President Joe Biden on Wednesday shot down hurricane misinformation being peddled by the far-right likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), saying her “stupid” claims could endanger lives and cause political division in a time of crisis.
“It’s so stupid. It’s got to stop, moments like this, there are no red or blue states,” Biden said.
The president was participating in a virtual briefing about Hurricane Milton, a major storm expected to rake Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday night, just two weeks after the deadly Helene made landfall, when he turned to the issue of the “outright lies” being spread by Greene and her ilk. Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.
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“The last few weeks, there’s been a reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies,” Biden commented. “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.”
Greene tweeted out to her 1.2 million followers on X last week that “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
The Georgia congresswoman did not specify who exactly “they” were, but the president took it to mean “the federal government,” a frequent target of her wrath.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather,” Biden said. “We’re controlling the weather. It’s beyond ridiculous.”
Biden also slammed Donald Trump in his address. With less than a month before he squares off with Vice President Kamala Harris at the ballot box, the former president has taken to airing false claims about the hurricane along the campaign trail.
“Assertions have been made that property is being confiscated. That’s simply not true,” Biden said. “They’re saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more. That’s simply not true. They’re saying the money needed for this crisis is being diverted to migrants. What a ridiculous thing to say. It’s not true.”
A reporter later asked the president why Trump was parroting lies about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s hurricane response.
“I don’t know,” Biden said, shaking his head. “I simply don’t know. You can speculate, but I just find it—I’ve used the phrase more than I’ve used it ever my whole career—un-American.”
The Biden administration has begged Republican firebrands in recent days to stop spreading rumors that threaten to harm federal disaster relief efforts. A White House memo issued on Friday noted that it was “paramount that every leader, whatever their political beliefs, stops spreading this poison,” because disinformation regarding the storms could “discourage people from seeking critical assistance when they need it most.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates added in the memo, “This isn’t about politics—it’s about helping people.”
Even Republican lawmakers have criticized Greene for her words.
Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) called her out on Wednesday morning, retweeting her conspiracy post and adding that humans “cannot create or control hurricanes. Anyone who thinks they can, needs to have their head examined.”
North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican, posted on Facebook last week that he’d spoken to a colleague who had “15 calls TODAY about why we don’t stop ........ ‘fill in the blank.’ 98% chance it's not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it.”
He listed several examples of “conspiracy theory junk” he’d heard, including that “FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from [Western North Carolina], stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on.”
The response did not appear to have deterred Greene, who posted another rambling tweet about weather control conspiracies around the same time as Biden’s briefing.
“Everyone keeps asking, ‘who is they?’” she wrote. “Well some of them are listed on NOAA,” a reference to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency that, among other things, forecasts the weather.
It was unclear what exactly Greene meant by this. She attached several screenshots from NOAA’s website listing examples of weather modification projects, but this did not clarify whatever point she was attempting to make about the identity of the supposed perpetrators.
“If your home or business or property is damaged or a loved one is killed by their weather modifications shouldn’t you be eligible for compensation?” she asked. “After all, did they ask you if you agreed to our weather being modified?”
As a community note added to the bottom of Greene’s original tweet clarified, small scale operations like cloud seeding can be performed to create rain in localized areas, but it is currently impossible for any human to manufacture large storms.
Beyond condemnation, the federal government has begun working overtime to counter hurricane misinformation, with FEMA launching an online tool this month to fight the worst of the falsehoods.
Helene slammed into Florida late last month as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour, going on to carve a path of devastation across the state and five others. The storm’s death toll inched upwards of 227 people over the weekend as rescuers continued to search for the hundreds missing.
