A defiant Lara Trump lashed out at CNN’s Dana Bash after the anchor accused her father-in-law of spreading “misinformation” about money for hurricane victims being spent on immigrants.
Donald Trump, who visited the disaster zone in North Carolina on Friday, sharply criticized the $750 in emergency aid being offered to families who have lost their homes due to Hurricane Helene.
And he claimed that millions of dollars in FEMA funds have been redirected to immigrants illegally crossing the southern border, claims Bash flatly told his guest were “false.”
But the Republican National Committee co-chair noted that there is currently only $750 available for the thousands of people devastated by the Category 4 hurricane, and said the money for migrants could be redirected “immediately” to help survivors in her home state. .
‘Why don’t you have anything in order?’ he asked on Sunday. ‘Why are the citizens of Western North Carolina crying out for help now, and it has to come from local citizens?’
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump insisted that the millions spent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on migrants would be better spent on hurricane survivors.
CNN Anchor Dana Bash Demands Condemn ‘Misinformation’ Spread by Donald Trump
More than 220 people are known to have died in the deadliest U.S. hurricane in nearly 20 years, with estimated damages running into hundreds of billions of dollars.
“A lot of the money that was supposed to go to Georgia and North Carolina and everyone else is leaving and is already gone,” Donald Trump said at a rally in Evans, Georgia, on Friday.
‘It no longer exists for people who entered the country illegally and no one has ever seen anything like it. It’s a shame.’
FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency – has spent more than $1.4 billion in the last two years on the immigration crisis.
And Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned last week that he does not have enough funds to cope if another hurricane hits.
“We are covering immediate needs with the money we have,” he said. “We are waiting for another hurricane to arrive, FEMA does not have the funds to last the entire season.”
The Biden administration has said the agency has enough money to deal with the current disaster and accused Donald Trump of “spreading poison,” insisting that no money has been diverted from hurricane survivors to migrants.
Estimated damages from Hurricane Helene are in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
But Tropical Storm Milton is brewing in the Caribbean and is forecast to become a major hurricane before reaching Florida next week.
“They’re out of money in terms of hurricane aid,” Lara Trump told Bash on CNN’s State of the Union.
‘We have another hurricane heading towards Florida right now. But they said there is no money right now. Why don’t they have anything in order?
‘In North Carolina I hear every day from people on the ground who are desperate for help. The situation there is terrible.
‘The idea that we spent $650 million in FY24 on the immigration crisis that Kamala Harris was responsible for stopping and, by all accounts, created by having an open-door policy at our southern border is infuriating.
“We could redirect the money to help people immediately on the ground in North Carolina.”
Fema has outlined displacement assistance, which will be available to cover the costs of temporary housing for those left homeless, housing repair or replacement assistance, personal property assistance, medical assistance to cover the costs of injuries related to the disaster and funeral assistance for relatives of the dead.
House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted that FEMA funds had not been diverted from hurricane victims to immigrants when he spoke to Fox News on Sunday, admitting that the funding streams are “different.”
“But the problem is with the American people, and what frustrates them is that FEMA has to be involved,” he explained.
‘The mission of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is to help people in times like this natural disaster. Not participate in the use of funds from any account to resettle illegal aliens who have crossed the border.
“That’s what the Biden administration, Kamala Harris and Secretary Mayorkas have been committed to.”
At least 200 people died in six states on the East Coast as a result of the powerful hurricane that made landfall as a Category 4.
Bash told his guest that survivors might be deterred from seeking the assistance they are entitled to if they think there is little available.
“It’s bad there,” he agreed. ‘But my question is about misinformation, particularly the notion that they are moving money, you say, to undocumented immigrants, which FEMA flatly says is not true.
“If people don’t get the right information and can’t seek help…”
“There are immigrants staying in luxury hotels in New York City,” Trump responded.
‘We have contributed a lot of money from our taxes to the crisis. That didn’t have to happen.’