Biden tours Helene's damage in Florida and Georgia, urges end of 'rabid partisanship'

PERRY, Fla. — President Joe Biden consoled victims whose lives were upended by the devastation of Hurricane Helene during visits Thursday to Florida and Georgia, saying it’s time to put aside “rabid partisanship” to get people relief.

His trip came as his administration's response to the storm faces scrutiny one month before the presidential election.

"Our job is to help as many people as we can,” Biden said at the Shiloh Pecan Farm in Ray City, Georgia, which was damaged by the storm. “And by the way, when we do that, I hope to break down this rabid partisanship that exists. I mean that sincerely. There's no rationale for it."

Earlier in the day, aboard Marine One, Biden took an aerial tour of parts of the Big Bend region of Florida. The helicopter left from the state capital of Tallahassee and dropped low to see the flooded coastline, before landing in Perry, a small town near the Gulf Coast that was battered by last month's Category 4 storm.

Biden also visited Keaton Beach, Florida, where his motorcade passed fallen trees, collapsed power lines and demolished homes. The president toured the damaged beach with local officials and was accompanied by Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. He met a husband and wife who lost their home in the storm and are now living in an RV parked in their driveway.

"This can all be rebuilt," the man told Biden.

More: Biden, Harris tour Helene damage in storm-ravaged South at critical 2024 campaign moment

One man in the area stood in front of a home and flipped off Biden's motorcade.

With the hurricane's devastation affecting two battleground states, Georgia and North Carolina, the speed and effectiveness of the administration's response could have ramifications on the 2024 election.

Neither Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis nor Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, joined Biden during the president's travels in their states. Biden and Kemp spoke by phone earlier Thursday morning, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

"We obviously are inviting them," Jean-Pierre said. "They are welcome to join us."

She said Kemp was surveying damage in another part of the state. Kemp also did not join Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, when the former president visited Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday to survey damage from Helene.

Biden administration pushes Helene aid for farmers

The death toll tied to Hurricane Helene grew to more than 200, and it was expected the number could rise as search and rescue efforts continued. That includes 97 who died in North Carolina, 41 in South Carolina, 33 in Georgia, 19 in Florida, 11 in Tennessee and two in Virginia, a USA TODAY Network analysis found.

The trip came one day after Biden surveyed storm damaged in South Carolina and western North Carolina, which was hit particularly hard by flooding in Asheville and remote towns in the Appalachian Mountains. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday and plans to go to North Carolina in the coming days. Harris is campaigning Thursday in Wisconsin with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.

Trump has slammed Biden for being at his beach home and Harris for attending a fundraiser last weekend during the flooding and claimed that Kemp was unable to reach Biden to discuss emergency aid.

Administration officials said Harris and Biden were regularly updated on the unfolding disaster and oversaw emergency efforts while they were away from Washington. They also noted Biden and Kemp had spoken the day before Trump incorrectly said they hadn't connected.

Biden approved requests from Georgia, Florida and North Carolina for the federal government to fully cover the state and local costs of debris removal, search and rescue efforts, mass-feeding and other hurricane-related emergency response activities.

More: 'So many hollers': Appalachia's remote terrain slows recovery from Helene

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined Biden on the trip, emphasizing federal programs available to farmers in the impacted areas. That includes various crop insurance programs, designed to give farmers payments within 30 days, as well as programs to help remove debris, repair structures and fences, help eliminate soil erosion, and pay for the loss of livestock.

“This is particularly true in Georgia, where you've got a lot of contract poultry facilities, where poultry houses have been destroyed by the storm,” Vilsack said.

More than 4,800 federal workers have been deployed to impacted areas in the southeast for the government's response, including more than 1,200 FEMA workers, officials said. The agency has shipped more than 9.3 million meals, 11.2 million liters of water, 150 generators and more than 260,000 tarps to the southeast. FEMA has so far approved more than $20 million in up-front emergency aid to victims.

Search and rescue teams have conducted nearly 1,500 structural evaluations and completed hundreds of rescues and evacuations.

Hurricane Helene crashed ashore along Florida's Big Bend near the town of Perry a week ago as a Category 4 hurricane driving sustained winds of around 140 mph. Those winds quickly diminished, but the drenching rains overwhelmed a 500-mile long swath of the already-saturated region.

Flash flooding from creeks and rivers conspired with Appalachian mudslides to sweep away scores of people, destroy homes and businesses, collapse roads and devastate entire communities.

Buck Paulk, the owner of the pecan farm Biden visited described the destruction caused by the storm as a "difficult situation."

"You just have to realize you've got to have help," he said. "We're not just going to snap back from this."

Biden has approved major disaster declarations for parts of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, as well as eight counties in Tennessee.

More: A week after Hurricane Helene's landfall, 1M still without power: Live updates

Biden administration officials are bracing for a long-term recovery that will cost billions and take years.

The lame duck president said earlier this week that he expects to ask Congress to approve a supplemental spending bill to help cover federal costs for Hurricane Helene relief efforts. A dozen bipartisan senators who represent the states hit hardest by the storm pleaded on Tuesday for their colleagues to also pass legislation with additional resources. They also joined the president in suggesting an emergency session may need to be called before Election Day.

"We can't wait. We can't wait. People need help now," Biden said when asked about the urgency of a supplemental funding bill for Helene relief. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has suggested Congress can wait until after the election to act.

Election implications

The recovery efforts come with less than 35 days until the presidential election.

As Trump blasts the Biden administration's response, new reporting from Politico’s E&E News Thursday found that Trump hesitated to provide disaster aid to areas he believed were Democratic leaning on several occasions while serving as president from January 2017 to January 2021. The story cited a review of Trump's record and interviews with two of the former president's aides, Mark Harvey, a senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, and Olivia Troye, a former White House homeland security adviser.

Biden retweeted the story on Thursday afternoon and responded to its allegations saying "you can’t only help those in need if they voted for you."

"It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it," Biden added.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the story “fake news” that never happened. “None of this is true and is nothing more than a fabricated story from someone’s demented imagination," Cheung told USA TODAY.

Natural disaster responses, particularly fall hurricanes, have historically shaken up presidential races.

Days before the 2012 presidential election, then-President Barack Obama embraced then-Gov. Chris Christie, a New Jersey Republican, as they embarked on a tour of Hurricane Sandy’s damage. The moment was lauded as a show of bipartisanship and gave Obama a polling boost ahead of his re-election victory against Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush faced criticism for his response to Hurricane Andrew, which slammed into Florida and Louisiana three months before the election. The storm left 33 dead and caused more than $28 billion in damage. Bush narrowly won Florida, after winning it by double digits four years earlier, but ultimately lost re-election to Bill Clinton.

Contributing: David Jackson

(This story has been updated with new information, headline and photos.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden in Florida and Georgia to see Helene damage, console victims