President Joe Biden bowed his head during a tearful prayer at a Georgia pecan farm that suffered devastating losses as Hurricane Helene, hitting back at criticism of his response Thursday.
The commander-in-chief, 81, stood silently in the sweltering heat as a Ray City farmer concluded his remarks at a post-hurricane event with a prayer.
Biden and senior Washington officials stood listening in front of the rows of huge upturned pecan trees behind him, their leaves brown just days after Hurricane Helene tore through them.
Ray City is about 20 miles north of Valdosta, one of the areas that took the brunt of Helene and where Donald Trump visited earlier this week.
Most of the area remains without power and residents are busy cleaning up the debris from the deadliest hurricane since Katrina, which has killed 200 people so far. At least 33 deaths have been reported in Georgia.
“Lord, this is your creation,” said Buck Paulk, manager of the Shiloh farm, as Biden and lawmakers stood behind him.
“There’s not a twig, leaf, branch or root you don’t take into account,” he said in his Georgia drawl. “Lord, we need help – it all comes from You.”
President Joe Biden bowed his head during a tearful prayer at a pecan farm in Georgia, which suffered devastating losses as Hurricane Helene
Farmers here are looking for a different kind of help from Washington, DC, and Biden said they would get it.
The president was answering a question about an additional relief bill, something he said may be needed soon to provide relief. Speaker Mike Johnson previously said another bill replenished a FEMA fund.
‘I can’t wait, I can’t wait. People need help now,” Biden said.
“At times like these, it’s time to put politics aside,” Biden said during his own remarks. He called for “a breakdown of existing fanatical partisanship” and then said that in some of his previous legislation, funds went more to red states than blue states.
“It’s not one state against another, it’s the United States. You know, there are no Democrats or Republicans here… only Americans are here. I am committed to being president for all Americans.”
Earlier this week, Trump accused Biden of going out of his way to not help Republicans hit by the storm.
At a meeting on Thursday, he said the response was worse than Hurricane Katrina.
“There is no one who has weathered a hurricane or storm worse than what he is doing now,” Trump said. “Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal immigrants. Many of them should not be in our country
Biden mentioned Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, thanking him and saying they had spoken earlier Thursday.
Kemp has already arranged for their contact, but Kemp is there in person for the presidential tour of his state.
The event featured Senator Rafael Warnock, a Democrat who helped give Democrats their majority, as well as Representative Austin Scott, a Republican who also recognized Biden.
“Lord, this is your creation,” said Buck Paulk, manager of the Shiloh farm, as Biden and lawmakers stood behind him.
Farmers here are looking for a different kind of help from Washington, DC, and Biden said they would get it.
“FEMA has been here. The coordination was quite good,” he told DailyMail.com at the farm.
He said damage to the pecan crop was “somewhere around $500 million.”
During an earlier storm tour in Florida, Biden met people who lost their homes. Some homes were completely gone, with only bare poles standing in what had been a community of retirees and vacationers near Big Bend, where the storm made landfall.
The president was accompanied by Senator Rick Scott, who attended in jeans and his trusty Navy ball cap from previous storm duty.
Biden mentioned Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, thanking him and saying they had spoken earlier Thursday
But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was not there, despite an apparent attempt by the White House to reach out.
When asked why DeSantis wasn’t there, Scott told DailyMail.com, “I don’t know.” DailyMail.com has contacted the governor’s office for comment.
DeSantis has been with Biden during other disasters, including after the Surfside building collapse, which occurred as the two were monitoring a possible presidential contest.
The governor, who endorsed Donald Trump after a bitter primary that ended in his defeat, may recall a famous event in which New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie famously toured Hurricane Sandy weeks before the 2012 election. Observers say it helped Obama win re-election.
The trip to Georgia was the last by a top politician to a damaged battlefield state.