An outraged President Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump for claiming he was coming down hard on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp over the humanitarian aid he received on Monday and accused his rival of lying.
He responded amid the high-stakes clash over storm recovery, with Trump flying to Georgia and claiming that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were mishandling the crisis. He even said Biden was ignoring a key figure in the response, Kemp, an occasional Trump critic who supports his campaign.
“He’s been calling the president, but he hasn’t been able to reach him,” Trump said on a trip to Valdosta, Georgia.
That comment was directly contradicted by Kemp’s own comments on Monday about his conversation with Biden on Sunday, and Biden criticized his rival when asked about it.
‘He is lying, and the governor told him he was lying. The governor told him that he is lying. I talked to the governor, spent time with him and he told him he was lying. “I don’t know why he does it… that’s just not true and it’s irresponsible,” Biden said.
He also defended his decision to spend most of the weekend in Delaware even as the storm’s fury unfolded.
President Joe Biden said Donald Trump was “lying” when his rival said Georgia’s governor had been unable to contact him. Gov. Brian Kemp’s comments about speaking with Biden contradicted Trump, as the response to Hurricane Helene shook the political campaign.
‘Come on. Stop the game, will you?’ he enraged a journalist who asked him about it. He said where he lived ‘is 90 miles from here, that’s fine. And I was on the phone the whole time,” Biden said.
He also defended the positioning of resources ahead of the storm, which had impacts far beyond Florida, where it made landfall. “It’s hard to get from point A to point B,” he said, citing impassable roads and other challenges. “If I sound frustrated, I am,” he said.
Biden had also defended the trip earlier in the day when asked, “Why weren’t you and Vice President Harris at the helm here in Washington this weekend?”
‘I was in charge. I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before yesterday as well. “I ordered it,” he said, before blurting out: “It’s called a telephone.”
Trump made the accusation while on a tour of hurricane damage, in which two politically crucial states – Georgia and North Carolina – were hit by the storm, with a growing death toll and massive damage.
Former President Donald Trump beat Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Georgia
Trump was received by Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, in Georgia.
‘The president called me yesterday afternoon. I missed him and called him right away,” Kemp said. ‘And he just said, “Hey, what do you need?”‘
Biden had earlier taken a preemptive step by saying he didn’t want to do anything to disrupt recovery efforts, and the White House spoke of the large “footprint” the president leaves on such a visit. Trump also brings a security team with him when he travels.
‘I also want you to know that I am committed to traveling to the affected areas as soon as possible. But I’m told it would be disruptive if we did it right now, we won’t do it at the risk of diverting or delaying any of the response resources needed to deal with this crisis,” Biden said Monday morning. “My first responsibility is to bring all necessary help to the affected areas.
In the evening, Biden announced that he would travel to North Carolina on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Harris flew back to Washington after a tour of the West Coast on Monday, canceling some scheduled campaign events and attending a FEMA briefing.
Trump, a newcomer from New York who now lives in Florida, is well aware of the long list of politicians who have seen an electoral storm reshuffle a race.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s support of Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy is widely seen as a boost to the Democrat’s re-election. Former New York Mayor John Lindsay lost a Republican primary following a winter snowstorm. And George W. Bush’s popularity plummeted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.