Transcript of Heather Cox Richardson's podcast Letters from an American September 29, 2024. Late Friday night, Tennessee House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison posted, President Biden has finally approved Tennessee Governor Bill Lee's state of emergency request, making it sound as if the delay in federal support for the state during the devastation of Hurricane Helene was Biden's fault. In fact, while Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, 0:36 and South Carolina all declared emergencies and requested and received federal approval of those declarations before the hurricane hit, Governor Lee did not. Instead, in keeping with an April joint resolution from the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature calling for 31 days of prayer and fasting to seek God's hand of mercy healing on Tennessee, 1:03 Lee proclaimed September 27th a voluntary day of prayer and fasting. Lee did not declare a state of emergency until late on September 27th, after flash flooding had already created havoc. President Biden approved it immediately. The extraordinary damage from Helene in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia continues to mount. 1:35 At least 91 people have died, and search and rescue teams are at work across several states. More than 2 million people are without power, and western North Carolina is isolated after its roads washed out. A fire at a chemical facility in Conyers, Georgia, outside Atlanta, forced the evacuation of 17,000 people nearby. 1:59 The National Weather Service office in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, wrote to the residents of the Western Carolinas and Northeast Georgia, This is the worst event in our office's history. Faison's implication that Democratic President Biden, rather than Republican Governor Lee, was to blame for the slow federal response to Helene in Tennessee, 2:24 illustrated the Republicans' attempt to create a fake world to motivate their base with fear and anger, while leaving Democrats to come up with real-world solutions. And since those solutions are popular, Republicans are claiming credit for them. In the past two days, Republican lawmakers who just days ago voted against funding the federal government 2:47 and who have railed against government spending have been out front claiming credit for getting federal disaster relief. Republican presidential nominee Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator J.D. Vance have been claiming that it was Trump who capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month. Vance has accused Vice President Kamala Harris of lying when the Biden 3:12 administration takes credit for it. Vance's statement itself is a breathtaking lie. Trump signed an executive order in July 2020 establishing a temporary, voluntary program that let some Medicare Part D prescription drug plans cap monthly insulin co-payments at $35. The program ran from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2023. The Inflation Reduction Act, 3:43 which Biden signed into law in August 2022, required all Part D plans to charge no more than $35 a month for all covered insulin products. All Democrats in the House and Senate voted for the Inflation Reduction Act and all Republicans, including J.D. Vance, voted against it. 4:06 As Republicans have lost the support of Republican women for their attacks on reproductive rights and embrace of the misogyny of the MAGA movement, they have tried to beef up the idea that they are the country's true supporters of women and families. Trump, who has been found liable for sexual assault, has been trying to assure women, 4:26 I want to be your protector. As president, I will have to be your protector. With him back in office, he said at a rally in Pennsylvania, women will be happy, healthy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion. Journalist Jessica Valenti noted that anti-abortion activists are running 4:50 advertisements blaming the deaths of women in states with abortion bans, not on those bans or those who pass them, but on the Democrats trying to protect reproductive health care. Women have died when doctors would not give them life-saving care out of concerns about prosecution under states' abortion bans, or were unable to access abortion care. But the ads, 5:14 using the names and images of women who have died under anti-abortion regimes, claim that life-saving care is still legal, but doctors don't know they can use it because of misinformation from pro-choice activists. Anti-abortion Republican Derrick Anderson, who is running to represent Virginia's 7th Congressional District, 5:36 has appeared in campaign photographs with a woman and children posed as if they are his family, but they are not. He is unmarried and childless, and the family is that of a friend. That last one is really weird, but the biggest lies from the Republicans concern immigration, 5:54 especially as voters blame the Republicans for killing a strong bipartisan border bill earlier this year after Trump demanded they keep the issue open for him to campaign on. J.D. Vance was among those who voted against it. There were the lies Vance spread about Springfield, Ohio, of course, attacking the legal Haitian immigrants there who have been credited with 6:18 revitalizing the city. On Friday and Saturday, Trump lied that Vice President Harris had let 13,000 or 14,000 convicted murderers enter the U.S. in the past three years, who freely and openly roam our country, a lie that Elon Musk called true. In fact, as CNN's Daniel Dale pointed out, it is a lie. 6:45 The Department of Homeland Security clarified that the data to which Trump appeared to refer lists individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years, including during his own term. committed crimes in the U.S. rather than their country of origin, and either are currently incarcerated or have served their sentences but can't be 7:08 deported because their country