Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, slammed former President Donald Trump on Sunday for spreading inaccurate information about how the Biden administration disbursed disaster relief funds for Hurricane Helene recovery.
“It’s frankly ridiculous and just plain false,” Criswell said during an interview with ABC’s “This Week.” “This type of speech is not beneficial to anyone. It’s a pity that we’re prioritizing politics over helping people.”
As hurricane season approaches, Trump erroneously claimed last week that FEMA was running out of money to assist with disaster relief efforts because the White House had spent the funds “on illegal migrants coming into the country.”
FEMA and other organizations have since fact-checked the misinformation.
FEMA’s “Rumor Response” webpage particularly addressed the idea that FEMA disaster relief cash “was diverted to support international efforts or border-related issues.”
“This is false. “No funds are being diverted from disaster response needs,” the organization stated.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House have released separate statements, both fact-checking and criticizing the false allegations.
However, the Trump campaign and the previous president’s friends, like Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, have continued to spread misinformation about the Helene recovery effort, attempting to turn the terrible hurricane into a campaign attack against Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Sunday, Criswell described the speech as “demoralizing to all of the first responders who have been out there in their communities helping people.”
Despite operating on a tight budget for the past year, Congress’s interim funding package, which took effect last Tuesday, provided FEMA with an approximately $20 billion financial boost.
White House officials and politicians from Helene-affected areas have stated that Congress will most certainly need to enact a supplemental disaster assistance package to help FEMA with its reconstruction efforts.
