As communities across the Southeast, most notably in North Carolina, try to recover from Hurricane Helene and its aftermath, Donald Trump has spent several days brazenly lying about the governmental response to the deadly storm. State and local officials, including plenty of Republicans, have asked him to stop deceiving the public, but he’s ignored the appeals.
Indeed, the former president continues to ignore the appeals.
The consequences of Trump’s duplicity are real: As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim explained, officials have said that the election-season lies and conspiracy theories “are hindering relief efforts,” while forcing agencies to waste time and resources combatting lies that too many people are falling for.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who started the week with an on-the-ground visit to North Carolina, has started pushing back against her GOP rival in earnest. NBC News reported:
Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump on Monday over false claims he has made talking about disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Helene. Harris told reporters that there’s a lot of “disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, in particular to the survivors of Helene,” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It’s extraordinarily irresponsible,” the Democratic nominee said, adding in reference to Trump, “It’s about him; it’s not about you.”
It was an important point. For months, at the heart of the Democratic Party’s election-season messaging was a straightforward condemnation of the former president: Trump’s only priority is what’s best for Trump. Period. Full stop.
It’s against this backdrop that the Republican saw devastated communities and human suffering, which apparently led him to see a political opportunity: If he repeatedly lied about the heartbreaking circumstances, Trump concluded, it might benefit his campaign.
The whole idea behind so-called “October Surprises” is that there are sometimes unexpected developments that jolt the public conversation in the runup to Election Day and affect the results. Except, in 2024, Trump has arguably imposed an October Surprise on himself: With four weeks remaining, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee got caught trying to exploit human suffering, lying about a deadly natural disaster to advance his own interests.
As it turns out, we have a word in American politics for situations like these. That word is “scandal.” Trump actions — drawing fresh attention to his lack of integrity and character — deserve to be seen and characterized as scandalous.
Making matters worse, these developments also offer a timely reminder that Trump’s own record related to responding to disasters is abysmal — a point the Harris campaign hopes to drive home in a hard-hitting new television ad.
