Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, told Newsmax on Monday that he's "extremely frustrated" with the Biden-Harris administration's disaster response in western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, faulting the lack of "political leadership" and "focus."
Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, joined "Greg Kelly Reports" to outline the ways that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are failing North Carolinians in their recovery efforts.
"I think, first of all, it's a matter of focus. You have FEMA, which is there for disaster relief for American citizens after a terrible storm, being deployed repeatedly to deal with Kamala Harris' wide-open border and the migrant invasion that has caused that lack of focus on their core mission, that distraction focusing instead on illegal immigrants," Vance told Kelly. "I guarantee that it has made the disaster response worse."
Hurricane Helene rampaged through North Carolina nearly two weeks ago, causing massive flooding, widespread power and water outages amid the wreckage. Vance said the "biggest failure" in response was a "lack of political leadership" from Biden and Harris.
"Greg, when you have something like this happen, you have so many bureaucratic organizations, you need leadership to cut through the red tape, to send the military to where it needs to go, to tell FAA that they need to do everything — that's the Federal Aviation Administration — that they can to get supplies in as quickly as possible," Vance said. "And unfortunately, when this disaster struck, Joe Biden was on a beach where he stayed for a couple of days; Kamala Harris was at a San Francisco fundraiser.
"The lack of leadership is why I think you have this bureaucratic incompetence, and a lot of Americans are suffering, Greg, every single day. There are still Americans in western North Carolina, all across Appalachia, they're not getting the help that they need because their government is failing them," he added.
"And I promise you that when [former President] Donald Trump is president, you're going to have a president every single day who fights for American citizens, whatever walk of life they come from, whatever their skin color or their background, Donald Trump appreciates more than anybody that his job is to look after the American people. And that's what's going to happen when he's president," he said.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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