News
‘Kremlin Propaganda’: MAGA Exploits Helene Disaster to Attack Biden and Harris
As the devastation from Hurricane Helene became increasingly apparent over the weekend, MAGA loyalists were falsely blaming the U.S. federal government, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden of ignoring the victims and refusing to provide critical resources. As critics called out their lies, one fascism and authoritarianism expert accused pro-Trump social media accounts linking Ukraine aid to Helene assistance of spreading Russian propaganda.
‘We’re not leaving until the job is done,” President Biden vowed Monday morning in a White House address (video below), saying he expects to tour the areas devastated by Helene this week, likely Wednesday or Thursday—but not until first responders are able to do their work without his presence being “disruptive.”
“I’ve been told that if we disrupt, if I did it right now, we will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any response assets needed to deal with this crisis.”
The President then detailed the scope of the federal government’s response.
“I and my team are in constant contact with governors, mayors and local members. Head of FEMA, Ann Griswold, is on the ground now in North Carolina. She’s going to stay in Asheville, and that place of reason for the foreseeable future, there’s been reports of over 100 dead and the consequence of the storm, and there are reports about 600 people unaccounted for because they can’t be contacted. God willing they’re alive, but there’s no way to contact them again because of the lack of cell phone coverage.”
“I directed my team to provide every available resource as fast as possible to their communities, to rescue, recover and to begin rebuilding,” Biden said.
He noted that FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission, the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Defense are on the ground.
READ MORE: ‘Sociopath’: Trump Slammed for Bragging About Putin While Standing Next to Zelenskyy
“So far, that’s over 3600 personnel deployed. That number is growing by the day.”
“I quickly approved requests from governors of Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia and Alabama for an emergency declaration. And I approved additional requests for the governors of North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, and for disaster declaration to pay for debris removal, provide financial assistance directly to survivors. FEMA and Small Business Administration are there to help the residents whose homes and businesses were literally destroyed, washed away or blown away, and the federal search and rescue teams have been working side by side with state and local officials and partners in very treacherous conditions to find those who are missing and they’ll not rest until everyone’s accounted for.”
“Your nation has your back, and the Biden Harris administration will be there until the job is done,” the President promised.
He also suggested he may ask Congress to return from its extended recess to approve additional funding for the areas devastated by Hurricane Helene.
President Biden on federal response to Hurricane Helene: “We are not leaving until the job is done.” pic.twitter.com/HdODPFtH8y
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 30, 2024
The White House on Sunday published an even more detailed report, which circulated on social media.
Barely minutes after President Biden concluded his remarks, Donald Trump posted on social media he was on his way to Valdosta, Georgia, claiming he will travel to North Carolina later, “but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. MAGA!”
Trump’s suggestion is false, according to numerous reports.
READ MORE: Senate GOP Leaders Refuse to Commit to Allowing Harris SCOTUS Nominees Up or Down Vote
“More than 500 North Carolina National Guard members are now working alongside local emergency responders conducting search and rescue missions, delivering needed supplies and working to restore infrastructure,” North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Ray Cooper said Sunday, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.
“The U.S. National Guard said on X Sunday that more than 5,500 members from 11 states are supporting Hurricane Helene response missions,” the paper added. “The North Carolina National guard activated more than 500 soldiers and airmen along with over 200 vehicles and aircraft, according to a post on X Sunday.”
But in May of 2017, then-President Trump denied “99 percent of federal recovery funds for Hurricane Matthew,” PBS News reported.
Despite the massive federal response by the Biden administration, Trump and his MAGA supporters and disinformation purveyors have been “pushing Kremlin propaganda” about the response, falsely claiming that Biden and Harris, or the federal government in general, are refusing to assist victims, and state and local governments, with a large focus on funding for Ukraine.
“This propaganda to tie the hurricane to Ukraine is insane,” wrote the Center for European Policy Analysis’s Olga Lautman, whose “research focuses on the cross-section of organized crime and intelligence operations in Russia and Ukraine, their impact on the West, and the monitoring of active measures campaigns conducted by the Kremlin to destabilize democratic practices and influence foreign elections.”
“For 2 days, far right propagandists are lying that Ukraine received funding and Americans aren’t despite Biden approving immediate federal funds. More proof of them pushing kremlin propaganda by focusing only on Ukraine,” she added.
Despite countless news reports to the contrary, Sunday evening, far-right podcaster and columnist Matt Walsh falsely declared: “Unfortunately the North Carolina flood victims are citizens of the USA, not Ukraine, so the Biden Administration sees no reason to help them.”
Stephen Miller, the former Trump White House senior advisor and architect of his child separation policy, falsely claimed on Sunday evening: “Kamala used every available government resource to airlift and evacuate 500 thousand Haitian illegals to the United States. But she couldn’t lift a finger to rescue drowning Americans in Asheville.”
Monday morning he responded to a Harris video vowing to help those affected by Helene, and despite all reports of aid and assistance, he wrote: “Americans are dying and they are drowning. You failed to warn them. You failed to evacuate them. You failed to rescue them. Just like you failed in Afghanistan. Except this is on our own soil.”
Americans are dying and they are drowning. You failed to warn them. You failed to evacuate them. You failed to rescue them. Just like you failed in Afghanistan. Except this is on our own soil. https://t.co/5ih9OR4AT9
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) September 30, 2024
A former editor at the far right-wing website Breitbart, Emma-Jo Morris, on Sunday evening wrote on social media, “I wish North Carolina was as important as Ukraine.” That one post has received almost one million views. She followed that up with, “Isn’t there a corruption opportunity for Joe Biden in North Carolina so we can get them some aid.”
Far right-wing commentator and conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich on Sunday blasted this post off to his 1.3 million followers: “They let Maui burn, they let Asheville drown, can the country survive four more years of this?”
Other top pro-Trump surrogates, like U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Monday afternoon falsely claimed the Biden-Harris administration “Abandoned the people of North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee impacted by the hurricane.”
Watch the videos above or at this link.
READ MORE: Harris Goes to the Border to Talk Immigration Policy and Target Trump
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
