FEMA Administrator Blasts Trump’s ‘Accusations’ About Hurricane Response: ‘Just Completely False!’

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell accused former President Donald Trump of spreading “fear” and potentially obstructing recovery efforts with his “completely false” claims about a lack of FEMA assistance in states like North Carolina and Georgia following Hurricane Helene.

The death toll of Helene stands at more than 200, and Florida is gearing up for another storm with Hurricane Milton. In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Trump continued accusing FEMA of not doing enough and not having enough resources on the ground to help in recovery efforts.

“They don’t have the people, and they’re complaining there’s no people around to help,” Trump said.

Criswell joined CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Tuesday and blasted Trump’s accusations as “completely false.”

She said:

“His accusations are just completely false. I think the first thing I would say is, just because you don‘t see somebody on the ground in a FEMA shirt doesn‘t mean that we don‘t have people there. We have people that are embedded in the state emergency operations center. I have teams that are walking around neighborhoods. I have teams that are embedded with all of the county EOCs. People are on the ground, but we‘re also bringing in resources. And it‘s not just FEMA. We are one part of the federal family. We have over 3,400 members from across all federal agencies in North Carolina helping to support this response.”

Criswell called for an end to such “rhetoric,” arguing it could potentially lead to people not applying for assistance or seeking out resources from FEMA.

“We really have just got to stop this rhetoric, because what it‘s doing is it‘s putting fear in the people that we’re not going to be there to help them,” she said. “And I worry that people won’t register for assistance with us and get access to critical resources that they are eligible for.”

Watch above via CNN.