“What about the border crisis?” Earhardt asked, suggesting that Harris’ interview might disrupt the implementation of immigration policy (it was Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump who pushed Republicans to reject a bipartisan border bill).
Earhardt went on to complain that the two-minute segment featuring Harris drinking a Miller High Life means inflation won’t get solved (note: inflation has recently gone down).
When you look at her drinking a beer with Stephen Colbert and you see all of the destruction in North Carolina, destruction in Florida. Another hurricane about to hit, and blast out all these people’s lives and houses and pictures, and belongings, and you see her drinking a beer, and you know inflation’s up and we can’t afford groceries and you can’t afford college, but we’re paying for college for everyone else who took a loan out, or we’re paying for illegal immigrants to have free health care and food and go to school in our country, and then she drinks a beer and says that she wouldn’t have changed anything over the last four years.
The long-winded rant has no basis in reality when it comes to Harris’ actions in relation to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. In fact, just a few hours after the Fox News attack, Harris appeared alongside President Joe Biden to receive a briefing on preparations before Milton makes landfall.
“Please listen to your local officials, they know what they’re talking about, they know what they’re doing,” Harris said, addressing residents of the areas projected to be affected by the storm.
At around the same time as the Fox anchors were airing their grievances, Harris’ office released an official statement warning citizens about possible price gouging in response to the storm.
The administration has taken a “whole-of-government” approach to hurricane response, and Biden has authorized the deployment of military troops and other resources to help local governments in affected areas.
Harris traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday to represent the administration. While there she thanked National Guard members and other first responders for their ongoing work.
The Biden-Harris administration has run into obstacles while responding to the storms—not because of Harris drinking a beer, but because of misinformation promoted by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, members of the Republican Party, and—you guessed it—Fox News.
“A number of scam artists, bad-faith actors, and others who want to sow chaos because they think it helps their political interests are promoting disinformation about the recovery effort, including ways to access critical and live-saving resources. This is wrong, dangerous, and it must stop immediately,” the White House said in a news release.
Fox News is no stranger to propagating misinformation. The right-leaning network has done so for the entirety of its 28-year history and was compelled to pay a nearly $800 million settlement for airing falsehoods about the outcome of the 2020 election.
Fox talking heads eagerly heaped criticism on Harris’ activities during the storm. But Trump, the network’s clearly preferred candidate, had his time in the White House marked by a succession of notable stumbles in response to natural disasters.
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