Hurricane Milton, Lies, And Presidential Politics

Have you ever wondered what’s inside the eye of a hurricane? Well, swirling around inside Hurricane Milton is none other than partisan presidential politics.

Current Events :
After Hurricane Helene decimated portions of Florida and nearly wiped Asheville, NC off the map only 2 short weeks ago, a deadly new storm is already on the horizon.

In what has been deemed a Category 5 storm with 200MPH winds, Hurricane Milton is expected to hit the western coastal cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida as early as Wednesday. With such deadly force on its way to the Sunshine State for a 2nd time in as many weeks, one might think officials would be eager to grab as much help and as many resources as possible from the federal government in anticipation of the devastation to come, right? WRONG!  

At least among one Republican official, it is.

Over the weekend, Kamala Harris telephoned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in her official capacity as vice president of the United States to offer federal assistance ahead of Hurricane Milton and its expected impact. However, DeSantis refused to answer her call.

According to NBC News, a DeSantis aide said his boss dodged the vice president’s calls because they “seemed political.”  Or, in other words, DeSantis proved he is incapable of separating Candidate Harris from Vice President Harris, assumed her motive in offering help was for personal gain, and decided he’d rather turn down very needed resources for his state than allow Ms. Harris any opportunity that might add to her popularity.

On Monday, DeSantis was asked why he prioritized political one-upmanship over doing what’s best for his state by refusing to answer the vice president’s calls.

“I didn’t know that she had called,” DeSantis eventually claimed. “I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me.” Yeah, right, Ron. The old “wrong number” trick.

Interestingly, Gov. DeSantis is not the only Republican injecting presidential politics into Hurricane Milton.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump (who also happens to be Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law), is actively spreading a rumor that the Biden/Harris administration is only offering a few hundred dollars to Americans whose homes were destroyed in Hurricane Helene, which is false.

“They are out of money in terms of the hurricane relief,” Lara Trump told Dana Bash during an appearance on CNN. “We have another hurricane heading towards Florida right now. But they have said that there is no money right now. Why don‘t they have anything in order?”

Bash corrected her and blamed a GOP misinformation campaign that has told voters President Biden and Vice President Harris have been raiding FEMA funds and handing out that money to undocumented immigrants.

“You have migrants being housed in luxury hotels in New York City,” Lara Trump argued. “We have paid so much money from our tax dollars into the crisis. That didn‘t need to happen.”

The words from Lara Trump are only part of a concerted misinformation campaign to wield Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton as political weapons against Kamala Harris. Other MAGA misinformation tactics include a rumor that President Biden has ignored calls from Georgia’s Republican governor, a false claim from Donald Trump that Kamala Harris stole $1 billion from FEMA and that money has gone ‘missing,’ as well as a big lie that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris are only offering assistance to Democratic voters in North Carolina and are ignoring Trump voters in need of help.

“I don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State [of North Carolina], going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” Trump said Monday on his Truth Social network.

It’s a sad day in the USA when bipartisanship is tossed aside during an emergency and natural disasters are used against a political opponent solely for political gain.

OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
MAGA is using Hurricane Milton for political gain.