For politicians who still ground their rhetoric, more or less, in the real world, there’s an argument to be made for they-go-low-we-go-high-ing your way out of acknowledging most of the far-right’s most vile, racist, extreme and dangerous conspiracy theories, including those propagated by Donald Trump himself.
But President Biden found himself in a tricky spot this week: choosing between ignoring the wildly false claims being spread about his administration’s response to two (one impending) catastrophic natural disasters or letting Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene continue saying incredibly stupid and untrue stuff to their audiences unchecked, right before the onslaught of one of the largest storms to ever make landfall in Florida, which is forcing millions to evacuate.
During a briefing with Vice President Kamala Harris Wednesday on the trajectory of Hurricane Milton, Biden announced that his administration was making an “unprecedented number of assets” available to prepare for Milton’s landfall, as well as dealing with the aftermath of the Category 4 storm and Hurricane Helene. But he also, he said, had to address the “onslaught of lies” that Trump has been spreading, baselessly claiming that people’s homes and/or property are being confiscated after evacuating to escape Helene and that people impacted by the storm are only receiving $750 in assistance. He’s also claimed that federal disaster relief funds meant for hurricane victims were being distributed to undocumented immigrants. Biden debunked that as well.
“But now I want to be clear about something. Over the last few weeks, there’s been a reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people,” Biden said. “It’s undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken. It’s harmful to those who need help the most. There is simply no place for this to happen.”
But he saved his most biting remarks for Greene, who has been spreading the lie that the federal government (??) geo-engineered (??) Hurricane Helene in order to seize control of lithium deposits (??) in a certain area of North Carolina, called Chimney Rock.
“Now the claims are getting even more bizarre. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather. We’re controlling the weather,” Biden said. “It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop. Moments like this, there are no red or blue states.”
Plenty of Republicans have even tried to do the course correcting themselves, to get out ahead of their party’s presidential candidate and his friend’s unhinged claims that read like something pulled out of a YouTube video comments section. Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went out of his way on Wednesday to encourage people to be more discerning about what they read on the internet, at least with regards to the government’s response to the storms. Per Politico:
“We live in an era where if you put out crap online you can get a lot of people to share it and you can monetize that. That’s just the way it is,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Wednesday in response to a question from POLITICO about misinformation. “But if you are hearing something that’s just outrageous — just know in the state of Florida none of that stuff would ever fly.”
“Be careful about the nonsense that gets circulated and just know that the more titillating it is, the more likely it is that somebody is making money off it and they don’t really give a damn about the well-being and safety of the people that are actually in the eye of the storm,” added DeSantis.
And Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), whose district was ravaged by Helene last week, went as far as to put out a statement addressed to his constituents encouraging them to not believe everything they read on Facebook or Twitter, as he specifically debunked myths that have been spread by Trump and Greene: “While it is true, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane Helene has had its shortfalls, I’m here to dispel the outrageous rumors that have been circulated online:”
“1. Nobody can control the weather.”
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Frist?
Here’s a photo of Santander Arena, in Reading, PA for tonight’s Trump rally. The arena seats just over 7,000 but I see very few sitting in the stands, only floor seating.
This is 1 hour from his scheduled start time. I’m thinking low-energy here, right?
I’ve seen more people at high school basketball games.
If I really thought that “they” could control the weather, I’m not sure I would also plan on waging a civil war against “them” if the election didn’t go my way.
People die because of the conspiracy lies MTG spreads. It makes her happy. Likewise, TSF.
Room full of losers, with room to go around.
“Biden Forced To Remind Everyone He Doesn’t Control The Weather”
We aren’t headed toward idiocracy anymore. We’re there.