The next phase of the US election campaign is coming right at us and it’s even nastier than the last. As hurricanes Milton and Helene rolled in to Florida and North Carolina and at least four other states, bringing tornadoes, storm surges, and miles of destruction, Donald Trump’s team poured out new attack lines blaming the government (aka the Democrats), for the bad weather and for not doing enough to deal with its devastation.
In a downpour of misinformation, Trump baselessly claimed that Harris “wined and dined in San Francisco, and all of the people in North Carolina … no helicopters”. The stats told a different story, that the National Guard had completed 146 flight missions, resulting in the rescue of 538 people and 150 pets.
Other allegations came thick and fast including that the national disaster fund had been spent on illegal migrants not those in desperate need because of storm damage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was forced to set the record straight and set up a fact-checking channel on its website. Meanwhile, Georgian Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, not known for her thoughtful approach to national emergencies, asserted that “they could control the weather”.
