Donald Trump and Kamala Harris focused on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts on Monday, just five weeks until Election Day.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump focused their attention Monday on the recovery from Hurricane Helene that devastated parts of the Southeastern U.S.
Election Day is just over five weeks away and Monday brought new challenges for both Harris and Trump as the two candidates remain locked in a tight race in battleground states.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm before slamming into large swathes of the Southeast last week, leaving a trail of devastation in its path over parts of Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Meanwhile, across the globe, simmering tensions in the Middle East threaten a last-minute turn in a race where foreign policy has taken center.
Here are the stories you may have missed on Monday.Donald Trump Visits Storm Zone in Georgia
Georgia and North Carolina, two of the most important battleground states in the presidential race, were devasted by Hurricane Helene.
At least 116 people were killed in the storms, with about 600 others unaccounted for. Floods washed away entire towns in the Western parts of North Carolina, with residents of the Asheville area being left without power and communication.
The storm has passed, but the recovery could take years, officials said. The Biden administration’s response to the hurricane will be under a microscope—and could pose a crucial test to Harris’ leadership abilities in the coming weeks.
During a visit to Valdosta, Georgia, Trump sought to avoid talking politics. While he acknowledged that the storm struck with the backdrop of a heated president race, he said “none of that matters” during a time when “our fellow citizens cry out in need.”
But on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump took on a different tone, taking aim at President Joe Biden and Harris’ handling of the crisis. Harris has “no clue what she is doing”, he wrote in a post accusing Harris of staging a photo posted to X showing her on the phone with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEFMA) Director Deanne Criswell.
“Biden and Harris abandoned Americans in Afghanistan. They sacrificed Americans to an Open Border, and now, they have left Americans to drown in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and elsewhere in the South”, he wrote. His campaign has also accused Biden of “sleeping” at his beach house at the storm hit.
