President Joe Biden on Monday vehemently blamed climate change for the devastation from Hurricane Helene, after confirming his government has nothing left to give victims.
More than 130 people have died in the wake of the hurricane and catastrophic flooding, which has been called a once in 1,000 years event.
“Absolutely, positively, unequivocally, yes, yes, yes, yes,” replied Biden in the Oval Office when asked by reporters if he thinks climate change was to blame for the horrors of Helene, per CNN.
Biden has said he plans to go to North Carolina on Wednesday to see the damage for himself, and to Georgia and Florida “as soon as possible after that.”
He was also asked about being in his home state of Delaware when Helene hit.
“Come on, stop that game, will you?” said Biden.
“I was on the phone the whole time working on that.”
“And the resources, the question is not whether we get more… the question is, how to get it in? It’s hard to get it from point A to point B. It’s hard to get it so many roads are wiped out. Communities are wiped out. There’s no ability to land, there’s no ability to get trucks through. There’s no ability to get a whole range of things through.”
“If I sound frustrated, I am.”
The president was asked in a separate video if his government would be giving “any more” federal resources to survivors of the hurricane.
“No, we planned a significant amount when they hadn’t asked for it,” he told a reporter outside his private plane. Biden’s administration had just approved US$175 billion to fund the war in Ukraine.
On a conference call the same day with officials on the Helene response, Biden said the responsibility to fund the response is on the American people.
“I’m going to be asking the American people to continue to help fund these people. It’s not going to be one hit and it’s over. It’s going to take a hell of a long time, and cost a hell of a lot of money. But this is the United States of America. And we’ve gotta do it.”
A reporter began to ask Biden a question, “Trump has accused both of you of ignoring people in Republican areas — “
“He’s lying,” Biden interjected.
“Let me get this straight, he was lying.”
“I don’t know why he does it … implies we’re not doing everything possible. We are! We are.”
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has launched a GoFundMe For Hurricane Helene victims, which by Tuesday morning has already raised over $1 million/
Trump is also working with tech billionaire Elon Musk to get survivors connected to Starlink.
“I just spoke to Elon, we want to get Starlink hooked up, because they have no communication,” Trump said Monday at a press conference.
“Our hearts are with you. We’re going to be with you as long as you need. This is your hour of need. You’re in our prayers, we pray to God.”