President Biden called on Americans on Wednesday to “put politics aside” to focus on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts – moments before going beyond his own message by saying that anyone who doubts climate change’s role in the disaster “must be brain dead.”
“At a moment like this, we put politics aside, at least we have to spend everything, and we have it here,” the 81-year-old retired president said during a recovery briefing in Raleigh, NC.
“There are no Democrats or Republicans, there are only Americans, and our job is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can, and as best we can.”
The consoler-in-chief, sitting next to the Democratic governor of the Tar Heel State, Roy Cooper, and emergency officials after an aerial tour of the Asheville area, pivoted moments later to attack the skeptics of most Republicans about the role of fossil fuel use. in bad weather.
“No one can deny its influence [the] climate crisis again – at least I hope they don’t. They must be brain dead if they do,” Biden jabbed.
“Scientists are reporting that with ocean warming causing more rain, storms like Helene are getting stronger and stronger — they’re not going to decrease, they’re going to get stronger. Today in North Carolina, I’m seeing the impact of that fury.
At least 189 people have died from the storm in six states, with at least 70 deaths recorded in North Carolina alone. More than 100 citizens of the country were not counted.
Remarks about Biden’s political enemies being “brain dead” quickly sparked a backlash – after the president himself took criticism for what residents said was a slow emergency response in the hardest-hit region.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign tweeted sarcastically: “Biden – the head of the unitary – said Americans ‘must be braindead’ if they ‘deny’ hurricane damage due to climate change.”
“Comat and cognitively denied Joe Biden calls Americans like I’m brain dead. This is a joke, right?” reacted conservative commentator Leo Terrell.
Biden has come under fire for his management of the storm – including the fact that he watched the early days of damage affecting the Southeast from his Delaware beach home.
The president bristled at such criticism Monday when asked by an Associated Press reporter about whether he should order a federal response from the White House.
“It’s called a phone!” Biden snapped.
The president also had to walk back his earlier claim Sunday that no more resources were needed to respond to the storm — saying in a Wednesday afternoon briefing with Cooper that Congress should approve more funding.
“It’s going to cost billions of dollars to deal with this storm … and Congress has an obligation to make sure the country has the resources it needs,” Biden said.
The outgoing president visited North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday while Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee in the November 5 election, visited storm-hit Augusta, Ga.
Harris, who was on a West Coast campaign swing over the weekend, has also drawn criticism from Republicans, including for tweeting pictures of himself handling the crisis from Air Force Two – wearing headphones that weren’t plugged into his phone – and for leaving. annual hurricane preparedness briefing that was a staple of his predecessor Mike Pence’s calendar.
“People in the west of North Sulawesi feel disappointed, they deserve it,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), whose district includes some of the worst-hit areas, told NewsNation Monday.
“The response has been disappointing,” Edwards said. “We have seen some resources brought in today, but the storm has been over 80 hours ago. The storm was over about 10 am Friday. We knew the storm was coming and only now are we starting to see the first FEMA employees and trailers and helicopters coming in.
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