Playing politics with disaster
Late last Friday night, Tennessee House MAGA Republican Caucus chairman Jeremy Faison posted this message: “President Biden has finally approved [Tennessee governor Bill Lee’s] state of emergency request.” The implication of the message was clear. Faison was following the Donald Trump playbook and he wanted readers to infer that Biden was dragging his feet. Governor Bill Lee, the message suggests, went cap in hand to Biden and Biden took his sweet time responding with federal aid. After all, Tennessee is almost certainly going to vote for Trump, so why bother, right?
Now here’s what actually happened. While governors of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina were all declaring emergencies and requesting and instantly receiving federal aid, Lee didn’t request any help at all. At least, not at first from Biden. He did request some help from God.
Lee didn’t declare a state of emergency in Tennessee (a necessary precursor for receiving federal aid) until flash flooding got so bad he had no choice. Once he did, Biden responded to the request immediately and without delay, of course. In fact, Biden signed federal disaster declarations BEFORE the storm hit, so there would be no delay. But in keeping with an April joint resolution from the Republican Tennessee legislature calling for 31 days of prayer and fasting to “seek God’s hand of mercy and healing on Tennessee,” Lee wasted valuable time by proclaiming September 27 “a voluntary Day of Prayer & Fasting.”
Sooner or later, usually sooner, socialism-decrying Republican governors got around to unabashedly asking for a little of that socialism from Biden. In the midst of the disasters created by Hurricane Helene, Biden’s response to every request for help has been exemplary and immediate, and without the brackish and distasteful undertones of political resentment usual from Republicans. Biden kept politics out of it, as he should. Human lives were at stake.
Meanwhile Donald Trump is further spreading the lie that Biden isn’t doing his job. On Monday, while visiting Georgia, one of the six states seriously hit by the storm, Trump claimed that, while Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was “doing a very good job,” he was “having a hard time getting the president on the phone.”
Not so. How do we know this? Because Brian Kemp himself said so. Just a few hours before Trump told this lie, Kemp told the press that Biden called the previous afternoon and asked the Georgia governor what further support his state needed. Biden has been on point with federal aid, free advice and unsolicited calls of concern. Nobody but a liar would fault him, and MAGA clearly has plenty of liars in high places.
This is all projection, of course. While in office Trump frequently dragged his feet when blue states needed his help during disasters. He gave priority to red states during Covid when apportioning much-needed ventilators and personal protection equipment (PPE). As New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded for resources and ventilators and thousands of New Yorkers sickened and died, Trump delayed. As president, Trump rejected California governor Gavin Newsom’s request for federal disaster relief funds to help the state recover from its devastating wildfires. Why? Because California was a blue state and Trump hated Newsom.
No, playing politics with disaster is a MAGA game, and Donald Trump is its biggest player. Nobody plays politics with the lives of Americans more than Trump. In fact, I would go so far as to say that nobody has ever seen anything like it. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.