Hurricane Rumor Response

After Public Health Professionals and Election Officials, FEMA Workers are the New Target for Threats

Joyce Vance

Oct 11

Tonight, my thoughts are with all of the people dealing with the consequences of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. It could be any of us in the future. Likely, it will be. Hurricane season does not stop until late November. Climate change brings storms and natural disasters that are worse, increasingly frequent, and that impact previously unaffected places. None of us are immune anymore, and all of us should be working together, both to help people now and to address the effects of climate change that are upon us.

But that was not Donald Trump’s approach. Nothing Donald Trump does should be shocking to us anymore, but it’s appalling that he and some of his followers are lying about the federal government’s response and the resources available to affected people. Apparently, nothing is too low for Trump if it might get him back into the White House and out of the reach of federal prosecutors.

FEMA had to add a “Hurricane Rumor Response” page to its website in an effort to counteract the rampant disinformation about its relief efforts that has become prevalent. Donald Trump claimed FEMA is running out of money because it spent it on undocumented migrants, a lie. Trump said the government will only offer victims $750 in assistance, also a lie. This is the amount of emergency money made available for immediate needs in the days following a storm as other aid comes on line. Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed the government, i.e., Democrats, were controlling the weather.

FEMA’s Director, Marty Bahamonde, reported that in North Carolina, FEMA workers were being threatened because of the disinformation that is circulating. And taking it a step further, Asheville’s Jewish mayor, Esther Manheimer, was targeted with antisemitic social media posts as much of her city was still reeling from serious damage during Helene. A post calling out her Jewish faith had 13 million views on X. Other antisemitic epithets were leveled at Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Director of Public Affairs, Jaclyn Rothenberg.

This is Trump's America, where people who are trying to participate in democracy and serve the public become targets for threats and violence if it serves Trump to call his mob on them. First it was public health experts during a pandemic, then poll workers during an election. Now it's FEMA workers following two devastating hurricanes.

Today in a press conference, President Biden called out the lies Trump is telling and said they were “un-American.” When asked by a reporter if he’d spoken with Trump, he said, as angrily as he ever permits himself to be in public, “are you kidding?”

Trump deserves that sort of dismissive treatment. The lies he is telling harm people.

There are stories like this spreading across the affected states. Is it really necessary to say that the government can’t seize your home if you get aid after a natural disaster? How is it possible that people believe Trump when he spreads these lies instead of looking to what has happened in the past and what their local officials are telling them?

After Kamala Harris—hopefully—wins the election, we will have a long road back to restoring our democratic institutions and people’s confidence in them. I’m thinking and hoping that will be the work in front of us after this election. It won’t be easy, but it will be satisfying, and I suspect there are a lot of us who, having lived through and ousted Trump, will want to be a part of that work. As situations like Trump’s spread of disinformation following two traumatic Hurricanes teach us, it’s going to be complicated. Nonetheless, being able to get started—that’s my hope for what we will be discussing here in just a few months. The fever dream will break and Trump will be simply a failed candidate and a criminal defendant. Remind yourself of that when things are challenging, and stick around here at Civil Discourse, because we have a lot ahead of us!

We’re in this together,

Joyce

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