During Florida visit, Biden and DeSantis put politics on hold
The response of the First Lady and Governor of Mississippi to the September 26 Tornado that killed Sixty-Five People, including Joe Biden
As the governor swept through a relief station set up at Monroe Canal Marina on Tuesday, residents swarmed to take photos and thank him for his work. “To hell with Joe Biden,” bellowed one man. Where the hell is he?
“You can go over it in a helicopter, and you can see damage, but it does not do it justice until you are actually on the ground,” Mr. DeSantis said during a solo appearance on Wednesday.
The response of the president to the Mississippi tornado that killed 26 people was classic Biden. He and the First Lady are praying for those who have lost loved ones, and for those who are missing, in the tornado ravaged state of Mississippi.
CNN Observer’s View of the Panama Canal Storm: Opinions of Mr. Biden About the Response of the Florida Department of Emergency Response to the Storm
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As he traveled to meet Mr. DeSantis in a wharf area near Fort Myers, the president passed people who were taking photos. Others had their hands in the air.
Still, Mr. Biden stressed that personal politics would not affect the federal government’s response to the storm. The White House will fulfill a request from the Florida government to keep the federal government fully funded for debris removal and emergency response efforts prior to his visit. Mr. Biden said that the funding would last 60 days.
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The Destruction of Waco, Mississippi, During the First 2024 Presidential Reclamation after the December 6, 1993 Tornado: A Trump-Biden Speech
At a campaign rally on Saturday, Trump demonstrated his usual egoism and selfishness, making everything about himself, while Biden put on display a full measure of the compassion and empathy that we have come to expect from our leaders when responding to a devastating disaster.
The President spoke with all of the FEMA Administrator, Mississippi officials and members of Congress on Saturday after Biden said what he had just said. They discussed the government’s response to the storm, including the President offering full federal support as communities recover.
“The president assured me that as soon as he got it, he would sign it,” Reeves said. And early Sunday, Biden did in fact sign an emergency disaster declaration to aid recovery and clean-up efforts, including federal funding grants for temporary housing.
Friday night’s tornado reached wind speeds estimated at 170 miles per hour, leaving behind jaw-dropping devastation. The mayor of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, which was flattened by the tornado, tragically summed up the extent of the destruction, saying that the “city is gone.”
It’s hard to overlook the fact that Trump, when he was president made much less effort to be even handed about doling out aid to those in need from blue states during times of disaster.
The former president chose to hold his first 2024 presidential rally in Waco, Texas, a city which is marking 30 years since the 1993 standoff between the Branch Davidian religious extremist sect and the federal authorities. The compound was raided by the FBI and 76 people were killed, including 26 children.
He was on stage when a recording of a song called “Justice for All” played over the speakers. The soundtrack was performed by a choir of people imprisoned for their roles in the January 6 terrorist attack at the US Capitol, interspersed with a recording of Trump saying the Pledge of Allegiance. There was a giant screen behind the former president that showed the footage from the insurrection.
Before he began his speech, Trump made a brief mention of the tornado that hit Mississippi and sent his prayers to those who have been touched by it.
He then used a rhetorical attack on the “corrupt, rotten and sinister forces” trying to destroy America and repeated the lie of “rigged” elections. As The New York Times reported: “Trump devoted long stretches of his speech to his own legal jeopardy rather than his vision for a second term, casting himself as a victim of ‘weaponization’ of the justice system.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/27/opinions/biden-trump-campaign-rally-mississippi-obeidallah/index.html
Why did Donald Trump lose his reelection in 2004? A reminder of why Joe Biden is the President of the United States, and why he is in the White House
Obviously, Biden, as president, has an ability to help people that Trump does not. Trump was able to visit the site of the Norfolk Southern toxic train accident in East Palestine, Ohio, when it fit his political interests.
Yet, in the aftermath of a devastating storm that devastated parts of a region where he enjoys broad support, Trump was mostly focused on what he always has been since he entered the world of politics: Trump.
Shortly before the close of his speech in Waco, the former president – who faces potential criminal charges in various jurisdictions – rattled off a list of those he believes to be his political opponents from “the fake news media” to “RINOs” (Republicans in name only) to President Biden. He vowed to liberate America from villains and tyrants who wanted to destroy the country.
This is a reminder of why Donald Trump is the first president in over two decades to lose reelection, and why Joe Biden is in the White House.
