As communities across the Southeast, most notably in North Carolina, worked to recover from Hurricane Helene and its aftermath, Donald Trump spent much of last week brazenly lying about the governmental response to the deadly storm. State and local officials, including plenty of Republicans, asked him to stop deceiving the public. He ignored the appeals.
Indeed, the misinformation and disinformation campaigns are ongoing. On Sunday, Fox News aired an interview in which Maria Bartiromo asked the former president whether he believes relief funds were transferred from FEMA to “illegal immigrants.” The Republican insisted that this happened, adding that evidence to bolster his claims was released by the White House.
None of this happened in reality.
Nevertheless, as my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim has explained, officials have said that Trump’s election season lies and conspiracy theories have hindered relief efforts, while forcing agencies to waste time and resources combating lies that too many people are falling for. But as it turns out, there’s reason to believe there are other consequences, which are every bit as dramatic. The Washington Post reported:
Federal emergency response personnel on Saturday had employees operating in hard-hit Rutherford County, N.C., stop working and move to a different area because of concerns over “armed militia” threatening government workers in the region, according to an email sent to federal agencies helping with response in the state.
It’s difficult to say just how serious the threat might’ve been, but according to the Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, it was midday Saturday when officials involved in Hurricane Helene recovery efforts received an urgent message.
It reportedly warned that “FEMA has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, NC, to stand down and evacuate the county immediately. The message stated that National Guard troops ‘had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying [they] were out hunting FEMA.’”
The email went on to say that incident management teams “have been notified and are coordinating the evacuation of all assigned personnel in that county.”
In other words, Trump and too many of his allies have falsely accused FEMA and other federal agencies of neglecting places such as Rutherford County, North Carolina, while in reality, FEMA and other federal agencies are on the ground, providing relief.
At least, they were, until they reportedly had to be “evacuated” for their own safety — not because of unsafe conditions related to the deadly storm, but rather due to concerns that armed extremists might harm them.
Fortunately, the teams returned to work a day later, but that doesn’t make the circumstances any less breathtaking. Indeed, the Post’s report documented several related incidents involving threats directed at FEMA as a result of outlandish conspiracy theories.
It was against this backdrop that ABC News’ Martha Raddatz asked Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance about Trump’s Helene-related lies. “People are worried that their government doesn’t care about them,” the Ohio senator responded. Perhaps so, but if people in the area are “worried,” it might have something to do with the fact that his running mate and likeminded conspiracy theorists lie on a daily basis about the hurricane and the federal response. It’s twisted reasoning: Trump and his allies lie, and many believe him. Asked about the lies, Vance points to the concerns of those who put their faith in a man who deceived them, as if their fears necessarily have merit, reality be damned. It’s the precise logic we saw in the wake of the 2020 election, when Republicans pointed to polls showing a significant number of Americans believed conspiracy theories related to the presidential race’s outcome. When Democrats pointed to reality, GOP officials effectively replied, “But look at all of these people who believe otherwise!” Pointing to the beliefs of those who’ve been lied to does not make the beliefs true.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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