The American Red Cross has issued a warning against dangerous misinformation about emergency help and instructions concerning the nation's devastating destruction of storms and flooding.
The organization issued the alert as Donald Trump continues to baselessly claim that the federal government is favoring Democratic districts with special aid and ignoring Republican areas.
Trump even claimed that Republican governors couldn't get President Biden on the phone after Hurricane Helene hit. Georgia's GOP Governor Brian Kemp and South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster said that was absolutely not the case, and praised the federal response in the wake of the storm.
"He just said, 'Hey, what do you need?'" Kemp told reporters of his call with Biden last Monday.
"I told him, you know, we got what we need ... He offered that if there's other things we need, just to call him directly, which, I appreciate. But we've had FEMA embedded with us since, you know, a day or two before the storm hit," Kemp added.
The Red Cross warned: "Misinformation can spread quickly after a disaster, causing confusion and distrust within communities struggling to recover. Unfortunately, we're seeing this during our response to Hurricane Helene."
It added: "Sharing rumors online without first vetting the source and verifying facts ultimately hurts people — people who have just lost their homes, neighborhoods, and, in some cases, loved ones. They are already unsure where to turn for help, and spreading misinformation only adds to that uncertainty. It also disrupts our ability to deliver critical aid and affects the disaster workers who have put their own lives on hold to assist those in need," it added.
Ironically, former Trump aides have come forward to accuse him of withholding emergency funds and aid from Democratic areas when he was in the White House.
He resisted sending funds to California following wildfires, for example, and only relented when aides tallied up the positive votes for him in some sections of the blue state, former aides told Politico and E&E News.
Olivia Troye, who was Vice President Mike Pence's homeland security adviser, recounted that Trump initially ordered the then administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency not to send "any money" to California.
"We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas ... to show him these are people who voted for you," said Mark Harvey, Trump's senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff.
Troye noted to the New York Times: "We saw numerous instances — this was just one — where [emergency aid] was politicized. It was red states vs. blue states."
In 2019 Trump ordered FEMA to pay 100 percent of disaster costs in Florida, but threatened two months later to veto a bill that would have done the same in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, where more than 3,000 people were killed by Hurricane Maria.
Trump's campaign spokesman denied all the accounts of Trump withholding funds from Democratic areas.
You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 3, 2024
It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it. https://t.co/FuPHwtlZuu
Right-wing conspiracy theories are also muddying delivery of disaster aid, with false warnings on social media that the federal government is out to steal land or fine-tuning hurricanes to specifically target Republican areas, Associated Press has reported.
The Red Cross statement didn't mention misinformation by Trump, but did list some of the falsehoods about it and disaster aid, including that staffers aren't at the scenes of disasters, are "taking over shelters" and are "confiscating" donated goods.
Misinformation can spread quickly after a disaster, causing confusion and distrust within communities struggling to recover. Unfortunately, we’re seeing this during our response to Hurricane Helene.
— American Red Cross (@RedCross) October 3, 2024
Sharing rumors online without first vetting the source and verifying facts… pic.twitter.com/nSfvE12JBc
