Kamala Harris pulled no punches on Tuesday when she went after Donald Trump for what The View co-host Ana Navarro characterized as blatant “lies” about the Biden administration’s efforts to help hurricane victims.
“It’s profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness,” Harris said on the show in her first live interview since accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. “This is so consistent about Donald Trump,” she added, “He puts himself before the needs of other [people].”
Trump has said repeatedly on the campaign trail that the Biden administration was redirecting relief aid from Florida to pay for migrants. “Kamala spent all of her FEMA money—billions of dollars—on housing for illegal migrants,” he said at a Michigan rally. “They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants who they want to have vote for them.”
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A Homeland security spokesperson has since debunked Trump’s claim by pointing out that “The Shelter and Services Program (SSP) is a completely separate, appropriated grant program” that “is not associated in any way with FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding streams”—none of which has stopped Trump from continuing to spread the false claims.
“I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people,” Harris said on Tuesday. “Lives are literally at stake right now,” she continued, expressing her disapproval that “somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself.”
And later, she added, “I think people are exhausted, and they’re exhausted with the lies, they’re exhausted with the selfishness, they’re exhausted with the attempts to divide us as Americans, and they’re ready to turn the page and chart a new way forward. And I feel very optimistic about that.”
Harris also had a few choice words for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who declined the vice president’s calls about prepping the state for Hurricane Milton because they “seemed political” and claimed she’d never called him about hurricane relief in the state previously.
Harris responded Tuesday, “Well, first of all, I have called and talked with, in the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, Democrat and Republican governors—called, taken the call, answered the call, had a conversation,” she said. “So obviously, this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders, but maybe [it] is for others.”
