Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ separate trips to survey Hurricane Helene damage delayed crucial rescue efforts and potentially cost lives, a Republican aid mission charges.
Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, an Army veteran who has personally flown aid missions from Afghanistan to Haiti, is unilaterally coordinating Helene’s relief efforts in North Carolina.
He was there immediately after the storm made landfall last week, before help from the federal government arrived, and witnessed the horrific damage firsthand.
Videos show Mills packing helicopters with food, water and medical supplies flying to affected areas. One photo shows a smiling old lady with an IV in her arm in the back of a helicopter next to a grinning Mills.
At-risk Americans like the smiling lady were endangered by Biden and Harris’ “photo ops,” Mills wrote the president in a letter exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, as those visits could have delayed rescue and air operations on the ground and could have incurred a lot of costs. lives.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., (L) sits next to a smiling woman who was helped during his Hurricane Helene relief effort in North Carolina. The woman could not get help and showed signs of illness, Mills said
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“After 96 hours, rescue missions turn into recovery missions, and both of your visits postponed critical life-saving operations when they were needed most,” Mills wrote in his letter to the president.
“We will never know how many lives could have been saved or helped during the critical time lost taking photos. This level of neglect is unacceptable.”
“The consequences of these actions are not counted in dollars, but in lives. You understand that presidential trips require such actions, and yet you went anyway. This does not demonstrate incompetence on the part of your administration, but rather a calculated decision that your photo was worth hindering rescue efforts.”
The VP visited Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday and an Air National Guard base in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday.
The president flew to Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday to meet with local leaders and be briefed on the local damage.
Biden also visited Ray City, Georgia, on Thursday, where he toured a pecan farm where row after row of orchard trees stood broken and mutilated.
The White House visits, the Republican claims in his letter, forced planes and helicopters delivering vital aid to land before reaching their destinations.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris after assessing the Hurricane Helene recovery response at an Air National Guard base in North Carolina on October 5, 2024. Republican Cory Mills wrote a letter to Biden condemning him and Harris for the “photo ops” that lawmakers said “delayed” rescue efforts
US President Joe Biden hugs Esther Manheimer, mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, during a visit on Tuesday
President Joe Biden speaks with Mayor Esther Manheimer of Asheville, North Carolina during an aerial tour aboard Marine One to assess areas affected by Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in western North Carolina. Such flights, Mills said, caused other aircraft conducting relief work to be grounded, interrupting their critical operations
“After witnessing your government’s complete inability to respond to those stranded by floods, I have been working with private partners over the past week to provide food, water, medical supplies, diapers, insulin, oxygen tanks and other essential supplies to deliver,” Mills wrote.
“We have conducted welfare checks and provided extraction for those in immediate danger.”
“However, despite these efforts, we were forced to suspend all rescue operations so that you and Vice President Harris could take photos for your social media at different times.”
One of the welfare checks they conducted involved the elderly woman from the Asheville area, who showed signs of deterioration before the lawmaker and his crew could pick her up and provide her with assistance.
Members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force search a flood-damaged area with a search dog in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, center right, receives a briefing from North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, center left, on damage from Hurricane Helene, Saturday, October 5, 2024 in Charlotte, NC
Mills aboard a helicopter full of diapers, water, food and other necessities
Mills conducted several missions in the Asheville, North Carolina area
During another check, Mills found an 83-year-old man showing signs of heart problems – an urgent concern.
Republican charges that the president and vice president’s trips amounted to eight hours of “wasted” daylight due to “restricted flying” protocols imposed to allow the visits.
“Due to the lack of adequate federal response, Americans across the country have been reaching out to their neighbors,” Mills’ letter to Biden said. “However, instead of supporting these efforts, regulators have made it more difficult for private citizens to provide life-saving assistance.”
He also says the Biden-Harris administration’s regulations have made it harder to save lives.
People clean up flood debris from Monteath’s Auto Service in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s flooding along the Swannanoa River on October 4, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (L) listens as US President Joe Biden speaks during an operational briefing at the Raleigh Emergency Operations Center following the passage of Hurricane Helene, in Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 2, 2024
“The Department of Transport has even threatened criminal action against drone pilots who survey the area in search of survivors.”
“Worse, Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) imposed during your visit and the Vice President’s visits forced civilian pilots to land. This not only delayed the delivery of essential aid, medical supplies and Starlink systems, but also brought rescue efforts to a standstill.”
Republican Party vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance also denounced federal relief on Monday, saying it has been slow because of red tape.
“You have to give a military commander on the ground the power to get helicopters where they need to go, to get supplies where they need to go, to cut through some of the FAA bureaucracy,” Vance said.
“The problem here, I really think, is just this: It’s like the DMV on an industrial scale.”