North Carolina’s Second-Largest Newspaper Condemns Trump For ‘Ridiculous’ Hurricane Helene Response: ‘Spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together’
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-helene-hurricane-newspaper-editorial-b2624687.html
Posted by T_Shurt
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As per [original article](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-helene-hurricane-newspaper-editorial-b2624687.html) 📰:
– Donald Trump is now facing condemnation from the editorial board of [North Carolina’s second-largest newspaper](https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article293483114.html) as he continues to take criticism for politicizing the response to Hurricane Helene across the US southeast.
Trump was in Georgia last week to survey hurricane damage alongside the state’s governor, Brian Kemp — a one-time foe who has returned to the Trumpworld fold, like many Republicans, seeking political cover.
On Monday, he attacked Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration in a Truth Social post for supposedly “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas”, a false charge. A Republican lawmaker representing three counties in hard-hit western North Carolina — which is largely rural, and politically trends conservative — has called it a “junk” conspiracy.
He’d go further in an interview with Kellyanne Conway, one of his most ardent truth-twisters on cable TV before she was largely exiled from the networks, accusing Harris of trying to “hurt” western North Carolina residents.
On Saturday, Trump’s claims provoked a response from one of the state’s most widely-read newspapers, the Charlotte Observer. The Observer’s editorial board slammed the ex-president for his lies about the federal response to Helene, which is believed to have killed more than 100 across the state.
“This is not a situation to capitalize on for political gain. But former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together,” read the newspaper’s editorial.
“There’s no evidence to support any of those ridiculous claims. And by every indication, state and federal agencies have been working to help people in need,” it continued.
Adding that the hurricane-ravaged areas of the state were not a “political football” for the Trump campaign, the Observer also swiped at the state’s Trump-endorsed lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, for spreading the conspiracies. Robinson’s reasoning for doing so is clear: he’s at the center of the complete implosion of his campaign over a shocking CNN investigation which found that a screen name and email address linked to the sitting lieutenant governor was linked to a wide array of disgusting and vile comments on a porn site.
Harris herself was in the state on Saturday and visited Asheville — a city hit by substantial flooding during the storm.
“We’re here for the long haul,” she told a volunteer leader.
Robinson also received special mention in the piece for his failure to show up for a key vote to declare a state of emergency, part of his role as lieutenant governor, while he continued to campaign for the governorship. The vote still passed without his participation.
Hundreds are believed dead after Helene caused massive flooding and triggered landslides that wiped out bridges and homes. It’s now the second-deadliest hurricane to strike the US in more than a half-century.
[Federal aid approved for Helene survivors has already passed $45m](https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20241004/biden-harris-administration-provides-more-45-million-hurricane-helene), and that number may continue to rise. FEMA’s website indicates that the disaster relief agency has already distributed more than 1.5m meals and more than 12.6m liters of drinking water as part of aid efforts. President Joe Biden further announced the deployment of 500 National Guard members equipped with “advanced technological assets” to western North Carolina.
The agency has even been forced to put out a separate webpage to counter misinformation and conspiracies surrounding Hurricane Helene relief, including charges from right-wing social media accounts claiming that aid is being distributed on the basis of ethnicity.
Thom Tillis, the state’s senior member in the US Senate, addressed the ex-president’s fake claims on Sunday.
“We can have a discussion about the failure of this administration’s border policies and the billions of dollars it’s costing, but right now — not yet — is it affecting the flow of resources to western North Carolina,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation.
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That’s all this ‘man’ can do…. Sorry guys! Make sure you all vote wisely so this orange felon can serve his sentence and common sense can come back to America again 🫶☺️
Trump is pure evil.Loved by millions of stupid and evil people.
If you’re dumb MAGA, you’re still not following that every ounce of Trump rhetoric is false, self-serving and hateful. This country needs so bad to kick this guy off the news (please vote) and put him in prison for trying to ruin this country for his own survival. It’s always about him until we make him answer for his shameful behavior.
Chump is a mowon!
Trump + maga = stochastic terrorists
Stochastic terrorism: Stochastic terrorism is a form of political violence instigated by hostile public rhetoric directed at a group or an individual. Unlike incitement to terrorism, stochastic terrorism is accomplished with indirect, vague or coded language, which grants the instigator plausible deniability for any associated violence.
“Divider in Chief”
To Donald watching this horrible suffering is just like Jan 6, where’s the popcorn.
Not to mention the fact that spreading misinformation breeds distrust for the very organizations sent to help, and can result in even greater loss of life. Extremely unpresidential behavior, truly an embarrassment that he is even a candidate
He is good at dividing then bringing people together with falsehoods
’tis his modus operandi… just figure it out new? Shame on you!
well surprise, surprise, suuuuuurprise .
Imagine what the federal response would be if he had won in 2020. He would literally deny the that the hurricane was serious. He’d say that it was more of a thunderstorm and that the death tolls are “fake news”. That would cause the entire MAGA media from Fox to Newsmax to back him up.
I’m not joking in this comment. This isn’t an exaggeration for comedic effect. It’s just what would happen.
“If it helps to feed my ravenous, hateful, gullible, maga lemming base, I’m saying it. Oh, and watch out for 1/6 part 2!!!”
But that’s his super power he’s the great divider.
It’s all he has to offer. He’s a broken man, saddled with insecurities and driven by an unrelenting selfishness. He knows nothing of service. Because to truly serve, you have to care about others more than you do yourself. And for him, that’s simply impossible.
He doesn’t even care that he’s hampering relief efforts or endangering people, he’s just interested in scraping up every last point he can get by riling people up. Because that’s all he has to work with, angry cultists.
This guy lies when the truth sounds better, and easier to tell .
Don’t worry NC will still vote 4 him. People do get the government they deserve.
More of this please, media.
I hate cowardly editors. They are LIES.
Hate – divides/fractures
Love – adds/cohesion
Good.
He’s an unconscionable evil monster.
And his stupid followers buy it all! No matter how obviously false and illogical.