of origin won't accept them. Such individuals are monitored. On Saturday, Julia Taruso of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a woman in a Philadelphia suburb received a letter that looked like an official document from the fake Pennsylvania Congressional Office of Immigration Affairs, 7:31 telling her that she was expected to provide living space to five migrants under a program written into law by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. As Taruso wrote, no office exists, nor does such a government-mandated housing program. But the letter, doctored to look like an official government document, 7:55 provided specific details designed to mislead someone less attuned to a scam and laid the blame for the fake program at the feet of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during a heated and close election in which immigration has increasingly become a focal point. Lies establish dominance over people being lied to because lies take away a 8:20 person's right to make good decisions about their own life. So what's the purpose of the Republican lies? Former President Trump is the Republican presidential nominee, but his recent attacks on special counsel Jack Smith and his attempts to sell watches for up to $100,000 a piece suggest he is interested mostly in avoiding prosecution and gathering donations. 8:45 At his recent events, he is slurring his words, unable to answer questions, and seems consumed with anger and a desire for revenge against those he sees as his enemies. He has recently referred to Harris as mentally disabled. And today in Erie, Pennsylvania, he said that crime would end if you had one really violent day, one rough hour, 9:10 and I mean real rough. The word will get out and it will end immediately. He has though focused on painting a picture of the US as a hellscape overrun with undocumented criminal immigrants. Journalist Aaron Ruppar of Public Notice, who clips Trump's speeches on social media, compared yesterday's rally in Prairie du Chien, 9:34 Wisconsin to the two minutes hate against political enemies in George Orwell's 1984. Trump's attacks on immigrants were so extreme, even he admitted, this is a dark speech. Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is also doubling down on anti-immigrant attacks. In that, they are echoing the language Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban used to get 10:01 voters to support him out of fear of immigrants. Then Orban took control of Hungary, undermined its democracy, and set himself up as a dictator. Once in charge, Orban insisted that democracy was obsolete. The democratic principle that the law must treat everyone equally and give them a say in their government, he said, weakens a nation by treating women, 10:28 LGBTQ plus individuals, and racial, ethnic, and religious minorities as equal to white heterosexual men. Immigration weakens a nation by diluting its purity He set out to establish what he called illiberal democracy, or Christian democracy, enforcing religious rules and laws that reestablish patriarchy. Project 2025 was backed by the Right-Wing Heritage Foundation, which has ties to Orban's Danube Institute, 11:01 and to the extent he talks about policies, Trump echoes that game plan. He has promised, for example, that he would replace civil servants with loyalists, and today again vowed to get rid of the Department of Education, both key items in Project 2025. Vance has gone further, attacking secular American society itself. In 2021, 11:26 he said in an interview that American conservatives have lost every major powerful institution in the country, except for maybe churches and religious institutions, which of course are weaker now than they've ever been. We've lost big business. We've lost finance. We've lost the culture. We've lost the academy. 11:47 And if we're going to actually really affect real change in the country, it will require us completely replacing the existing ruling class with another ruling class. I don't think there's sort of a compromise that we're going to come with the people who currently actually control the country. 12:05 Unless we overthrow them in some way, we're going to keep losing. We really need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power," he said. On Saturday, Vance spoke at an event hosted by right-wing extremist evangelical leader Lance Wallnau, a member of the New Apostolic Reformation movement that seeks to end the separation 12:31 of church and state and put the United States under religious rule. At the event, Vance claimed that American children can't add five plus five, but they can tell you that there are 87 different genders. He claimed that schools are teaching children radical ideas rather than reading-writing arithmetic. 12:55 He called it creeping socialism in our schools and called for cutting funding for public education. The White House today said that more than 3,300 federal personnel are deployed in the states impacted by Hurricane Helene, and that at least 50,000 people from 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada are working to restore power. 13:20 FEMA has moved in food and is working to restore cell coverage. Federal search and rescue teams are on the ground. The U.S. Coast Guard is working to reopen damaged ports. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is assessing damage and moving debris. The Environmental Protection Agency is working on water systems. 13:40 The Small Business Administration has 50 people on the ground to support small businesses. The U.S. Department of Energy is monitoring power, fuel, and supply chains. The Department of Agriculture is extending credit to farmers who lost crops and livestock. At a campaign event in Las Vegas tonight, Vice President Harris said, 14:04 We will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild. Wall now has accused Harris of practicing witchcraft. 14:22 Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.
Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more September 30, 2024 Heather Cox Richardson Oct 1 READ IN APP One hundred years ago tomorrow, former president Jimmy Carter arrived in the world in Plains, Georgia. According to the Atlanta Constitution of that date, he arrived just after the worst wind and rainstorm of the year passed off to sea. His home state of Georgia, along with North Carolina and Virginia, sustained significant damage, with railroad tracks and bridges washed out, crops damaged, and at least seven lives lost. Today, almost a hundred years later, the destruction from Hurricane Helene continues to mount. At least 128 people have died in six states, and many more remain unaccounted for. Roads remain closed, and power is still off for more than 2 million people. In remarks to reporters today, President Joe Biden called the damage “stunning” and explained that the federal government is providing all the support it can. He noted that federal help was on the ground before the storm and when asked if there were more the government could be doing, answered no and explained that the administration had “preplanned a significant amount of it, even though they…hadn’t asked for it yet.” Biden said this morning he will not tour the damaged areas until his presence will not disrupt emergency response operations. This afternoon, he said he would travel to North Carolina on Wednesday for a briefing and an aerial tour of Asheville, after ensuring the travel “will not disrupt the ongoing response.” He has also said he may have to ask Congress to come back into session before its mid-November return date to pass a supplemental spending bill. Punchbowl News political reporter Melanie Zanona noted that Congress left disaster aid out of the short-term continuing resolution to fund the government it passed before leaving town. And yet, the hurricane has become the latest topic of disinformation for MAGA Republicans. Social media today is full of accounts claiming that the federal government is not responding to the crisis in western North Carolina because it prefers to spend money in Ukraine and on undocumented immigrants. Newsmax host Todd Starnes claimed that FEMA’s “top priority is not disaster relief” but to push diversity, equity and inclusion. “So, unless you’ve got your preferred pronouns spraypainted on the side of your submerged house—you won’t get a penny from Uncle Sam. Western North Carolina is just too Conservative and too Caucasian for FEMA to care.” The House Judiciary Committee posted that “Joe Biden was at the beach.” These posts echo Russian disinformation, and Trump was on board with it. Touring Valdosta, Georgia, today, as a private citizen where people are still without power amidst the devastation, Trump said he had spoken to Elon Musk to get his Starlink satellites into North Carolina; FEMA has already provided 40 of the systems to North Carolina. He claimed that Georgia governor Brian Kemp is “having a hard time getting the president on the phone. They’re being very non-responsive.” Kemp himself told reporters that Biden had called yesterday. “And he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’” Kemp told him, “We got what we need, we’ll work through the federal process. He offered that if there’s other things that we need just to call him directly, which I appreciate that.” South Carolina governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, called it “a great team effort…the federal government is helping us well, they’re embedded with us. There is no asset out there that we haven’t already accessed.” Republican governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin told reporters that he was “incredibly appreciative of the rapid response and cooperation from the federal team at FEMA.” Asheville, North Carolina, mayor Esther Manheimer told CNBC “We have support from outside organizations, other fire departments sending us resources, the federal government as well. So it's all-hands-on-deck, and it is a well-coordinated effort, but it is so enormous….” FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg responded to a post claiming that FEMA was refusing to help certain Americans, saying: “This is a lie. We help all people regardless of background as fast as possible before, during and after disasters. That is our mission and that is our focus.” In contrast, numerous posters today noted that Trump repeatedly withheld federal aid from Democratic governors—including that of North Carolina—after disasters in their states. After the Trump campaign organized a fundraiser for victims of the hurricane, David Frum of The Atlantic