'Ridiculous and just plain false': FEMA administrator knocks Trump's Hurricane Helene recovery claims

With the federal response to Hurricane Helene becoming a major focus of the presidential campaign in the home stretch, President Joe Biden's administration continued to push back Sunday against former President Donald Trump's unfounded claims about storm recovery.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell said her agency has all the resources it needs to respond to Helene, which ravaged parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and other states.

North Carolina and Georgia are key swing states, which has heightened the political stakes for the recovery effort and the jockeying around it.

Criswell defended FEMA's response and shot down Trump’s claims that the agency is short on disaster relief funds because money has been diverted to help undocumented immigrants, and that help is being withheld from Republican areas, calling such assertions “frankly ridiculous and just plain false.”

“This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” she added. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people.”

Criswell noted that state and local officials have rebutted "this dangerous, truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear.”

Trump has made a series of unfounded claims about Helene recovery at multiple events in recent days. He said at a rally in Saginaw, Michigan, Thursday that “Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal immigrants.”

“They have almost no money, because they spent it all on illegal immigrants,” Trump said, adding that “They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants.”

FEMA does have a housing program, the Shelter and Services Program, that provides “financial support to non-federal entities to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release” from detention facilities, according to its website. It has $650 million in funding this year, but that money is separate from disaster relief funds.

“No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. None,” the White House said in a news release.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters during a White House press briefing last week that FEMA has enough disaster relief money to meet current needs, but not for additional storms.

“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas said. “We are expecting another hurricane hitting.  We do not have the funds.  FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and... what is imminent.”

Congress recently appropriated $20 billion in disaster funds, but Biden said in a letter this week that more is needed.

“Without additional funding, FEMA would be required to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs,” Biden wrote, saying the Small Business Administration is particularly in need of funds.

Fact Check Image of Donald Trump wading through flood water is AI-generated

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was asked on "Fox News Sunday" about Biden’s letter and said “Congress will provide, we will help the people in these disaster prone areas.”

Johnson was pressed about Trump conflating FEMA funds for the Shelter and Services Program with disaster relief money and conceded that "the streams of funding are different, that is not an untrue statement of course." But he argued FEMA shouldn't be spending any money "for resettling illegal aliens who have come across the border."

Trump continued to criticize the Helene recovery effort at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday. He zeroed in on the $750 payment FEMA offers disaster victims to help them with immediate needs.

“Remember, $750 to people whose homes have been washed away, and yet we send tens of millions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of,” Trump said. “They're offering them $750 as they've been destroyed. “

The $750 Serious Needs Assistance helps “cover essential items like food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies, medication and other emergency supplies,” according to the White House press release.

“There are other forms of assistance that you may qualify for to receive, and Serious Needs Assistance is an initial payment you may receive while FEMA assesses your eligibility for additional funds,” the release continues.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of the former president, also answered questions about Trump's Helene claims during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. Host Dana Bash played a clip of Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., praising the response to Helene.

"I'm actually impressed with how much attention was paid to region that wasn't likely to have experienced the impact that they did," Tillis said, adding "I'm out here to say that we're doing a good job."

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Lara Trump defended the criticism of Helene recovery as "coming directly from people there."

"You can go online, you can look at videos of people recording themselves and posting online saying: 'We need help, no one has come here, we have nothing," Trump said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FEMA boss Deanne Criswell criticizes Trump's Hurricane Helene claims