A Republican senator lashed out Wednesday at Vice President Kamala Harris on Fox News over her pushback against former President Donald Trump'sfalse claims disparaging hurricane relief efforts, claiming that every attempt to correct the record by either the Harris campaign or media outlets is an attempt to suppress speech.
"Your reaction to what seems to be this pre-emptive attempt by Biden and Harris and the media to silence critics of any aspect of the government's response by calling it all disinformation?" asked host Laura Ingraham.
"Yeah, this is a kind of a standard playbook now, Laura, for anything they don't like to hear," said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO). "They label it misinformation or disinformation. They've tried to censor this stuff before during COVID because ... it wasn't the regime's narrative, and here we go again. There are real stories, there are people hurting who are not getting help. In fact, you know, relief efforts by private citizens were being blocked ... the federal government's response here, led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, have completely failed the people of North Carolina."
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The idea that FEMA blocked private relief efforts has been debunked. FEMA has advised private volunteers to go through proper channels and not to deliver supplies themselves because of dangerous conditions on damaged roads into affected areas. The agency said it is not blocking roads or confiscating supplies from those who are coming in.
Schmitt later slammed Harris for the optics of announcing U.S. aid to foreign governments when hurricane relief is needed in the United States.
"There's all the money in the world for Ukraine and Lebanon. The tone-deafness of announcing $180 million for Lebanon a week ago when people in North Carolina are suffering is emblematic of how "out of touch" Kamala Harris really is with the situation on the ground," he said.
Schmitt called it "really awkward" that Harris has tried to "insert herself" into phone calls about relief.
The conversation then turned to mockery of Harris' unconventional interviews and moments of levity when discussing her campaign, as disaster preparations continue. "It's fine to do a little kitschy thing, you know, that's fine, I guess, but not if you want to be taken seriously when a lot of voters don't take her seriously," said Ingraham.
"Well, it's painful to watch, it's excruciating," said Schmitt. "It's like some sort of AI-generated robot with an algorithm of gibberish ... she can't list one thing that she'd do different than Joe Biden and that's, that's an indictment."
Watch the video below or at the link here.