The Right Meets Hurricane Helene With a Storm of Lies

Hurricane victims and first responders as communities across the Southeast continue to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Helen, and as Western Florida prepares for Category 5 Hurricane Milton, which will make landfall later this week. are battling a maddening tide of misinformation surrounding federal relief efforts. effort. The false claims began in earnest with Trump’s inflammatory statement that the Federal Emergency Management Agency ran out of money as a result of diverting $1 billion to protect immigrants, the Trump movement’s all-purpose civil destruction demon. . This piece of political folklore first became a hot topic in the frenzied swamps of social media, but it soon found its way onto the covers of magazines. new york postand provided an opportunity for a solemn editorial. Other right-wing newspapers. In fact, only one U.S. president has ever used FEMA funds to support immigrants, and that was President Donald Trump in 2019. be washington post report.

Of course, actions created by the Republican Party are routinely attributed to their enemies in the unfiltered and overheated right-wing messaging complex, but this false claim is a result of an inadequate, corrupt and expropriation-minded federal It was just the beginning of a steady torrent of paranoid conspiratorial claims about the government. Disaster relief after Helen levels communities in the Southeast. Kamala Harris said in an interview that storm victims would immediately receive a $750 FEMA grant to cover the cost of necessities like housing, food and infant formula, but this is a no-no for the MAGA debate. It was shortened to the false claim that the federal government was giving it to each person. people affected by the storm Only $750, nothing more. Trump also claimed on his Truth Social account that the Biden administration: withhold desperately needed aid in a Republican-leaning district in North Carolina.

While one side of the MAGAverse was accusing the federal government of brutally scarcity of storm victims, another group was claiming land grabs in prominent territories were displacing them entirely. Ta. Elon Musk’s allusive Cesspool That was all complete bullshitHowever, it recorded 3 million views on Twitter, and even more than 1 million views when it spread to TikTok.

And as his excited users spread destructive lies, Musk himself will surely catch up. of Oh Fish MAGA Cheerleader declared It claimed FEMA officials were guilty of “treason” and lifted yet another post claiming missing FEMA funds were being directed to undeserving immigrants. He also supported false claims that the Federal Aviation Administration was closing down the skies over storm-hit areas, curtailing operations at Musk’s connectivity company Starlink and preventing help from arriving by helicopter. . Mr. Musk also lent credence to even more insane claims that federal officials committed wrongdoing. Blockade of aid supplies and seizure of goods On the ground in Helen’s path. The FAA and Starlink outrageous story went viral when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hacked into Musk’s feed and debunked it. Scheduled follow-up call With Manboy without a filter.

All this digital false propaganda has created a real danger in the midst of a devastating disaster. Although FEMA is devoting scarce resources and time to migrant demands in the aftermath of the storm, FEMA had to issue the following statement: web page Discredit false narratives about the nature and extent of relief efforts so that affected populations actually get the help they need. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety take the same precautionsto ensure that victims know that assistance is indeed available. Political leaders in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida All petitions issued MAGA propagandists, hoping to reap political benefits from any smear, have called on Trump and his followers to stop spreading falsehoods about the aid response, to little avail. . (Yes, all of President Trump’s claims that the Biden administration is politicizing the FEMA response beyond the limits of its effectiveness are just another example of the right’s flagrant predictions, and yes, I am pointing this out.) I’m tired of continuing.)

Indeed, federal lawmakers are currently refusing to provide the most basic safeguards against the pending disaster of the Milton Island landings. Efforts this week to reconvene the now-closed House to vote on an emergency funding bill for hurricane relief were supported by many Republicans in the Southeast. Reprimanded by Speaker of the House Mike Johnsonwho, I wish I could sit down, also expressed the same opinion. MAGA myth Regarding the federal government’s response to Helen. Moreover, the post-Helen storm wave on the right is likely the prototype for a similar torrent of bullshit that the MAGAverse will unleash if Trump loses the 2024 election. Jay Kuo and brian beutler Each argued. On this front of disinformation, Johnson. A staunch denier of the 2020 electionhas already been proven faithful apparatchik. (Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has always pandered to the right, has repeatedly failed in his presidential bid, largely due to his history of rejecting federal coronavirus relief packages. refused to answer the phone In another article, either Mr. Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the post-Helena cleanup plan. reckless act of political theater It will definitely hurt the lives of voters. )

Such a vulgar ideological display in a dire state of emergency is deeply repugnant in itself. But what fuels this pernicious governance failure is a far broader type of historical prediction. This conservative governance project landed in New Orleans, just 113 miles from Mr. Johnson’s hometown of Baton Rouge, in 2005, when the George W. Bush administration failed to effectively respond to Hurricane Katrina. This was the worst possible comeback moment. No one knows better than the Speaker of the House how failures in the federal government’s response can impact storm-ravaged communities—and yet, after Helen and on the eve of Milton, They are also doing everything in their words and deeds to thwart effective aid assistance. landing. Mr. Johnson, Mr. Musk, and Mr. Trump are all doing the exact same things that federal emergency officials enjoy doing and criticizing. That is, blocking, redirecting, and otherwise upending the flow of vital resources for their own dirty, short-term political gain. If it weren’t so unbearably stupid, cruel, and sad, you might cite it as a textbook example of historical cunning.