OAN Staff Blake Wolf
1:13 PM – Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris is facing backlash for reportedly skipping hurricane preparedness briefings as the death toll for the disastrous Hurricane Helene rises to 143 deaths so far.
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The hurricane preparedness meetings were a staple in former Vice President Mike Pence’s calendar, leaving many to wonder whether Harris’s governing style will be consistent with her apparent disregard for integral meetings, potentially putting American lives at risk.
“Harris hasn’t demonstrated the ability – or desire – to do the apolitical parts of the job that have a huge impact on our lives,” said a former Pence aide who spoke to the press. “Why should Americans trust her to start in the Oval Office?”
Nevertheless, Harris did eventually return to Washington in order to attend one Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) briefing. However, it’s unclear why she did not attend or participate in Biden’s preparedness briefings throughout the first three years of their administration.
During former President Donald Trump’s administration, Trump and Pence would attend annual hurricane preparedness meetings, a tradition which President Joe Biden continued. However, Harris chose not to attend any of these annual meetings, the New York Post reported.
Meanwhile, former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf came down on Harris as well, questioning whether she will take a more “hands off” approach if elected as president.
“It doesn’t seem like she wants to roll up her sleeves and actually get into the governing of the country, which is hard to do,” Wolf said. “It’s not glamorous. It’s a lot of briefings.”
“My guess is she would act the very same way [as president], which is hands off – ‘I’m not going to run the country. I’m going to put a team together, and they’ll run it, and I’ll kind of talk about it,’ which is obviously a very different model than what President Trump did,” he added.
Wolf continued, explaining that FEMA briefings help officials to collaborate more successfully and analyze potential issues, while placing an emphasis on the importance of their essential work.
“It’s like any other job where your boss is asking you specific questions – you get more motivated to do a better job,” Wolf stated. “It’s not that they do a lesser job,” he added. “It’s just they know that the importance isn’t being placed on their work.”
Additionally, North Carolina rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), whose district has been greatly devastated by the recent hurricane damage, reported that “the people in western North Carolina feel let down” by Harris and Biden, and “deservedly so.”
“The response has been disappointing,” Edwards continued. “We’ve begun to see some resources brought in today, but the storm was over about 80 hours ago. The storm was over about 10 a.m. Friday. We knew that the storm was coming and only today are we beginning to see the first FEMA employees and trailers and helicopters come in.”
Soon after, Harris spokesman Ernesto Apreza responded to the backlash, citing past occasions in which the vice president visited Hurricane-hit areas and when she attended similar events. However, he did not dispute or address the central claim that Harris did not hold or attend any preparedness meetings prior to the hurricane season.
Apreza claims that Harris “regularly received briefings from the relevant federal agencies and officials on emerging storms, other natural disasters, and the federal government’s response efforts.”
“She’s also gone to FEMA headquarters and NOAA’s National Hurricane Center to see preparations first hand, and visited Houston’s emergency operation center in the wake of Hurricane Beryl,” the spokesperson continued. “It is a top priority for the Vice President to ensure communities impacted by natural disasters have the resources they need to respond.”
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