Harris says Trump's response to the hurricane is putting politics over people: “He really lacks empathy on a very basic level.”

CNN
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Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday she believes former President Donald Trump lacks compassion for others as he continues to spread misinformation about the federal response after Hurricane Helene.

“It is profound and the height of irresponsibility and, frankly, insensitivity. … There are literally lives on the line right now,” Harris said during an interview on ABC’s “The View.” “I mean, we're talking about real people and their lives and they lose everything, everything.”

She added: “The idea that someone is playing political games for their own sake – but that's so consistent with Donald Trump.”

“He puts himself above the needs of others. I fear that at a very basic level he really lacks the empathy to care about other people's suffering and then understand that the role of a leader is not to put people down, but to lift people up, especially in Times of crisis,” she added.

After Hurricane Helene and as Hurricane Milton barreled toward Florida, Trump repeatedly claimed, falsely and without evidence, that the White House was diverting disaster aid to unrelated refugee programs. Although FEMA administers grants for housing and migrant assistance, this is a separate account and is unrelated to the disaster relief funds.

Trump has also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration's response to Helene, including falsely saying that the president did not answer calls and that the way President Joe Biden and Harris are responding to the crisis represents an anti-Republican bias has.

Harris described traveling to both Georgia and North Carolina to study the hurricane's impact, highlighting the “pain” and “shock” that people are still suffering. At least 235 people have died from Helene, and Milton is expected to leave Florida in the next few days, quickly becoming a major hurricane, reaching Category 5 at some point. It is expected to remain a strong Category 4 storm before making landfall on Wednesday evening.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas complained about the state of disinformation about the relief efforts so far.

“I will separate myself from the disinformation spread by individuals and simply say this: Disinformation harms disaster survivors because they lose trust in their government and do not seek the help they need and receive.” entitled and that we can deliver,” Mayorkas said on CNN on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Biden strongly condemned the flood of misinformation surrounding Hurricanes Helene and Milton, calling those spreading such inaccurate information “un-American.”

Biden did not directly reference Trump, who was among those actively spreading misinformation about the federal response to the storms, and broadly referred to “others on the internet.” The Biden administration has become increasingly concerned about the state of misinformation surrounding relief efforts, and several officials have spoken out about politicization and distrust.

The president downplayed the impact on his administration's reputation by denouncing its significant impact on affected Americans.

“Those who do it are trying to harm the administration.” We can take care of ourselves. But it misleads people and puts them in situations where they panic. They're really, really, really worried. They think we don’t care about them,” Biden told reporters in the Roosevelt Room.

He continued: “It’s un-American. That's it really. People are afraid of death. People know that their lives are at stake – everything they have worked for, everything they own, everything they value.”

Biden noted that he has been in touch with each of the governors affected by the two storms and they are “pleased with everything they're getting.”

Asked about the risk of misinformation spread by political figures, Biden said: “If the past is prologue, it is real.”

A rift between Biden and Harris over DeSantis

Biden and Harris spoke almost simultaneously at the White House and on the set of “The View” on Tuesday, painting very different portraits of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state is bracing for the impact of Hurricane Milton.

In the Roosevelt Room after a hurricane briefing by officials, Biden said DeSantis had been “cooperative” and “supportive” of the federal response, adding that he had given DeSantis his personal phone number in case he needed anything.

Harris suggested during her interview that DeSantis was using the storm for political purposes.

“First of all, over the course of this crisis, this latest crisis, I have called and spoken to Democratic and Republican governors. Called, answered the call, answered the call, had a conversation. So it's obvious that for certain leaders it's not about partisanship or politics – but it might be for others,” she said when asked directly about DeSantis.

The difference in approach to DeSantis was striking because Harris is Biden's running mate and there has been great effort to avoid major disagreements in her run for president.

But in her interview, Harris stuck to a line of criticism of DeSantis that began a day earlier in remarks to reporters when she said he was playing “political games” with the storm and called him “irresponsible.”

“We have to agree that at some point we all need to work together to pool resources, particularly federal, state and local resources, for these types of disasters,” she said on “The View.” “I think it’s a shame that didn’t happen, but it has happened at the local level and in other state elections.”

Her claim that there was “no cooperation between states” in Florida contradicts the way Biden described the situation at the White House almost simultaneously.

“The governor of Florida has been cooperative, he says he has everything he needs. I spoke to him yesterday. And I said – I said, 'No, you're doing a great job, everything's being done well, we thank you for it,'” Biden said. “And I literally gave him my personal phone number to call. I don’t know – there was a rough start in some places, but every governor from Florida to North Carolina has been fully cooperative and supportive and recognized what this team is doing.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.