“There’s so much misinformation and disinformation this election cycle. It’s actually scary,” Farah Griffin stated on Monday.
She continued, “And now they’re being lied to about: ‘There isn’t relief for you.’ There’s actually been a downtick in volunteers because volunteers think there’s not enough funding for them to be able to help the efforts.”
The former Trump White House communications director made her comments in response to a segment featuring clips of Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), criticizing FEMA for claiming it was running out of funds for hurricane relief. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had warned last Wednesday that FEMA did not have enough resources to last through the hurricane season.
With numerous states still conducting recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene, discussions about FEMA’s spending on immigration resettlement have become a lightning rod issue. Farah Griffin attributed the “downtick in volunteers” to Trump’s messaging, suggesting that it had forced FEMA to allocate resources to maintain “a live blog that’s debunking myths in real-time.”
FEMA also set up a fact-check page to address rumors regarding its aid distribution for Hurricane Helene and to clarify funding concerns.
Farah Griffin argued, “It’s just distracting from the efforts to save lives. Donald Trump’s doing this because of politics. North Carolina is a battleground state.” She added, “He wants to scare North Carolina voters into supporting him — thinking the Biden-Harris administration isn’t helping them.”
Whoopi Goldberg also attacked Trump’s claims about FEMA money being diverted to migrants, calling it “a bald-faced lie.” Co-host Ana Navarro mocked the extent of Trump’s immigrant-related accusations, quipping, “Are they going to blame immigrants for Donald Trump having five pieces of hair left on his head?”
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell labeled the criticism of the agency “dangerous,” noting its impact on employees and the public trust in FEMA’s work. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) defended the criticism, arguing that FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have been spending billions on migrants. He contended that the administration has a pattern of reallocating funds as it sees fit.
Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) condemned the spread of misinformation on platforms like X, asserting that disinformation during a crisis could harm real people.
Despite the backlash, Trump persisted in his attacks, writing on Truth Social, “The GREAT people of North Carolina are being stood up by Harris and Biden, who are giving almost all of the FEMA money to Illegal Migrants in what is now considered the WORST rescue operation in U.S. history.” He urged voters to abandon Harris, concluding with “MAGA2024!”
