So it’s come to this.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden was forced to address the bonkers right-wing conspiracy that the government is controlling the weather, steering catastrophic hurricanes into conservative communities in an effort to influence the 2024 election.
"Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene … is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather,” he said during a briefing on the federal response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton. “We're controlling the weather? It's beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop.”
Biden also debunked the far-right claim boosted by Donald Trump, his family, and his allies that the government redirected disaster-relief aid to migrants—wrong—and would provide only $750 to the victims of Hurricane Helene—also wrong. To dispel these falsehoods, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had to create a whole rumor-debunking section of its website.
Is there anything that the GOP won’t politicize? Aid? Politicized. Death? Politicized. Acts of God? Caused by the Democrats.
As Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas recently reported, the idea that the government can control the weather started circulating as early as late September in right-wing social media circles. The conspiracy was popularized by conservative influencer Matt Wallace, who posted, “Don’t worry guys, weather modification isn’t real! It’s just a coincidence that Hurricane Helene is one of the most devastating “inland damage storms” in history and that hundreds of pro-Trump counties are being massively impacted during the most important election of our lifetimes.”
Soon it took off on social media, where fact-checking goes to die. (Though many media organizations have since stepped in to debunk the lie.)
While many Republicans may see Democrats as a group of demonic, witchcraft-loving boogiemen, nobody is powerful enough to manufacture a hurricane. It’s one thing for tin-foil-hatted Republican voters to believe in these crazy conspiracies, but it’s another for elected officials to peddle them.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—or as my Daily Kos colleague Walter Einenkel poignantly called her, “the Georgia-based conspiracy theorist who moonlights as a congresswoman”—has spent much of the past week peddling the weather-control lie.
“They can control the weather,” she posted on X last Thursday. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
The religious far-right soon followed suit. Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau, with whom Trump running mate JD Vance recently campaigned, posted on X, “Is the government trying to learn how to manipulate the weather?” he asked. “If they succeeded, do you trust them not to use this ability to stop Trump (a threat who says he will expose them and prosecute) from being elected?”
After being rightfully criticized for her comments, Greene doubled down on the lie on Tuesday and Wednesday, blaming the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency responsible for weather monitoring. In other words, the key agency relaying information on Hurricane Milton as it bears down on Florida.
“Everyone keeps asking, ‘who is they?’” she posted on Wednesday, adding that “some of them are listed on NOAA.”
Not all Republicans, though, could get on board with this one. North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards called it “outrageous” in a statement.
"Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock," said Edwards. "Nobody can control the weather. Charles Konrad, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southeast Regional Climate Center, has confirmed that no one has the technology or ability to geoengineer a hurricane.”
Still, other Republicans continue to politicize a mindless storm. Chris LaCivita, Trump campaign senior adviser, called Fox News’ decision to air Biden’s Hurricane Milton briefing “literally propaganda.”
Too many Republicans just aren’t treating this devastating storm with the seriousness it deserves.
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