Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s separate trips to survey Hurricane Helene damage delayed crucial rescue efforts and potentially cost lives, a Republican running relief missions charges.
Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, an Army veteran who has self-conducted aid missions from Afghanistan to Haiti, has been unilaterally coordinating Helene relief response in North Carolina.
He was there immediately after the storm made landfall last week, before federal government assistance arrived, and has witnessed the horrific damage firsthand.
Videos show Mills with packing helicopters with food, water and medical supplies flying to impacted areas. One picture shows a smiling old lady with an IV drip attached to her arm in the back of a helicopter next to a grinning Mills.
At-risk Americans like the smiling lady were put in peril by Biden and Harris’s ‘photo ops,’ Mills wrote the president in a letter exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, as those visits delayed rescue operations and grounded air operations and could’ve cost lives.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., (L) sits next to a smiling woman helped during his Hurricane Helene relief efforts in North Carolina. The woman was unable to get help and showing signs of illness, Mills said
‘After 96 hours, rescue missions turn into recovery missions, and both of your visits delayed crucial life-saving operations when they were needed most,’ Mills wrote in his letter to the president.
‘We will never know how many lives could have been saved or helped during the critical time wasted for the sake of photo ops. This level of disregard is unacceptable.’
‘The consequences of these actions are not counted in dollars, but in lives. You understand that presidential travel requires such actions, and yet you went anyway. This does not speak to incompetence from your administration, but a calculated decision that your photo op was worth standing in the way of rescue efforts.’
The VP visited Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday and an Air National Guard base in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday.
The president flew to the Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday to meet with local leaders and get briefed on the local damage.
Biden also visited Ray City, Georgia, on Thursday where he toured a pecan farm where row after row of the orchard’s trees stood snapped and mangled.
The White House visits, the Republican alleges in his letter, forced planes and helicopters conducting vital relief to land before they reached their destination.
Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris after assessing the Hurricane Helene recovery response at an Air National Guard base in North Carolina on October 5, 2024. Republican Cory Mills wrote a letter to Biden condemning him and Harris for the ‘photo ops’ that the lawmaker said ‘delayed’ rescue efforts
U.S. President Joe Biden embraces Esther Manheimer, mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, during a visit on Tuesday
President Joe Biden speaks with Mayor Esther Manheimer of Asheville, North Carolina during an aerial tour aboard Marine One to assess areas impacted by Hurricane Helene, on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, in western North Carolina. Flights like this, Mills said, caused other aircraft conducting relief works to ground – pausing their critical operations
‘After witnessing your administration’s complete failure to respond to those stranded by flooding, I have spent the past week working with private partners to deliver food, water, medical supplies, diapers, insulin, oxygen tanks, and other critical supplies,’ Mills wrote.
‘We’ve conducted wellness checks and provided extraction for those in immediate danger.’
‘Yet despite these efforts, we were forced to stop all rescue operations so that you and Vice President Harris could take photos for your social media, at different times, no less.’
One of the wellness checks they conducted was on the elderly woman from the Asheville area that was showing signs of decline before the lawmaker and his crew were able to pick her up and provide her aid.
Members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force search a flood damaged area with a search canine in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, center right, receives a briefing from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, center left, on the damage from Hurricane Helene, Saturday, October 5, 2024 in Charlotte, N.C.
Mills aboard a helicopter full of diapers, water, food and other supplies
Mills conducted several missions across the Asheville, North Carolina area
On another check Mills encountered an 83-year-old man showing signs of cardiac distress – an urgent concern.
The Republican charges that the president and VP’s trips amounted to eight hours of daylight ‘wasted’ due to ‘restricted flying’ protocols enforced to accommodate the visits.
‘Due to the lack of adequate federal response, Americans across the country have stepped up to help their neighbors,’ Mills’ letter to Biden said. ‘However, instead of aiding these efforts, regulatory bodies have made it harder for private citizens to deliver life-saving relief efforts.’
He also says the Biden-Harris administration’s regulations have made it harder for live-saving efforts.
People clear flood debris from Monteath’s Auto Service in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene flooding along the Swannanoa River on October 4, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina
North Carolina governor Roy Cooper (L) listens as US President Joe Biden speaks during an Operational Briefing at Raleigh Emergency Operations Center following the passage of Hurricane Helene, in Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 2, 2024
‘The Department of Transportation even threatened criminal action against drone pilots surveying the area for survivors.’
‘Worse, Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) imposed during your and the Vice President’s visits forced civilian pilots to land. Not only did this delay the delivery of essential aid, medical supplies, and Starlink systems, but it also brought rescue efforts to a halt.’
GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance also decried the federal emergency response on Monday saying it has been slow due to bureaucratic red tape.
‘You need to empower a military commander on the ground to get helicopters to where they need to go, to get supplies to where they need to go, to cut through some of the FAA bureaucracy,’ Vance said.
‘The problem here, I really believe, is just — it’s like the DMV at industrial scale.’
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