reminded readers that in 2019, Trump was fined $2 million and three of his children were ordered to take classes as a penalty for taking for their own use funds from charities they ran. When a reporter asked President Biden and Democratic North Carolina governor Roy Cooper to respond to Trump’s accusation that they are ignoring the disaster, Biden responded: “He's lying. And the governor told him he was lying…. I've spoken to the governor, spent time with him…. I don't know why he does this. And the reason I get so angry about it, I don't care about what he says about me, but I care what he communicates to the people that are in need. He implies that we're not doing everything possible. We are…. I assume you heard the Republican Governor of Georgia talk about that he was on the phone with me more than once. So that's simply not true. And it's irresponsible.” Economist Paul Krugman noted: “We’ve all become desensitized, but it’s amazing how at this point the Trump campaign rests entirely on denouncing things that aren’t happening—[an] imaginary bad economy, imaginary runaway crime and now an imaginary failure of Biden and Harris to respond to natural disaster.” In Florida, though, Governor Ron DeSantis says his state does not need more federal help. “We have it handled,” he said. DeSantis might be eager to downplay the damage to the state in part because in May he joined other Republican leaders in an attack on Biden’s actions to address climate change. DeSantis signed into law a new Florida measure that erased any references to climate change in state law, where they had been included in a 2008 climate change and renewable energy package then backed by the state’s Republicans. The new law prohibited cities and counties from approving restrictions on energy policy, relaxed regulations on natural gas pipelines, and state and local governments from taking environmental concerns into consideration in their investing policies. DeSantis also rejected more than $350 million in federal funding for initiatives to promote energy efficiency, and $320 million for reducing vehicle emissions. Like DeSantis, the authors of Project 2025 claim that those working to address climate change are part of “the climate change alarm industry,” which is “harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” In fact, the U.S. economy is booming in part thanks to the climate change initiatives begun under the Inflation Reduction Act, which have prompted both domestic and foreign investment in alternative technologies. Biden approached the need to address climate change as an opportunity to create good jobs, including union jobs, in the United States. With those investments, economist Mark Zandi wrote yesterday that the U.S. economy is one of the best performing economies in the past 35 years. “Economic growth is rip-roaring, with real GDP up 3% over the past year. Unemployment is low at near 4%, consistent with full employment. Inflation is fast closing in on Fed’s 2% target—grocery prices, rents and gas prices are flat to down over the past more than a year. Households’ financial obligations are light, and set to get lighter with the Fed cutting rates. House prices have never been higher, and most homeowners have more equity in their homes than ever. Corporate profits are robust, and the stock market is hitting a record high on a seemingly daily basis.” Zandi noted that there are “blemishes.” Lower-income households are struggling, there is a shortage of affordable housing, and the government is running large budget deficits. As always, things could change quickly. “But in my time as an economist,” he wrote, “the economy has rarely looked better.” North Georgia, the area represented by MAGA Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, is one of the areas that has been revitalized with new solar panel manufacturing funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. Yet Phil Mattingly and Andrew Seger of CNN reported on Friday, September 27, that while voters there like the strong economy, in this year’s election they say they still plan to back Trump, who has called Biden’s green energy initiatives a “scam” and vowed to claw back any money still unspent from the Inflation Reduction Act. Aaron Zitner, Jon Kamp, and Brian McGill of the Wall Street Journal today called attention to this paradox, that people in counties that vote for Trump are significantly more likely than those that vote for Democrats to rely on federal government funding. This is in part because they are older and thus receive Social Security and Medicare, and in part because they live in areas hollowed out when industries