By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-10-22 21:13:08 | Updated at 2024-10-23 22:25:23
1 day ago
CV NEWS FEED // Former President Donald Trump visited storm-ravaged Asheville, North Carolina, on October 21, and told the western region of the state, “All of America shares your sorrow and your grief.”
In remarks recorded and posted by The Asheville Citizen Times, Trump told North Carolinians, “I’m with you, and the American people are with you all the way. We’re gonna continue to be with you.”
Trump also referenced the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) insufficient response to the storm. The Citizen Times called these claims “baseless,” since FEMA representative MaryAnn Tierney stated that the organization gave $36 million to more than 37,000 applicants in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located. The funding covered home repairs and other essential needs, the Citizen Times reported.
However, CatholicVote previously reported that FEMA spent $1 billion on illegal immigrants, while the head of FEMA, Alejandro Mayorkas, who is also the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the organization “does not have the funds to make it through hurricane season.”
>> BIDEN-HARRIS FEMA LAMBASTED AS RURAL SOUTHEAST CONTINUES TO REEL FROM HELENE <<
Trump said, “On January 20th you’re gonna have, I think, a new crew coming in to do it properly and help you in a proper manner.”
He added, “Today I’m promising the people of this state that when I’m president — if I’m president … I will support and totally complete the rebuilding of every region and town and city that was devastated by the hurricane.”
On October 21, the former president visited Swannanoa, North Carolina, one of the areas most devastated by Helene, where he delivered a somber address commemorating the lives of those lost during the storm, according to Politico.
Politico reports that Trump delivered his remarks in Swannanoa from behind “a plain wooden lectern in the gravel parking lot of an auto mechanic shop” that had “a backdrop of rubble, cars strewn against trees and damaged homes.”
“Many Americans in this region felt helpless and abandoned and left behind by their government,” Trump stated to reporters gathered at the event in Swannanoa. “And yet, in North Carolina’s hour of desperation, the American people answered the call much more so than your federal government.”
>> POYNTER OP-ED: WHERE DID ALL THE HURRICANE COVERAGE GO? <<
While delivering remarks in Swannanoa, Trump invited several hurricane survivors to the podium. He thanked former Green Beret Adam Smith, who turned a Harley-Davidson parking lot into a temporary airbase to help distribute supplies.
Smith gifted the former president a small wooden cross, and said that the biggest fear of North Carolina was being forgotten.
“To have you [Trump] here, and have an opportunity to have this conversation at a national level, will keep Western North Carolina on the map,” he said.
North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Roy Cooper also visited Asheville on October 21 and said in a news conference that Trump should not visit North Carolina to tell “lies.”
Cooper said that Biden’s administration responded “quickly” and “positively” to the state’s request for aid after Helene.
Trump visited several other cities in the battleground state, including Greenville and Concord on October 21 and Greensboro on October 22.
