the essential
While Hurricane Milton is expected to pass through Florida in the coming hours, the American political class is torn apart over the management of natural disasters. A battle of press releases, small sentences on the networks and disinformation, less than a month before the presidential election.
Milton continues to approach dangerously close to Florida, where it is expected to make landfall during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. The hurricane could be “the worst storm” to hit this peninsula “in a century”, according to US President Joe Biden.
After Hurricane Helene in September, another natural disaster threatens the United States, in the middle of the presidential campaign. The opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to tear each other apart with press releases, small sentences on the networks, and disinformation.
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Republicans are spreading false information
After Hélène’s visit, Republican candidate Donald Trump was quick to accuse the federal state, led by Democrats, of having done too little, too late, to provide assistance to the victims. The candidate notably accused the Democrats of having “stolen money” from the federal natural disaster response agency (Fema), “in order to be able to give it to their illegal immigrants.”
And Donald Trump added this Monday, October 7: “The response to the hurricane [Hélène] by Kamala Harris the liar is now ranked the worst fightback in history, he wrote. North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and others will remember this by voting for Trump.”
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Democrats denigrate Trump’s record
“Don’t you have any empathy for people’s suffering?” replied her Democratic rival in the November election, during an interview this Tuesday evening. The day before, Kamala Harris criticized the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, for not having taken her on the phone on September 24, at the worst moment of storm Helene.
“People are desperate for support right now, and playing political games, in the height of an emergency, is completely irresponsible and selfish,” Kamala Harris said in a clip broadcast on Fox News. His campaign team also counterattacks on his opponent’s record when he was at the head of the country. “He would suggest not granting aid to states that did not vote for him,” says the former senior advisor to the Department of Homeland Security.
Determining precedents
According to Donald Trump, the management of Hurricane Helene was “the worst response since Katrina”. This storm, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, had in fact politically weakened the president of the time, George W. Bush, recalls The World. In his memoirs, the latter writes: “The problem was not that I made the wrong decisions; it was that I took too long to decide.”
Another president, another storm, other repercussions. Barack Obama’s management of Hurricane Sandy at the end of October 2012 on the east coast of the United States was praised by the population. The president notably launched an appeal for the unity of the people in the face of this catastrophe. A few weeks before his re-election, 78% of Americans said they approved of his action.
