WASHINGTON — Over the last four years, President Joe Biden has jetted off to survey damage and console victims after tornadoes, wildfires and tropical storms. It’s not a role that Kamala Harris has played as vice president.
But on Wednesday, they will both fan out across the Southeast to grapple with the damage from Hurricane Helene, seeking to demonstrate commitment and competence in helping devastated communities after Donald Trump’s false attacks on their administration’s response. Biden is heading to North and South Carolina, while Harris is going to Georgia.
Harris’ stop will also serve as a political test in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. She’s trying to step into the role for which Biden is best known — showing the empathy that Americans expect in times of tragedy — in the closing stretch of her campaign for president.
She last visited scenes of natural disasters as a U.S. senator from California, including when she went to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and when she walked through charred wreckage in Paradise, California, after the Camp Fire in 2018.
Trump, the Republican nominee, traveled to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday with a Christian charity organization that brought trucks of fuel, food, water and other supplies.
After arriving, Trump accused Biden of “sleeping” and not responding to calls from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. However, Kemp had spoken with Biden the previous day, and the governor said the state was getting everything it needed.
Biden was infuriated by Trump’s claim on Monday, snapping that Trump was “lying, and the governor told him he was lying.”
On Tuesday, the president said he has directed administration officials to “send every available resource” to communities harmed by Helene. The death toll approached 160 people, and power and cellular service remains unavailable in some places.
“We have to jumpstart this recovery process,” he said. “People are scared to death. This is urgent.”
Trump claimed without evidence that Democratic leaders were withholding help from Republican areas, an accusation that better describes his own approach to disaster relief. He recently threatened that he would withhold wildfire assistance from California because of disagreements with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
When Trump was president, Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, which killed 3,000 people. His administration waited until the fall of 2020, just weeks before the presidential election, to release $13 billion in assistance for Puerto Rico’s recovery. A federal government watchdog also found that Trump administration officials hampered an investigation into delays in the aid delivery.
And during a visit there, he was criticized for tossing paper towel rolls to survivors at a relief center. The gesture seemed to go over well in the room but was widely panned as insensitive to those who were suffering. He also questioned whether the death toll was accurate, claiming it rose “like magic.”
Harris visited Puerto Rico after Maria as part of a bipartisan delegation.
“When disaster hits anywhere in America, our government has a basic responsibility to commit the resources necessary to save lives, accurately assess damage, and rebuild communities,” she wrote on Twitter in 2018. “We now know that after Hurricane Maria, our government failed Puerto Rico at every level.”
Last month, on the seventh anniversary of Maria, Harris recalled speaking with Puerto Ricans who had lost businesses and homes.
“They didn’t need paper towels thrown at them — they needed real help and partnership,” she said.
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