While Donald Trump and JD Vance continue to spread dangerous conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene, Republicans are praising the Biden administrations’ relief efforts – and being forced to shut down Trump’s reckless rhetoric about disaster response.

Here are just a few examples of what (Republicans) are saying about the Biden administration’s disaster response – and Trump’s dangerous lies and misinformation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “So, everybody’s pitching in. This is an incredible experience for me. So, to President Biden, thank you for coming. Thank you for paying attention to our needs. I think we’ve had a good working relationship between the federal government.”

Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC): “[The federal assistance for South Carolina] has been superb. […] [President Biden] said whatever we need, to let him know. And we’re doing that. Also Secretary Buttigieg called yesterday and said the same thing. And also Deanne Criswell from FEMA has also called. So we’re getting assistance, and we’re asking for everything we need.”

Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA): “[President Biden] just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, ‘We got what we need. We’ll work through the federal process.’ He offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which — I appreciate that. But we’ve had FEMA embedded with us since a day or two before the storm hit in our state operations center in Atlanta; we’ve got a great relationship with them.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA): “Immediately, we went to work to request additional federal assistance on top of the state and local assistance that we are already providing. Thank you to President Biden, Senator Warner, Senator Kaine and Congressman Griffith for their support and continued coordination to provide assistance to Virginians in need.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): “The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort.”

State Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-NC), who represents some of the areas hit the hardest: “Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in [Western North Carolina?] […] It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job. […] Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you or have you continually contact your elected officials to see if they are true.”

Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN): “There’s a lot of misinformation […] There’s no confiscation of supplies or of products coming in by FEMA or TEMA. Look, these people are in tears. The TEMA director [got] emotional yesterday about the people that we are serving. I saw a county mayor every single mayor with tears in their eyes, emotional, serving the people alongside their FEMA and TEMA counterparts and their EOCs. There’s nothing but commitment to serving the people in this state. And those who spread that kind misinformation, it’s deeply unfortunate what’s happening.”

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC): “I demanded the White House immediately get three pallets of water and two pallets of meals, ready to eat (MREs) delivered to each of our seven, hardest hit counties, and 20 pallets of MREs and 20 pallets of water for Buncombe County to hold them over until state resources were finally delivered. All 75 pallets were delivered same day.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA): “I’m incredibly appreciative of the rapid response and the cooperation from the federal team at FEMA. I’ve been on the phone over the weekend with the senior FEMA administrator. […] I just want to thank our partners at FEMA for advancing resources before these [requests] were even made yesterday.”
Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN): “And you see this rush of local officials, TEMA, FEMA, from the federal to the state to the local, the local emergency management agencies, local county mayors with tears in their eyes out there serving their people. There is a great deal of hope when you see what is behind the effort, the coordinated effort, in this community to begin to rebuild.”