Republicans in Congress leave Helene victims hanging

On Thursday evening, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

This is wholly unsurprising for Greene, the right-wing firebrand and conspiracymonger who once mused about the possibility of Jews controlling space lasers for the purpose of starting wildfires. The more surprising aspect is that it reflects the approach the Republican Party is taking generally to Hurricane Helene: rather than doing its job and offering concrete aid to people suffering from the devastation, GOP lawmakers are devolving into conspiracy theories and, like everything else, fearmongering about undocumented immigrants.

As Inside Washington discussed on Thursday, some Republicans such as Senator Rick Scott of Florida have worked in tandem with President Joe Biden in response to Helene. Indeed, even Senator Lindsey Graham put his beef with Biden on pause and greeted his former friend this week.

Similarly, a bipartisan coterie of Senators sent a letter to Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee calling for a supplemental package for Helene relief. That group included Scott and his Florida colleague Marco Rubio; Graham and his fellow South Carolinian Tim Scott; Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock; and Democratic Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner of Virginia.

Blackburn and Scott are up for re-election and know they can leave nothing up to chance. And despite his conservatism, Tillis has also focused on getting results.

But these Republicans are in the minority. Rather, earlier this week during a speech at the New York Stock Exchange, House Speaker Mike Johnson all but said Congress would not act.

“Congress has previously provided FEMA with the funds it needs to respond, so we will make sure that those resources are appropriately allocated,” he said. In other words: don’t expect anything extra, even if you need it.

Biden responded to the Speaker’s sentiments with a clear message: “We can't wait ... People need help now.” The president also correctly stressed that much of the money in past disaster relief bills has gone to more Republican-leaning areas than Democratic-leaning areas. In other words, he wasn’t asking for money for “his” voters. He was simply thinking of the suffering of Americans.

But the fact the areas most affected by Helene are fairly Republican-leaning might be the thing that delays the aid. Johnson is trying to defend his slim Republican majority and that includes endangered incumbents in places like California, New York and New Jersey, about as far away from the storm damage as one could imagine. Many of the areas hit by Helene already lean Republican, and because of gerrymandering, don’t run the risk of losing even if Congress botches the response.

To put it bluntly, it might also might not help Democrats who are trying to hold their one-seat majority if everyone had to come back and vote on extra aid. Calling the Senate back into session would take Montana’s Jon Tester, the most endangered incumbent, off the trail. And worse, it might actually make Rick Scott look good and help him win re-election.

During his speech, Johnson said that “amid the uncertainty and confusion that these tragedies bring, one thing is certain: in the aftermath of disasters like this, we really do see the best of America.”

Unfortunately, he was not talking about his own conference or even the presidential candidate he supports. Donald Trump spent this week falsely claiming that money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency meant for disaster relief had gone to housing undocumented migrants.

“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 vote in this election,” he said in Saginaw, Michigan.

Aside from being completely untrue, Trump’s claim is the peak of hypocrisy, considering that in 2019, he himself diverted money from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to fund immigration detention space for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But this is what the Republican Party has become. Similar to how during the vice presidential debate, Senator JD Vance always pivoted back to immigration, demonizing migrants is the only solution they seem to have to winning this election.