WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is on the heart of a brand new storm for forgoing hurricane season preparedness briefings that have been a staple of her predecessor Mike Pence’s annual calendar — with critics arguing the omission displays how she might govern as president.
Foes of the Democratic presidential nominee highlighted the lacking briefings because the demise toll from Hurricane Helene soared previous 143 within the Southeast — whereas Harris scrambled again to Washington from Las Vegas Monday afternoon to attend a FEMA briefing and booked a visit Wednesday to storm-hit Augusta, Ga.
“Harris hasn’t demonstrated the flexibility — or want — to do the apolitical components of the job which have a big impact on our lives,” a former Pence aide informed The Publish as criticism of the flat-footed federal response to Helene grew to become a marketing campaign situation. “Why ought to Individuals belief her to start out within the Oval Workplace?”
Then-President Donald Trump and Pence held pre-hurricane season preparedness conferences with federal emergency officers in every of their 4 years in workplace. President Biden had related conferences in 2021, 2022 and 2023 — although Harris doesn’t appear to have joined or held her personal parallel occasions.
Former performing Homeland Safety Secretary Chad Wolf informed The Publish that annual drop-ins from the president and vice chairman are necessary and that the omission calls to thoughts Harris’ function as Biden’s level individual on unlawful immigration.
“It simply matches a bigger sample,” Wolf stated.
“It doesn’t look like she desires to roll up her sleeves and really get into the governing of the nation, which is difficult to do. It’s not glamorous. It’s a number of briefings.”
“My guess,” he added, “is she would act the exact same approach [as president], which is arms off — ‘I’m not going to run the nation. I’m going to place a workforce collectively, they usually’ll run it, and I’ll sort of speak about it,’ which is clearly a really totally different mannequin than what President Trump did.”
Wolf, who held plenty of high-profile roles that handled emergency administration within the Trump-Pence administration, stated that the briefings served to place FEMA staff on their toes — and likewise to power their managers to research anticipated points — whereas additionally facilitating assist from on excessive.
“It’s like every other job the place your boss is asking you particular questions — you get extra motivated to do a greater job,” Wolf stated.
“It’s not that they do a lesser job. It’s simply they know that the significance isn’t being positioned on on their work.”
FEMA presently is struggling to come up with the scenario within the areas hardest-hit by flooding, together with in western North Carolina.
“The individuals in western North Carolina really feel let down, deservedly so,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), whose district consists of a few of the worst-impacted areas, informed NewsNation Monday.
“The response has been disappointing,” Edwards stated. “We’ve begun to see some sources introduced in right this moment, however the storm was over about 80 hours in the past. The storm was over about 10 a.m. Friday. We knew that the storm was coming and solely right this moment are we starting to see the primary FEMA staff and trailers and helicopters are available.”
It’s unclear why precisely Harris didn’t be a part of the Biden hurricane preparedness briefings held throughout the first three years of their administration or why she didn’t maintain her personal — as Pence did one yr.
Harris’ workplace pointed to her function responding to numerous pure disasters, however didn’t contradict the central declare by Republicans that she didn’t maintain prep periods for hurricane season.
“Vice President Harris repeatedly receives briefings from related federal businesses and officers on rising storms, different pure disasters, and the federal authorities’s response efforts,” stated spokesman Ernesto Apreza.
“She’s additionally gone to FEMA headquarters to see preparations first hand, and visited Houston’s emergency operation heart within the wake of Hurricane Beryl. It’s a high precedence for the Vice President to make sure communities impacted by pure disasters have the sources they should reply.”
Apreza pointed to 3 Harris hurricane-focused occasions, together with her July go to to Houston’s emergency operations heart for a briefing on restoration efforts after Hurricane Beryl; an April 2023 go to to the College of Miami the place Harris introduced $562 million in federal funding for “local weather resilient initiatives” in 149 coastal cities, administered by the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and an August 2022 briefing from FEMA and NOAA leaders in Miami on “local weather resilience.”
Curiosity from Pence forward of every hurricane season was “virtually like a forcing issue” within the prior administration, Wolf stated.
“It requires the FEMA administrator to get along with his senior management to say, ‘OK, listed here are our vital points that we’re going to temporary the president and the vice chairman on. Is everybody in settlement? … That is what we’re monitoring, that is the place we’re going to want assist, that is the place we’re deploying … we’re pre-positioned right here, right here and right here. I’m going to ask DOD for property right here.’”
Wolf recalled that “what I’d usually see Vice President Pence say is, ‘Nice. That sounds good. When you have any issues getting these property let me know’,” including that early communication makes getting the vice chairman on the telephone to assist with subsequent asks occur way more shortly.
“It seems as if they underestimated the severity of the storm. And I’m undecided the way you try this with all of the expertise right this moment,” Wolf stated of the present response.
“They pre-positioned a number of property and sources in Florida, that’s the place it makes landfall. So OK, however they didn’t take into consideration the downstream results to a sure extent to the extent that they wanted to. And now it’s [playing] catch-up.
“I’ve seen inner stuff from FEMA that every one their [categories of response needs] are nonetheless pink within the state of North Carolina, and we’re now three days previous [Helene].”
Pence and Trump headlined an August 2017 assembly at FEMA headquarters with governors and emergency officers to debate “the nation’s preparedness for hurricane season.” In June 2018, Trump, Pence and the administration’s Cupboard secretaries reconvened at FEMA HQ for one more prep assembly.
Trump had a non-public briefing from officers in June 2019 and Pence visited the Nationwide Hurricane Middle in Florida the identical month for an replace. In Might 2020, Trump and Pence hosted the FEMA director within the Oval Workplace for a hurricane season briefing, regardless of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
“Apparently VP Harris was additionally named Hurricane Czar given how little concern she demonstrated for Individuals within the path of those lethal storms,” the previous aide to Pence stated, referring to her function main President Biden’s efforts to cut back unlawful immigration, which as a substitute surged.
“You’ve received to stroll and chew gum within the government department, and Mike Pence managed to juggle these briefings and a re-election marketing campaign whereas overseeing the federal government’s response to a world pandemic.”
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