(The Guardian) Vance accuses Biden administration of 'incompetence' in Hurricane Helene response
The Trump campaign has spent days criticizing the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance kept up the attack yesterday, publishing a column in the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial pages accusing the president and Kamala Harris of bungling the response to the storm.
“During times of crisis and war, presidential leadership is critical to cut through competing bureaucratic fiefs and protect Americans from death and devastation. The Biden-Harris response to Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm since Katrina, has the people of the south-east and especially Appalachia paying an extraordinary price for the administration’s incompetence,” wrote Vance. He currently represents Ohio in the Senate, but before getting into politics made a name for himself with the Appalachian-focused memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which got mixed reviews in the region.
Vance continued: Shortly after Helene made landfall in the U.S. on Sept. 26, Joe Biden was at his house in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Vice President Kamala Harris was flying between ritzy California fundraisers, hobnobbing with celebrities. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was in Los Angeles, presiding over an awards ceremony. Before the storm, Ms. Harris had blown off her disaster-response briefings, which were a staple of the Trump administration’s disaster-response planning. The lack of prioritization had real-world ramifications.
The Trump campaign has spent days criticizing the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance kept up the attack yesterday, publishing a column in the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial pages accusing the president and Kamala Harris of bungling the response to the storm.
“During times of crisis and war, presidential leadership is critical to cut through competing bureaucratic fiefs and protect Americans from death and devastation. The Biden-Harris response to Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm since Katrina, has the people of the south-east and especially Appalachia paying an extraordinary price for the administration’s incompetence,” wrote Vance. He currently represents Ohio in the Senate, but before getting into politics made a name for himself with the Appalachian-focused memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which got mixed reviews in the region.
Vance continued: Shortly after Helene made landfall in the U.S. on Sept. 26, Joe Biden was at his house in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Vice President Kamala Harris was flying between ritzy California fundraisers, hobnobbing with celebrities. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was in Los Angeles, presiding over an awards ceremony. Before the storm, Ms. Harris had blown off her disaster-response briefings, which were a staple of the Trump administration’s disaster-response planning. The lack of prioritization had real-world ramifications.
