Politicians are taking advantage of the hurricane devastation in the south, Biden calls Trump a liar

With few exceptions, television news completely bungled the unimaginable devastation that struck western North Carolina over the weekend.

Once Hurricane Helene reached Florida and moved inland, authorities expected it to weaken. Instead, cities like Asheville and East Tennessee were hit by floods of almost biblical proportions, leaving a trail of impassable roads and collapsed bridges.

Why wasn't this the lead story everywhere?

Truth be told, North Carolina is just a blip on the radar of coastal media elites, dismissed as a flyover country. Most news organizations don't have a single reporter there.

NORTH CAROLINA reels from devastating destruction of Helene as death toll rises: 'I've never seen anything like it'

President Biden just made statements over the weekend that reinforce the impression that this is not a Katrina-level crisis. I traveled to New Orleans eight months after the 2005 storm and was amazed to see miles of unoccupied suburban homes damaged by the flooding.

Imagine if the same rate of flooding hit northern New Jersey, directly across from Manhattan. There would have been 500x coverage. In fact, we had a real-world example with Superstorm Sandy that deservedly garnered enormous media attention.

Many shows had their B teams deployed, but few took charge and ordered a full-scale mobilization for the story.

Only a few media outlets – and even politicians – were willing to take responsibility for dealing with Hurricane Helene. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

I was just realizing the extent of the destruction on my show when featured guest Mary Katharine Ham, a North Carolina native, texted me an hour before airtime, urging coverage of the story that was largely ignored. It was a packed program, but I gave her a few minutes to talk about it on Media Buzz.

On Monday, perhaps realizing that they looked terrible, television networks began reporting steadily on the plight in North Carolina and interviewing local officials and survivors. But their journalists faced the challenge of getting to a mountainous region that was isolated and, in some towns, nearly wiped out.

And yet the New York Times and Washington Post have done an excellent job of getting their reporters to produce cover story after cover story about the city of Asheville, an artists' town partially submerged by the devastating flood.

KAMALA HARRIS' SOFT MEDIA INTERVIEWS ARE A “BETRAYAL OF JOURNALISM”: MARY KATHARINE HAM

As the Times put it, the storm “caused at least 37 deaths in the region and left communities without water, food, electricity, gasoline and cell phones.”

The Washington Post from Canton, N.C.: “Doris Towers woke up early Friday morning to the sound of her husband’s dialysis machine beeping, meaning it was out of power. Her neighbor's Christmas lights, which were still on last year, had gone out. Those were the first indications.” She didn’t know that a storm was coming her way.

“Across the mountains in Swannanoa, Joe Dancy and Jenna Shaw got up before dawn to walk their dog and saw the floodwaters rushing toward their home. An hour later, they climbed out of a window with the help of a National Guard soldier.”

Former President Trump has already taken a trip to Helene-ravaged Valdosta, Georgia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Biden, who will visit North Carolina today – Kamala Harris is also planning a visit – addressed the nation Monday morning with his typical empathy: “I'm here to tell every single survivor in these affected areas that we will be with you .” while it lasts.

But the president, who was constantly coughing because of a cold, should have given that speech on Sunday. That would have spurred journalists to take action, as they often follow the White House and instead left the impression that no one was in charge.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, visited an animal shelter in Valdosta, Georgia, and said from notes:

TRUMP LAUNCHES GOFUNDME TO HELP HURRICANE HELENE VICTIMS, RAISES MORE THAN $1 MILLION

“As you know, our country is in the final weeks of a hard-fought national election. At a time like this, when a crisis is breaking out and our fellow citizens are crying out in distress, it doesn't matter. We don't talk about it.” Politics now we all have to come together and solve the problem.

Importantly, Trump brought plenty of supplies with him in collaboration with Franklin Graham, Rev. Billy's son, who runs a Christian relief group.

But the former president did not stay on this good path for long. He posted that Biden and Harris “let Americans drown in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and elsewhere in the South.”

Former President Trump claimed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, was unable to reach President Biden. The latter two have both refuted this. (REUTERS/Anna Rose Layden)

FEMA officials have been working flat out — more than 3,300 federal agents are on the scene — and Harris, who canceled several events, returned to Washington to hear from agency chief Deanne Criswell and addressed officials there about the “heartbreaking “ Losses.

Trump also claimed that Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was unable to reach Biden. But Kemp told reporters he spoke with Biden and the president “offered that if there were other things we could just call him directly, which I really appreciated.”

“He’s lying, and the governor told him he’s lying,” Biden said. “I don't know why he does this. I don't care what he says about me. What is important to me is what he communicates to people in need. He suggests that we are not doing everything that is possible. That’s what we do.”

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Trump also suggested, without evidence, that the Biden-Harris administration is intentionally not helping Republicans in red districts.

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Perhaps it was inevitable that partisan politics hijacked a crisis that devastated many Southern states. And I'm glad that cable news, which largely slept through the weekend, is now on everyone's lips.