In 2005, just days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, a young Kanye West made headlines by declaring on live television during a fundraising event with comedian Mike Myers that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
This moment may have hinted at West’s later struggles with mental health, but at the time, it significantly shaped the media narrative surrounding Katrina and President Bush. The coverage heavily criticized Bush for his perceived indifference to the plight of New Orleans residents, many of whom were poor and black.
However, the real issues causing chaos during and after Katrina—such as evacuation failures, looting, and inadequate emergency response—stemmed from corruption at local and state levels, not FEMA’s incompetence. For instance, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was later convicted on multiple corruption charges.
Yet, in that moment, these complexities were overlooked. The national media placed the blame squarely on President Bush, circulating a now-iconic image of him viewing the devastation from Air Force One, reinforcing the perception of a detached and uncaring leader.
This became known as Bush’s “Katrina moment” and marked a turning point for his administration. In the 2006 midterms, Democrats leveraged Bush’s criticized response to Katrina and the unpopularity of the Iraq War to achieve significant electoral gains, effectively diminishing his power in the final years of his presidency.
I bring this up because the situation in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene should serve as Kamala Harris’ “Katrina moment.” Her staged photo op, where she appeared to engage with disaster response (with earbuds not even connected and taking notes on a blank page), combined with the lack of FEMA or any federal assistance in the storm-damaged regions of western North Carolina and Georgia, should effectively terminate her presidential campaign.
I was just briefed by @FEMA_Deanne Criswell on the latest developments about the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene. We also discussed our Administration's continued actions to support emergency response and recovery.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) September 30, 2024
I also spoke with @NC_Governor Cooper about the ongoing… pic.twitter.com/nlZPB0h3mO
While Harris attended glamorous campaign events in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and Biden rested on the beach in Delaware, communities hit by Hurricane Helene faced relentless rain and flooding across six southeastern states, experiencing some of the worst flooding on record. Over a hundred people have died, thousands are missing, and entire towns have been devastated. Millions are without power, and washed-out roads and bridges hinder access to clean water and food for stranded residents.
Natural disasters like Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, will inevitably cause significant destruction. However, the impact could have been less severe with timely federal assistance from the Biden-Harris administration. Military resources could have been mobilized from Fort Bragg (recently renamed “Fort Liberty”) in North Carolina, which is only a few hundred miles from the hardest-hit areas. Fort Bragg has a history of supporting domestic disaster relief—so why isn’t that happening now? Why aren’t military helicopters within 500 miles of the affected regions actively deployed?
To be clear, the people of North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee urgently need evacuation, food, water, and shelter—resources that the U.S. military, National Guard, and FEMA are best suited to provide. Yet, there has been little sign of that support so far. Why?
Putting aside the lack of preparation for the extensive flooding the hurricane would bring, why has it taken Biden and Harris so long to respond to the disaster, and why have their actions been so minimal and dismissive? When a reporter asked Biden on Monday why he and Harris weren’t in Washington over the weekend coordinating the emergency response, he replied, surprisingly, “I was commanding. I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well.”
REPORTER: On the hurricane, why weren't you and VP Harris here in Washington commanding this weekend?
— Prodigal (@ProdigalThe3rd) September 30, 2024
BIDEN: “I was commanding. I was on the phone for 2 hours.”
(Checks notes. Biden was at his beach house & Kamala was fundraising in San Francisco) pic.twitter.com/rtuI7NvqDw
That retort, “I was on the phone for at least two hours,” while Americans are drowning and starving in massive floods, should go down in our history as one of the most callous and shameful things ever said by an American president.
But at least Biden said something. As of Monday afternoon, Harris hadn’t said a word.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the flooding victims are largely poor white residents of Appalachia. Given this reality and the glaring lack of attention from Harris and Biden, there’s currently more justification to claim that Harris doesn’t care about white people than there ever was to assert that Bush didn’t care about black people.
Unlike in 2005, the media isn’t highlighting this issue. Instead, corporate outlets are more likely to criticize Trump for “making it political” by traveling to Georgia to help distribute supplies and assist with relief efforts. While in the state, Trump announced he is collaborating with Elon Musk to provide Starlink satellite internet service to areas cut off from communication.
This situation is political, and the message from Harris is evident: since the victims of Hurricane Helene are white Trump supporters from a red state, she doesn’t seem to care about their plight.
