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Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, makes transient statements as he arrives at Valdosta Regional Airport to go to areas affected by Hurricane Helene on September 30, 2024 in Valdosta, Georgia.
Michael M Santiago | Getty Pictures
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump traveled to hurricane-ravaged Georgia to ship remarks and assist distribute provides, a day after utilizing the devastating storm as a political assault on Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Trump insisted his motive for Monday’s go to to the southern metropolis of Valdosta was apolitical.
“We’re not speaking about politics proper now,” Trump mentioned, chatting with the press outdoors the badly broken brick facade of a constructing that had housed dozens of furnishings distributors.
However his presence in the important thing electoral battleground echoed his latest feedback criticizing Harris for not instantly touring to the hurricane-hit space.
Trump additionally appeared to disparage President Joe Biden by falsely claiming that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, “known as the president (however) could not get by to him.”
However Kemp mentioned that Biden had known as him on Sunday.
“The president known as me yesterday afternoon,” the governor mentioned earlier Monday. “I missed him and known as him proper again. And he simply mentioned, ‘Hey, what do you want?'”
Trump additionally mentioned in Valdosta that he lately spoke with billionaire Elon Musk Tesla and CEO of SpaceX, on utilizing Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite tv for pc web service, to assist restore communications within the area.
The Division of Homeland Safety mentioned Monday it had already anticipated 40 Starlink satellite tv for pc methods to assist communications and restoration in North Carolina.
Trump’s occasion was coordinated with Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian support group based by Franklin Graham, the son of influential evangelical chief Billy Graham.
The transient journey to Georgia got here as Harris canceled deliberate marketing campaign stops in Las Vegas to return to Washington, D.C., for a briefing with the Federal Emergency Administration Company.
Biden, in the meantime, mentioned earlier Monday that he and Harris hope so journey to hurricane-damaged areas as soon as they are often assured that their presence won’t disrupt emergency response efforts. He later mentioned he expects to make a visit Wednesday or Thursday.
Individuals throw buckets of water from a home because the streets and houses close to Peachtree Creek flood after Hurricane Helene introduced heavy rain to Atlanta, Georgia, on the night time of September 27, 2024.
Megan Varner | Getty Pictures
The hurricane’s demise toll has risen to 116 because it made landfall in North Florida as a Class 4 storm on Thursday night, in line with NBC Information’ rely.
At the very least 25 folks in Georgia have been killed, Kemp mentioned Monday morning. Deaths have additionally been reported in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Heavy rains, winds and flooding have left thousands and thousands of individuals with out electrical energy, and whole cities – together with these lots of of miles inland, akin to Asheville, North Carolina – have been submerged beneath meters of water.
On Sunday, Trump attacked Biden and Harris in politically charged phrases for his or her response to Helene.
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“They’re elevating some huge cash from dangerous folks, internet hosting fundraising occasions with their radical left loopy donors, whereas giant elements of our nation have been destroyed by that vast hurricane and are underwater with lots of people useless,” Trump mentioned throughout a marketing campaign. assembly in Erie, Pennsylvania.
“She ought to be right here. She ought to be within the space the place she ought to be. That is what she will get paid for, proper? That is what she will get paid for.’
The Harris marketing campaign and its allies had already lashed out at Trump for his feedback about Helene at a rally in Michigan on Friday, when he informed these affected by the hurricane: “We’re with you on a regular basis, and if we had been there, We might aid you, and you will be nice.”
A Harris marketing campaign social media account rapidly shared that clip to recommend Trump was downplaying the catastrophe. The clip, which was picked Monday morning, had been considered greater than 5 million occasions on X, in line with the positioning.
Trump’s allies mentioned the clip was taken out of context defended his feedbacksaying he was providing consolation to the storm’s victims.
However a number of the former president’s opponents drew parallels between the quote and Trump’s insensitive responses to previous pure disasters, together with his throwing paper towel rolls in a crowd of individuals surviving a hurricane in Puerto Rico in 2017.
Trump visits hurricane website in Georgia and bashes Harris
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