FEMA director on misinformation: ‘Truly dangerous narrative’
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said Sunday misinformation surrounding the agency's funding — and, specifically, Donald Trump's false claims that money that went to undocumented immigrants has depleted money for hurricane relief — is a "truly dangerous narrative."
"It's frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people," Criswell said in an interview with host George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week." "It's really a shame that we're putting politics ahead of helping people, and that's what we're here to do. We have had the complete support of the state."
She added, "We have had the local officials helping to push back on this truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear of trying to reach out and help us or register to help.
The false claims have been pushed by Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who have reiterated that funding for undocumented immigrants has led to less money and resources to help Americans with hurricane relief — a claim FEMA and local officials have repeatedly pushed back on. These theories are part of a wide range of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories circulating now, including one that Helene was a plot to drive out the population for lithium mining, as well as one by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that an unspecified "they" sent Helene to wipe out Trump voters in the region.
Criswell reiterated in the interview that FEMA has all the resources it needs, adding that many of the resources were moved prior to Hurricane Helene hitting the United States. She said FEMA staff was embedded to work side by side with state and local officials to quickly bring those resources to where they were needed and will continue to do that. These continuing efforts come right before another tropical storm is predicted to make landfall as a hurricane in Florida this week.
Stephanopoulos noted that a lot of these claims are going viral online. He pointed to one person online suggesting that a militia should go against FEMA. That post got more than half a million views, he said.
"It has a tremendous impact on the comfort level of our own employees to be able to go out there, but it's also demoralizing to all of the first responders that have been out there in their communities, helping people. FEMA staff, volunteers, the private sector that are working side by side with local officials to go out and help people," Criswell said, when asked about the impact of these claims online.
She added, "I need to make sure I can get the resources to where they're needed, and when you have this dangerous rhetoric like you're hearing, it creates fear in our own employees, and we need to make sure we're getting help to the people who need it."
Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) rejected the idea that his state was not getting the resources it needs because of immigration, and said that he expects Congress to approve more funding.
"We have the resources that we need; we're going to have to go back and pass more resources," Tillis said. "We could have a discussion about the failure of this administration's border policies and the billions of dollars it is costing. But right now, not yet is it affecting the flow of resources to North Carolina."
