Donald Trump came under fire Monday after not condemning an armed gunman who was arrested for allegedly threatening FEMA workers trying to help North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene. Trump also continued to spread lies about FEMA and the federal government’s response to that devastating and deadly event.
A reporter told Trump about the man who had been arrested, and that his threats had caused FEMA to “stand down” for safety reasons, which inhibited their ability to help victims. He asked the ex-president if it was “helping” the recovery efforts “to keep making these claims that FEMA is not doing their job?”
Trump defended his lies and false attacks on the agency, and immediately replied, “I think you have to let people know how they’re doing.”
The ex-president, CNN reported earlier this month, “has delivered a barrage of lies and distortions about the federal response to Hurricane Helene.” The network noted he “has been one of the country’s leading deceivers on the subject. Over a span of six days, in public comments and social media posts, Trump has used his powerful megaphone to endorse or invent false or unsubstantiated claims.”
“If they were doing a great job, I think we should say that too,” Trump also told reporters Monday, “because I think they should be rewarded, but if they’re not doing, does that mean that if they’re doing a poor job, we’re supposed to not say it? These people are entitled to say it. And these are honest people behind us. If we were doing well, they would be saying they did a good job.”
There has been strong bipartisan praise of the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Helene. Democratic and Republican governors impacted by Helene have complimented FEMA as well.
“Some of the claims swirling around federal responders have been amplified by former president Donald Trump as he seeks to return to the White House,” The Washington Postreported earlier this month. “Trump has alleged, without evidence, that the federal government was ‘going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas’ and repeatedly claimed that FEMA was diverting disaster relief money for migrants.”
The arrested man charged with threatening FEMA workers, William Jacob Parsons, was found by law enforcement officers “armed with a handgun and a rifle.” He had “posted a message on Facebook calling for people to ‘overtake’ the FEMA site in Lake Lure based on what he says were social media reports that FEMA was withholding supplies from hurricane survivors,” WGHP had reported.
“Upon arriving at Lake Lure, however, Parsons said he realized the situation was different than he had imagined,” WGHP also reported.
“I went up and saw that there was absolutely nothing there, so I stayed, and I volunteered all day,” said Parsons, who “insists he was simply exercising his Second Amendment rights.”'
In Tennessee, FEMA workers were also threatened, as this local news report shows:
Meanwhile, on Monday Trump had also falsely claimed, “you’ve obviously seen nothing but, uh, you know, very bad statements coming out about the job that FEMA and this administration has done having to do with this area North Carolina as a whole and by the way, other states also, they’re also complaining.”
And he falsely said, “look, a lot of the [FEMA] money is gone, they don’t have any money, they have to have they have to have a meeting in Washington, a special meeting in Washington to get money. It’s all gone. They’ve spent it on illegal migrants.”
“Many of them are murderers, many of them are drug dealers, many of them come out of mental institutions and insane asylums, and many of them are terrorists,” Trump falsely charged, “and they spent money to bring these people into our country and they don’t have money to take care of the people from North Carolina and other states.”
The Associated Press reported that Trump was “repeating the falsehood that the response was hampered because FEMA spent its budget helping people who crossed the border illegally, a claim that was debunked weeks ago by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., who stood behind Trump as he spoke.”
Trump also went on to claim that “our FEMA,” meaning when he was president, did a “really incredible job,” but that same agency under the Biden-Harris administration did not.
Progressive news site Tennessee Hollernoted: “Trump expresses zero remorse about FEMA workers being threatened by armed gunmen (including in Carter County, TN) — and immediately continues to lie about the response efforts.”
“Trump has endangered and destroyed countless lives with COVID, the climate, and the January 6 insurrection. Now he threatens American citizens again, encouraging violence against FEMA workers who bring aid during a crisis. The only ‘enemy from within’ is Donald Trump,” The Lincoln Project wrote, referring to Trump’s repeated attacks on Democrats, including one on Sunday.
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Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
