Trump visits hurricane site in Georgia and criticizes Harris

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will speak and help distribute aid in the hurricane-hit swing state of Georgia on Monday, a day after he used the devastating storm as a political attack against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Trump will travel to the southern city of Valdosta to assess the impact of Hurricane Helene and “facilitate the distribution of relief supplies” before speaking to the press at 2 p.m. ET, his campaign said Sunday afternoon.

The short-notice trip comes as Vice President Harris canceled planned campaign stops in Las Vegas to return to Washington, D.C., for a briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, said earlier Monday that he and Harris hope to travel to hurricane-affected areas as soon as they can be confident their presence will not disrupt emergency efforts. He later said he expected to take a trip on Wednesday or Thursday.

According to NBC News, the hurricane’s death toll has risen to 116 since it made landfall in northern Florida on Thursday evening as a Category 4 storm.

At least 25 people have been killed in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, said at a briefing Monday morning. Deaths have also been reported in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Heavy rains, winds and flooding left millions of people without power, and entire cities — including those hundreds of miles inland like Asheville, North Carolina — were under foot-deep water.

On Sunday, Trump made a politically explosive attack on Biden and Harris because of their reaction to Helene.

“They’re raising a lot of money from bad people by doing fundraisers with their radical left-wing crazy donors while large parts of our country have been devastated by this massive hurricane and many, many people are underwater,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

“She should be here. She should be in the area she should be. That’s what she’s paid for, right? That’s what she gets paid for.”

The Harris campaign and its allies had already sharply criticized Trump over his comments about Helene at a rally in Michigan on Friday, when he told those affected by the hurricane: “We are with you all the time, and if we were there, we would be.” would help you and you will be fine.

A Harris campaign social media account quickly shared this clip to suggest that Trump was downplaying the disaster. The clip, released Monday morning, had more than five million views on X, according to the website.

Trump’s allies said the clip was taken out of context and defended his comments, saying he wanted to provide comfort to the storm’s victims.

However, some of the former president’s opponents drew parallels between the quote and Trump’s insensitive responses to previous natural disasters, including throwing paper towel rolls into a crowd surviving a hurricane in Puerto Rico in 2017.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.