Biden Calls People ‘Brain Dead’ for Doubting the ‘Climate Crisis’ That Fueled Hurricane Helen: ‘Put Politics Aside’

President Biden on Wednesday called on Americans to “put politics aside” to focus on recovery efforts from Hurricane Helen – moments before delivering his own message saying anyone who doubts the role of climate change in the disaster “must be brain dead”.

“In a moment like this, we put politics aside, at least we should put everything aside, and here we are,” the 81-year-old outgoing president said at a recovery briefing in Raleigh, England. North Carolina.

“There are no Democrats or Republicans, there are only Americans, and our job is to help as many people as possible, as quickly and as comprehensively as possible.”

The comforter-in-chief, seated next to Tar Heel State Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and emergency officials after an aerial tour of the Asheville area, turned moments later to an attack on predominantly Republican skeptics about the role of fossil fuel use. in severe weather.

“No one can deny the impact of (the) climate crisis anymore – at least I hope that’s not the case. They must be brain dead if they do it,” Biden said.

“Scientists report that with warming oceans leading to more intense rainfall, storms like Helen are getting stronger – they’re not going to get smaller, they’re going to get stronger. Today, in North Carolina, I saw the impacts of this fury.

At least 189 people died from the storm in six states, including at least 70 in North Carolina alone. One hundred other state residents are missing.

The remark that Biden’s political opponents were “brain dead” quickly sparked an outcry – after the president himself was criticized for what residents say was a slow emergency response in the hardest-hit areas affected.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign tweeted sarcastically: “Biden – the unifier in chief – says Americans ‘must be brain dead’ if they ‘deny’ hurricane damage is due to climate change.

“Joe Biden, comatose and cognitively declining, calls Americans like me brain dead. It’s a joke, isn’t it? reacted conservative commentator Leo Terrell.

Biden was criticized for his handling of the storm — including his monitoring the early days of the devastation affecting the Southeast from his Delaware beach house.

The president bristled at such criticism Monday when asked by an Associated Press reporter whether he should have ordered the federal response from the White House.

“It’s called a telephone!” » Biden reprimanded.

The president also had to walk back his initial statement Sunday that no additional resources were needed to respond to the storm — saying during his Wednesday afternoon briefing with Cooper that Congress will need to approve more funding.

“It’s going to cost billions of dollars to weather this storm…and Congress has an obligation to ensure states have the resources they need,” Biden said.

The outgoing president visited North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday, while Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in the November 5 presidential election, visited Augusta, Georgia, hit by the storm.

Harris, who was on the campaign trail on the West Coast this weekend, also faced criticism from Republicans, including for tweeting an image of herself tackling the crisis from Air Force Two – wearing headphones that weren’t plugged into his phone — and for forgoing annual hurricane preparedness briefings that were a staple of his predecessor Mike Pence’s schedule.

“People in western North Carolina are feeling disappointed, and rightfully so,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), whose district includes some of the hardest-hit areas, told NewsNation on Monday.

“The response has been disappointing,” Edwards said. “We started seeing resources arrive today, but the storm ended about 80 hours ago. The storm ended around 10 a.m. Friday. We knew the storm was coming and only today are we starting to see the first FEMA workers arrive, along with the trailers and helicopters.