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A desperate man in North Carolina has blamed Donald Trump and right-wing misinformation for his father-in-law’s refusal to accept help from FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
On a recent episode of the Dan Abrams Show on SiriusXM, a man named Anthony called in and said the relative, who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, refused assistance from FEMA after the region was battered by the devastating hurricane.
He told Abrams that the situation was “breaking up our family,” according to Mediaite.
Anthony stated that his father-in-law was afraid that FEMA would “take his house” if he accepted assistance from the agency.
Trump, Republican lawmakers, and conservative media figures like Sean Hannity have been pushing misinformation regarding FEMA since Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina.
The former president and others have claimed that FEMA is only giving out $750 in assistance and that the agency is spending its money on migrant shelters rather than disaster aid.
Neither of those claims is true.
“I mean, he lost almost everything, and he’s refusing all help from the federal government and complaining to us that he doesn’t have food, that he doesn’t have the stuff he needs, and yet he won’t accept the help,” the caller said. “What the hell are we supposed to do? We’re not in a position where we can fly across the country and help him. There’s people begging us to get him to accept help and he won’t do it.”
When Abrams suggested showing the father-in-law information debunking the conspiracy theories, the caller said they had, and that his father-in-law only believes Trump.
“We’ve done all of that. We’ve sent him … all the FEMA bulletins. We’ve sent him all the stuff from the fact-checkers. He just doesn’t believe it. He thinks it’s all — he just believes Trump, literally, Dan,” Anthony said. “He just — it’s a cult! He’s a cult member. I’m sorry to say it, he’s a cult member. And he’s my father-in-law and it sucks.”
Republican misinformation about Hurricane Helene relief efforts has become so damaging to the recovery that at least one GOP lawmaker — who represents people impacted by the disaster — is pushing back against his colleagues.
Congressman Chuck Edwards, who represents North Carolina’s 11th district, contradicted the messaging from some of his Republican Party colleagues in a press release, saying he has seen “a level of support that is unmatched by most any other disaster nationwide” coming from the Biden administration.
He further condemned the “outrageous rumors” that were hurting aid operations for those affected in his statement, which was titled “Debunking Helene Response Myths.”
Among his rebuttals to the “myths” was a denial of the claim that Helene was “geo-engineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock.”
“FEMA has NOT diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid,” he wrote, and added that it was “NOT only providing $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery.”
More than 230 people were killed during Hurricane Helene.
