On Thursday’s “CNN News Central,” co-host John Berman stated that “there have been efforts to inject politics into” the news story around the response to the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and pointed to “accusations that President Biden didn’t act quickly enough” and criticism from the campaign of 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump that FEMA spending on migrants has undercut the agency’s ability to respond to future storms as examples and wondered if this would have an impact on recovery efforts.
Berman said, “It is notable that, over the last five days that this has been going on, there have been efforts to inject politics into it. There were accusations that President Biden didn’t act quickly enough. Just a few minutes ago, I was looking at my email, the Trump campaign put out a statement that said, ‘Kamala’s Open Border Jeopardizes FEMA’s Hurricane Response‘. I wonder what the impact of politics — the impact on the recovery efforts that politics has.”
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg responded that the storm recovery isn’t a time for politics and stated that there has been a strong level of bipartisanship among those working on the storm response.
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