there left. These are the areas the Biden-Harris administration have targeted for investment. The authors note that these government-funded pro-Trump counties are clustered in the swing states that will decide the election. About 70% of the counties in Michigan, Georgia, and North Carolina rely significantly on government income. So do nearly 60% of the counties in Pennsylvania. In other news today, in Georgia, Fulton County Superior Court judge Robert McBurney struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, which prohibited abortions before many women know they’re pregnant, as unconstitutional. A government investigation recently showed that two Georgia women died after being unable to obtain abortion care in the state shortly after Georgia’s ban went into effect. In a searing 26-page decision, the Republican-appointed judge wrote that the state cannot force a woman to carry a fetus that cannot live on its own. “Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote. Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy.” — Notes: “Floods Threaten Further Damage in Coast States,” Atlanta Constitution, October 1, 1924, p. 1. https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/hurricane-helene-florida-north-carolina-georgia-09-30-24/index.html https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/09/30/remarks-by-president-biden-before-air-force-one-departure-dover-de/ https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2024/05/15/desantis-erases-climate-change-from-fl-laws-strikes-blow-at-windmills/73591696007/ https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/27/politics/dalton-georgia-trump-voters-biden-climate-law/index.html https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/28/global-climate-change-trump-00181545 https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/americans-government-aid-social-security-medicare-unemployment-34e92b19 https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/30/weather/hurricane-helene-recovery-cleanup-monday/index.html https://www.dhs.gov/news/2024/09/30/fema-administrator-deanne-criswell-ground-north-carolina-biden-harris https://www.flgov.com/2023/05/02/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-protect-floridians-financial-future-economic-liberty/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/11/14/remarks-by-president-biden-on-actions-to-address-the-climate-crisis/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25178630-mcburney-sistersong-final-order X: AndrewJBates46/status/1840808960078856520 fineout/status/1840764472987660637 MZanona/status/1840777120877830640 toddstarnes/status/1840768361719837125 GregTSargent/status/1840817792490078219 FEMAspox/status/1840769129453621278 stealthygeek/status/1840792688607547625 POTUS/status/1840550991961162064 DC_DeWitt/status/1840802327445504502 HerbieZiskend46/status/1840795819433226491 Fritschner/status/1840793559672172628 PastorBenMarsh/status/1840748036508536950 8fuld/status/1840177846146236707 DJ_ILLIN_PAIN/status/1840508258336833894 Markzandi/status/1840488882405614037 KamalaHQ/status/1840903509094338669 POTUS/status/1840889620281589926 davidfrum/status/1840890635294818666 Acyn/status/1840877980777923020 AccountableGOP/status/1840815309080473666 KamalaHQ/status/1840908305759113412 paulkrugman/status/1840868481807298587 KamalaHQ/status/1840899223790711120
You saw his post where he said he was? I was wondering the same about you, did the hurricane hit you hard?
Well @Tsing Tao, hope all is well. No hurricanes here nearer the ecuator but cooler than usual. It is actually quite comfortable though the wife is complaining and wearing a cardigan. A friend near a little town named Carabelle, South of Talihasee is mourning the loss of his 1968 De Tomaso Mangusta (Bill's car from Kill Bill) and a couple of other cars that storm surge ruined.
No, just some rain and wind, but thank you for asking, brother. We had some employees on the bay who had their entire houses flooded out. But although I like the water, I never wanted to live on it. My house is a fortress!
Guess which bootstrappy, patriot proud, non-gubmint-needing Southern state is now pleading, open hands outstretched, for MORE federal money because their own agency ran out? They should really cross the border to the purple state of North Carolina and see how all the government and private agencies are cooperating for a rapid recovery -- including getting funding to farmers and businesses to get them up and running. Tennessee offers little relief for farmers wrecked by Helene https://www.wuot.org/news/2024-10-25/tennessee-offers-little-relief-for-farmers-wrecked-by-helene