A man named Anthony called into to SiriusXM POTUS’s The Dan Abrams Show Wednesday to talk about how his father-in-law in North Carolina refused all FEMA help due to the right-wing conspiracy theories about FEMA that have been spewed out by Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and right-wing influencers.
Allison Detzel at MSNBC.com:
As Americans across the Southeast continue to reel from the devastating one-two punch of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, one man says the storm-related disinformation campaign peddled by Donald Trump and other Republicans is tearing his family apart.
A man identifying himself only as Anthony called into Sirius XM’s “Dan Abrams Show” this week to share the story of his father-in-law, whose property near Ashville, North Carolina, was badly damaged by Helene. Despite the destruction, Anthony said his father-in-law is unwilling to accept assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“He has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hardcore Trumper,” Anthony told Abrams. “He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house.”
Disinformation about the Biden administration’s response to the storms across the Southeast has been running rampant on social media. One rumor making the rounds falsely claims that if a person applies for disaster assistance, FEMA could confiscate their property.
Graig Graziosi at The Independent:
A desperate man in North Carolina has blamed Donald Trump and right-wing misinformation for his father-in-law’s refusal to accept help from FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
On a recent episode of the Dan Abrams Show on SiriusXM, a man named Anthony called in and said the relative, who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, refused assistance from FEMA after the region was battered by the devastating hurricane.
He told Abrams that the situation was “breaking up our family,” according to Mediaite.
Anthony stated that his father-in-law was afraid that FEMA would “take his house” if he accepted assistance from the agency.
Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe had an extensive segment on Anthony’s call to Dan Abrams.
From the 10.10.2024 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
On the Thursday night edition of NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live, Abrams hosted Russell Honoré to discuss his experience with false rumors being circulated during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in relation to Anthony’s call on SiriusXM POTUS’s Dan Abrams Show.
NewsNation:
(NewsNation) — Losing everything to a hurricane is bad enough. Refusing to accept help that is readily available is something else, as Dan Abrams discovered during his radio show on the SiriusXM POTUS channel earlier this week.
[...]
“That’s a crying damn shame that (some) are going along with this,” said retired Army Gen. Russell Honoré, who added that he also dealt with false, harmful rumors while leading the relief effort around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Honoré noted that he had to go on television to dispel the rumor that there were snipers on the streets of New Orleans, and that crews were blowing up levees in poor neighborhoods in order to save wealthy neighborhoods.
From the 10.10.2024 edition of NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live:
The fact that a father-in-law in North Carolina is refusing all FEMA help due to belief in conspiracy theories is deranged and dangerous nonsense.