A defiant Lara Trump attacked CNN’s Dana Bash after the host accused her father-in-law of spreading “misinformation” about hurricane victims money being spent on migrants.
Donald Trump, who visited the disaster area in North Carolina on Friday, denounced the $750 relief offer for families who lost their homes to Hurricane Helene.
And he alleged that millions of dollars in FEMA funding have been diverted to migrants crossing the southern border illegally, claiming Bash bluntly told her guest it was “not true.”
But the RNC co-chair pointed out that only $750 is currently available for the thousands devastated by the Category 4 hurricane, and said the money for migrants could be spent “immediately” to help survivors in her home state.
“Why don’t they have anything in order?” she asked on Sunday. “Why is it that citizens in western North Carolina are crying out for help right now, when help should be coming from local citizens?”
RNC co-chair Lara Trump emphasized that the millions the Federal Emergency Management Agency spends on migrants would be better spent on hurricane survivors.
CNN host Dana Bash demanded she condemn the misinformation spread by Donald Trump
More than 220 people are known to have died in America’s deadliest hurricane in nearly two decades, with damage estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars.
“A lot of the money that was supposed to go to Georgia, to North Carolina and everything else, is going and is already gone,” Donald Trump said Friday at a rally in Evans, Georgia.
“For people who entered the country illegally, it’s gone, and no one has ever seen anything like it. That’s a shame.’
FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency – has spent more than $1.4 billion on the migrant crisis over the past two years.
And Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned last week that the country won’t have enough money to cope if another hurricane hits.
“We are meeting immediate needs with the money we have,” he noted. “We expect another hurricane to come, FEMA doesn’t have the resources to get through the season.”
The Biden administration has said the agency has enough money to deal with the current disaster and accused Donald Trump of “spreading poison,” insisting that no money has been diverted from hurricane survivors to migrants.
Estimated damage from Hurricane Helene is in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
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But Tropical Storm Milton is brewing in the Caribbean and is expected to become a major hurricane before hitting Florida next week.
“They’re out of hurricane relief money,” Lara Trump told Bash on CNN’s State of the Union program.
‘We currently have another hurricane heading towards Florida. But they have said there is no money at the moment. Why don’t they have anything in order?
“In North Carolina, I hear from people on the ground every day, and they are desperate for help. It’s a dire situation there.
“The idea that we spent $650 million in FY ’24 on the migrant crisis that Kamala Harris was responsible for and which in all likelihood was created by an open-door policy at our southern border is infuriating.
“We could redirect money to help people immediately on the ground in North Carolina.”
Fema has highlighted displacement assistance, which will be available to cover temporary housing costs for the homeless, assistance with home repair or replacement, assistance with personal belongings, medical assistance to cover the costs of disaster-related injuries, and funeral assistance for relatives of the dead.
House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted that FEMA funds have not been diverted from hurricane victims to migrants when he spoke to Fox News on Sunday, admitting that the funding streams are “different.”
“But the problem is with the American people, you see, and what they’re frustrated about is that FEMA has to get involved,” he explained.
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mission is to help people during times like these of natural disasters. Not to be involved in using any amount of money from any account for the resettlement of illegal aliens who have crossed the border.
“That’s what the Biden administration, Kamala Harris and Secretary Mayorkas have been doing.”
At least 200 people died in six East Coast states in the aftermath of the powerful Category 4 hurricane.
Bash told her guest that survivors may be deterred from seeking the help they deserve if they believe there is little available.
“It’s bad there,” she agreed. “But my question is about the misinformation, especially the idea that they’re transferring money to, you say, undocumented immigrants, which FEMA flat-out says is not true.
‘If people don’t get the right information, they can’t go for help…’
“You have migrants being housed in luxury hotels in New York City,” Trump shot back.
‘We have poured so much of our tax money into the crisis. That didn’t have to happen.’
