'Doesn’t have the answers': MSNBC host offers reminder of Trump's 'bad' hurricane response
Donald Trump has been spreading misinformation and criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris' response to the recent hurricanes affecting several states, but the former president has his own controversial past when it comes to hurricane actions, according to a MSNBC host.
Alicia Menendez, a co-host of “The Weekend" on MSNBC, said that Trump’s presidency "showed us how poorly he handles a moment of national crisis." She also warned that a second Trump term could potentially "be far worse."
"From walking away from our commitment to confront climate change to refusing to deliver disaster relief to Americans in blue states, every extreme weather event could become an exercise in placing politics over public safety," Menendez wrote Friday.
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Reminding Americans about Trump's own highly criticized response to a hurricane, Menendez said, "The visuals of Trump casually tossing paper towels to Hurricane Maria survivors in Puerto Rico are still seared into the minds of Americans."
"But that stunt just scratches the surface. An independent study found about 2,975 people died in the aftermath of Maria. Trump downplayed that death toll, accusing Democrats of inflating the number to make him look bad," the host added. "The Trump administration would later stall $20 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico, relief that Congress approved. In a closed-door meeting with Republicans, Trump also said federal funding was 'way out of proportion to what Texas and Florida and others have gotten.' You see, in the mind of Trump, it’s not about who needs help; it’s about where victims of natural disasters live."
Menendez also brought up a Trump scandal that was more recently revealed, namely the allegation from the ex-president's own former officials that he held up California wildfire aid until someone showed him that one area of the state, Orange County, mostly supported him.
"We recently learned that as president, Trump threatened to withhold federal aid to help California respond to dangerous wildfires. Former Trump administration official Olivia Troye told The New York Times that he viewed disaster relief as a matter of 'red states vs. blue states.' Trump relented, the Times reports, after aides delivered voter data showing his supporters in Orange County were among those hit hardest," she wrote. "The Trump campaign denies that story is true."
In concluding the piece called "Trump thinks Americans have forgotten how bad his hurricane relief efforts were," Menendez wrote that Trump "is once again showing us he cannot be trusted to lead in a moment of despair."
"Empathy, steady leadership, and long-term solutions are needed as the United States grapples with unpredictable hurricane seasons that are only becoming more intense," she said. "Trump doesn’t have the answers."