Biden and Harris abandon Helene victims for political show

Hurricane Helene devastated the Southeastern United States late last month, destroying entire towns, displacing families, and leaving a level of destruction not seen in generations. The flooding was historic — a “once-in-a-thousand-years” event — but it’s only part of the problem. A huge and looming issue is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s total failure to respond effectively. When Americans needed help most, FEMA was absent.

The agency’s response? Offering just $750 to people who lost everything. How is that supposed to help anyone rebuild their lives?

Can we really survive another four years of this kind of mismanagement?

To make matters worse, less than a day after communities in North Carolina and Florida were inundated and submerged, Congress sent $8 billion to Ukraine, alongside millions more to Israel and Lebanon. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris offers struggling American citizens — the taxpayers funding the government — a pitiful $750, and that’s only if they “qualify” for assistance. Where are the government's priorities? Certainly not here.

Adding insult to injury, while FEMA drags its feet in assisting Americans, the agency has spent more than $1.5 billion since 2022 to house illegal immigrants. This year alone, the Biden-Harris administration allocated $640 million to address the migrant crisis the government fueled with open-border policies.

Meanwhile, Americans who lost their homes, businesses, and sense of security to Helene are being told to scrape by with almost nothing. Prioritizing illegal immigrants over our own citizens during a crisis isn’t just wrong — it’s a disgrace. Our government should put Americans first. Period.

This disaster has made one thing painfully clear: FEMA is not fulfilling its mission. The agency responsible for helping Americans rebuild after disasters is failing, plain and simple.

While FEMA makes excuses, private citizens and companies, like Elon Musk’s Starlink (a division of SpaceX), are stepping up to fill the gap. Musk offered to deploy Starlink communication systems, a vital resource for those cut off from services, but FEMA's bureaucracy has stood in the way. Instead of facilitating aid, the agency is trying to micromanage every detail, which only delays the recovery process. People are waiting for help, but FEMA is tangled in its own red tape.

This goes beyond a FEMA failure — it’s a national embarrassment. Our government is meant to support us in times of crisis, but time and time again, it’s leaving Americans behind.

In the face of such a disaster, where is the president? Nowhere near the areas hardest hit. Instead, he flew over the devastation in Appalachia last week on his way to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a political meet-and-greet with state leaders. He couldn’t even be bothered to land and see the damage in Asheville for himself. This just shows what we’ve all been feeling for a while now: Our national leaders have abandoned us.

Families have lost everything — homes, jobs, loved ones. Instead of offering comfort and support, Joe Biden merely flew over, treating the devastation below as a distant inconvenience. His focus wasn’t on the thousands of Americans struggling to rebuild their lives; it was on checking off his political agenda in Raleigh.

And where is Vice President Kamala Harris? Posturing and complaining on cable news that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who is dealing with a second disaster this week with Hurricane Milton — won’t take her calls. Even Biden had to admit this week, “The governor of Florida has been cooperative.”

How much more incompetence can we tolerate from this so-called leadership? From the border crisis to inflation to disaster relief, this administration has repeatedly shown that it lacks direction. Our officials have no plan, no strategy, and certainly no accountability. It’s clear that they care more about foreign affairs and photo ops than about American lives. When we need them most, they are nowhere to be found.

Every day, it’s clearer that this administration is flying by the seat of its pants. And now, with the botched response to Hurricane Helene, it’s obvious the administration isn't competent — or even willing — to put Americans first.

FEMA’s failure is just one more glaring example of a government that’s completely out of touch with the people it’s supposed to serve. While American families are left scrambling for necessities, Biden and Harris are busy sending billions overseas and fumbling their responsibilities here at home. They talk about “building back better,” but when disaster strikes, their actions tell a very different story. Americans are left behind to pick up the pieces, while this administration carries on as if everything is fine.

The truth is that it’s the everyday Americans who are paying the price for this incompetence — from the families in the Southeast devastated by flooding to the many millions more struggling under the weight of inflation, rising crime, and a border out of control. Can we really survive another four years of this kind of mismanagement?