Trump response to hurricanes shows reality is at risk in November

Issue #745 The Choice, Thursday, October 10, 2024

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After Trump gave his inauguration speech in January 2017, he wasn’t pleased with the size of the crowd. So he imagined a much bigger crowd and then told his people that his imagination was the new reality. That was when Sean Spicer, who was Trump’s first White House Press Secretary, blatantly and defensively lied about the size of the crowd that attended Trump’s inauguration ceremony. Spicer insisted at a press conference that Trump drew “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”

Don’t think so. Practically moments later, side-by-side pictures were posted of Trump’s meager attendance versus Obama’s which was, well, kinda bigger, by a lot.

Not much later, on January 22, 2017, Presidential Advisor Kellyanne Conway was asked during an interview on Meet the Press why Spicer had lied about the size of the crowd when it was so easy to see just how big that lie was. Conway responded with a statement that has since gained near-mythic WTF-did-she-just-say status:

“Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts.”

Oh. Well, alrighty then.

At the time, most of us in the real world reacted with a range of emotions, from sheer incredulity to sheer amusement. At the time, none of us had any idea that what we were actually witnessing was Trump shoving reality into the trunk of his car - gagged, bound, and screaming - before having one of his Brownshirts drive it off the cliff.

Nearly a decade later, some of us still unbelievably think this is a joke, and that we are hyperventilating unnecessarily. Some of us continue to believe this even as Trump and his supporters used what was initially being reported as what could become the most dangerous storm in more than a century as a campaign prop. It mattered little to him how many lives could have been put at risk as he spewed his torrent of lies and disinformation because, inside his twisted reality, all is well so long as he is well.

From ABC News:

“On Friday, billionaire Elon Musk took to his social media platform, X, to share an unsubstantiated claim with his 200 million followers, alleging that FEMA was deliberately obstructing relief efforts for Hurricane Helene.

“In the post, which quickly garnered over 40 million views, Musk claimed that FEMA was "actively blocking citizens who try to help" by "blocking shipments and seizing goods" intended for delivery to those in need. FEMA and local officials have denied these allegations, labeling them as false.”

From CNN:

“Trump used the same tactics during the Hurricane Helene drama, falsely accusing Democrats of ignoring Republican areas. The ex-president wrongly said that Biden was ignoring calls from Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp. He also claimed, falsely, that Harris had busted the Federal Emergency Management Agency budget to house undocumented migrants and could therefore not help victims of the storm. And Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, misled the country by claiming that the federal government was only offering $750 in aid to citizens who lost their homes. Some of Trump’s claims were debunked by Republican leaders in Georgia and Tennessee. But from Trump’s point of view, it doesn’t matter whether his claims are nonsense. It’s all about making inroads with voters who may not know nuances of the federal relief effort but might take away an unflattering portrayal of Harris.”

From Politico:

“The former president has seized on the devastation left by Helene to launch a barrage of misinformation — including promoting false claims that FEMA spent disaster relief money on migrants that add to his already inflammatory rhetoric about immigration. Across visits to storm-torn states and through social media, he has cast Kamala Harris and the Biden administration as absent and incompetent in delivering aid even as members of his own party in affected areas say otherwise.”

Your vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz isn’t just a vote for competence, sanity, and accountability. It is a vote for reality. Because, in reality, there is no such thing as alternative facts. Only truth and lies. And in reality, some lies can kill you.

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