FEMA has had to counter a surge of misinfo amid its disaster response to Helene and Milton, thanks to some prominent Republicans.
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HUFFPOST Fringe
 
 
 
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Republicans Are Derailing Disaster Response With A Deluge Of Misinformation
 
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has had to counter a surge of misinformation amid its disaster response to Helene.

Prominent Republicans have fueled these rumors. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed the U.S. government 
is able to control the weather and has targeted predominantly GOP states. Trump falsely claimed the Biden administration is taking money from FEMA and using it to help immigrants vote illegally in the November elections. Trump also falsely claimed FEMA is only giving $750 to survivors of Helene.


FEMA braced for more misinformation this week as it prepared this for Hurricane Milton. But this time around, some Republicans are calling out members of their own party for spreading dangerous lies.


“NEW FLASH —> Humans cannot create or control hurricanes,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.
) wrote on social media on Wednesday, in response to Greene making this claim. “Anyone who thinks they can, needs to have their head examined.”


Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) created a new fact sheet for Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee about FEMA’s disaster relief fund. It spells out that there is “no funding connection between” FEMA’s migrant shelter program and its disaster relief fund, rebutting Trump’s false claim.


The fact sheet also states that there is “no intermingling of funding between these two programs” and that “the only connection is that both programs are administered by FEMA.”


FEMA has been stepping up its efforts to counter all the bad information. It set up a page on its website, “Hurricane Helene: Rumor Response,” dedicated to countering unverified claims. North Carolina state officials set up a similar rumor-busting webpage of their own. And in their calls with the press, FEMA officials routinely debunk the latest rumors.


“That is absolutely not true,” Keith Turi, acting director of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, said Monday in response to the $750 claim being spread by Trump.


Turi also shot down false claims that FEMA is confiscating people’s possessions when it goes in to help disaster survivors, calling lies like this ”extremely damaging to the response efforts.”

 
Read more
 
 
 
 
 
 
What Else Is Happening
 
 
The Republican congressman who represents a western North Carolina district badly damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Helene is tired of the conspiracy theories about recovery efforts circulating online. In a lengthy statement, Rep. Chuck Edwards praised the support his district has received but also noted “an uptick in untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains.”
 
 
Read More
 
 
During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday, Donald Trump said immigrants were filling the country with “bad genes” and used lies about decades-old crime statistics to make his point. Trump has long been obsessed with the idea that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America — echoing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric.
 
 
Read More
 
 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is threatening to bring criminal charges against a local news channel that aired an advertisement in support of the abortion rights measure, Amendment 4, which would overturn DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban and restore access to the procedure until fetal viability.
 
 
Read More
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Before You Go
 
 
 
 
 
 
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