President Joe Biden has been expressing anger at former President Donald Trump for “spreading lies” about FEMA and the hurricane relief efforts underway in the Southeastern United States.
[NOTE: Trump has repeatedly stoked false rumors that FEMA has diverted money intended for disaster relief to “illegal migrants” and that the agency has failed to offer assistance to counties that tend to vote Republican. Trump has repeated these accusations — and others — even as four Republican governors in some of the hardest-hit states have denied his assertions, and have instead reported that the White House and FEMA have been cooperative, helpful and responsive.]
Biden today said he believes that Trump and others who are spreading the falsehoods will “pay a price” for it politically, contending that Trump’s strategy of preying on vulnerable people with lies meant to give him a political advantage is not sustainable.
(Biden, it’s perhaps worth remembering, is the only person to have beaten Trump in an election.)
Reporter: Do you think Trump is singularly to blame for all of this?
Biden: No… but he’s just biggest mouth pic.twitter.com/GLbkEntnl3
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 11, 2024
Biden acknowledges that Trump isn’t solely responsible for what Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently described as the “massive misinformation” problem in the U.S.
Yet Biden points out that Trump is the most potent among the disinformation spreaders, having the largest audience. Trump’s not alone Biden says, “he’s just the biggest mouth.”
[Biden must also contend with Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who suggested that the government “controls” the weather and insinuated that Democrats had targeted certain rural counties which vote Republican with storms to disrupt their lives and their ability to vote.]
As shown below in an interview, the kind of lying Greene and Trump engage in has material effect on the public perception. Trump’s constituents are taking him both literally and seriously — even though longtime Trump backers have warned others not to take the former president literally.
Talked to a woman who believes the US government is controlling hurricanes to hurt Donald Trump’s chances in the 2024 Election. pic.twitter.com/YviQTMtOKr
— The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) October 10, 2024