Former President Bill Clinton adviser Doug Schoen said on Tuesday he was aghast over what he described as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden’s lack of care about the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.
Harris and Biden have yet to visit any of the storm-damaged areas in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina or Tennessee. Schoen argued on “The Faulkner Focus” that both leaders should have already been in North Carolina, as the state’s western region is grappling with infrastructure failures, including cut-off roads and widespread power and communication outages.
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“Harris, I’m speechless. Having worked in a White House that was responsive … Vice President Harris and President Biden should have been in North Carolina. They should have been there for substantive reasons, they should have been there for political reasons and personal reasons,” Schoen told host Harris Faulkner. “Yes, you want to get briefed at FEMA, but if you’re in the midst of a tough election campaign where the question is, are you in touch, do you care and can you change the way the country is being run, to show this level of cavalier indifference, just literally takes my breath away.”
Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday, resulting in over 130 deaths and leaving up to 600 people missing as of Monday, according to The Associated Press. Harris intends to visit damaged areas “as soon as possible without disrupting emergency response operations,” according to a White House official, NBC News reported.
Biden is slated to visit North Carolina on Wednesday to evaluate the damage and coordinate federal response efforts, the AP reported.
Newsmax political analyst Mark Halperin said Tuesday that Harris will eventually visit, but it isn’t necessary yet due to the risk of disruption.
“When a president or vice president goes, it shuts down the operation and they’re just not interested in interfering that way,” he said.
However, Newsmax host Rob Finnerty noted that former President Barack Obama visited New Jersey in 2012 to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
“There are ways around that. Barack Obama found a way around it, because 35 days away from an election in 2012, he knew that he needed to win that election,” Finnerty said. “So he was there in New Jersey with the governor of New Jersey. I don’t remember hearing stories about like, ‘Oh my gosh, everything stopped because Barack Obama was there.’ That’s a media line, Mark, and you’ve been in the media for 30 years. You know it. You know as much. She could go if she wanted to go.”
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