away.
“At a time like this, when a crisis hits, when our fellow citizens cry out in need, none of that matters,” Trump told a small crowd of his supporters. “We are not talking about politics now. We have to all get together and get this solved.”
However, despite his claims of putting politics aside, Trump was actively using social media to launch political attacks against Harris while also criticizing the federal response to the storm.
In one case, Vice President Harris shared a Sept. 29 post on X, stating that she had been briefed by the FEMA director. The post was accompanied by a photo of Harris on Air Force Two, working the phones and jotting down notes about ongoing emergency efforts.
Trump and other Republicans then shared the post in an attempt to ridicule Harris, suggesting that the sheets of paper in front of her appeared blank and asserting that the headset she wore wasn’t connected to anything.
“Another FAKE and STAGED photo from someone who has no clue what she is doing,” Trump posted. “You have to plug the cord into the phone for it to work!”
The Harris campaign has not responded to requests for comments on the matter.
Before heading to Georgia, one of the critical swing states, Trump claimed on Truth Social that the federal government and Democratic governors, including Cooper in North Carolina, were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
When NBC News inquired about that comment following his news conference in Valdosta, Trump replied, “Just take a look,” without further explanation.
In an interview with his former adviser Kellyanne Conway before his visit to Valdosta, Trump accused the Biden-Harris administration of “going out of their way to hurt” Trump supporters in rural North Carolina and neglecting to offer assistance to Republican areas of the state.
“They’re not getting water, they’re not getting anything,” Trump claimed in the interview, which aired Monday night.
Trump’s comments in Valdosta pointed to a truckload of supplies he brought to the state, including water and fuel. The supplies were reportedly organized by North Carolina-based Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian charity run by Franklin Graham, the 72-year-old son of the late Southern Baptist preacher Billy Graham.
“We brought a lot of things … trailers, many trailers,” Trump claimed. “I brought a lot with us, many, many wagons of resources,” Trump said as he shook hands with a small crowd amid the ruins of Chez What Furniture Store. “Just about everything you can think of, and Franklin Graham is here and he’s helping us to distribute everything.”
