The Republican Party in the Trump era has overwhelmingly embraced an all\u2019s-fair-in-love-and-war approach to politics. That\u2019s evidenced by the fire hose of misinformation flowing from Donald Trump and his allies late in the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one thing to deploy this approach on a candidate\u2019s positions or qualifications; it\u2019s another to do it when it has real on-the-ground costs to people confronting fraught situations \u2014 and even tragedy.<\/p>\n
Repeatedly in recent weeks, prominent Republican officials in areas dealing with the fallout have indicated that Trump and his MAGA allies are doing the latter.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve pointed to how false claims and conspiracy theories about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, and the response to Hurricane Helene have caused or could cause real damage.<\/p>\n
The most serious situation is the hurricane response. Top Republicans have increasingly spoken out in recent days against misinformation that\u2019s aimed at criticizing the federal government\u2019s (read: the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s) response. They have often spoken broadly and not invoked specific people such as Trump. But their comments come as Trump and his allies have lodged a multitude of false claims on the same topic, and they often reference specific claims Trump has promoted and politicized.<\/p>\n
The message seems to be: Cut it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort,\u201d Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said in a letter to constituents Sunday.<\/p>\n
Appearing on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d Tillis was asked specifically about Trump\u2019s false claim that the Biden-Harris administration diverted funds from hurricane relief to deal with migrants. Trump said Friday that, because of this, \u201cthey don\u2019t have the money\u201d to deal with the hurricane response.<\/p>\n
Tillis talked around the specific claim but contradicted Trump by saying that \u201cwe have the resources that we need.\u201d He added that federal money spent on migrants is not \u201caffecting the flow of resources to western North Carolina.\u201d His letter to constituents, which started with his plea about misinformation, was released hours later.<\/p>\n
Other Republicans pointed to a specific claim about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supposedly confiscating supplies and property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of misinformation,\u201d Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) said Thursday, citing that claim. He added: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing but commitment to serving the people in this state, and those who spread that kind of misinformation, it\u2019s deeply unfortunate that that\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knox County, Tenn., Mayor Glenn Jacobs (R) also referenced the claim in a statement Friday, urging, \u201cPlease quit spreading those rumors as they are counterproductive to response efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
These officials didn\u2019t cite Trump by name, but this is a claim Trump has promoted. It really took off in MAGA world thanks to his top ally Elon Musk last week, but Trump has repeatedly pointed to claims that aid is being blocked and even confiscated.<\/p>\n
North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin (R) was among the first prominent Republicans in the area to speak out, decrying the \u201cconspiracy theory junk\u201d on social media and calling it \u201cdistracting to people trying to do the job.\u201d Corbin cited the purported confiscation and blocking of supplies and the idea that the government can control the weather (which Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has promoted).<\/p>\n
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), who represents hard-hit western North Carolina, was asked Monday morning on CNBC about the confiscation rumors and called them \u201ctotally unsubstantiated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards clarified that he was not defending FEMA\u2019s broader response. But he added, \u201cIt\u2019s so unfortunate that at a time like this where we need to be pulling together and being truthful and working on real solutions, we\u2019ve got some nefarious folks out there that are trying to make a name for themself or see what they can stir up on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, the people stirring this up on social media include Trump and Musk, an ally Trump welcomed to a rally on Saturday. And Trump has been far from \u201ctruthful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We got off to a slow start with getting assistance in here from our national and state agencies,\u2019 says @RepChuckEdwards on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts. \u2018They are here now in full force,\u2019 he says: pic.twitter.com\/BDumcgmeTE<\/p>\n
\u2014 Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) October 7, 2024<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The situation is a callback to what happened last month when Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), began promoting baseless conspiracy theories about Haitian migrants stealing and eating pets in Ohio.<\/p>\n
Then, as now, Republican officials in the affected area repeatedly derided the claims and even cast them as harmful to their communities \u2014 often while avoiding specifically citing Trump and Vance:<\/p>\n
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) called Trump\u2019s and Vance\u2019s comments \u201cgarbage,\u201d \u201churtful to a lot of people\u201d and \u201cvery hurtful\u201d to the migrants\u2019 children.<\/span> The situation led to dozens of bomb threats; DeWine said many of them appeared to have come from overseas.<\/p>\n Turner in his Sept. 19 CNN interview quickly added that he believed Trump and Vance had \u201cmoved on\u201d from the claims. But Trump to this day is talking about deporting Haitian migrants from Springfield \u2014 despite the fact that they have legal status.<\/p>\n And now, just weeks after Turner\u2019s interview, Trump and his allies have again saddled fellow Republicans in a specific area with an unnecessarily fraught situation thanks to their penchant for politically expedient misinformation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Republican Party in the Trump era has overwhelmingly embraced an all\u2019s-fair-in-love-and-war approach to politics. That\u2019s evidenced by the fire hose of misinformation flowing from Donald Trump and his allies late in the 2024 campaign. It\u2019s one thing to deploy this approach on a candidate\u2019s positions or qualifications; it\u2019s another to do it when it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSpringfield Mayor Rob Rue (R) said the conspiracy theories were \u201churting our citizens and hurting our community.\u201d<\/span>
\nClark County Commission president Melanie Flax Wilt (R) said the rumors had diverted resources for \u201ca literal wild goose chase,\u201d damaged the integration of Haitians into the community and had a negative effect on local businesses that depend on Haitian migrants for labor.<\/span>
\n\u201cThis certainly is incredibly tragic and completely untrue,\u201d Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), who represents Springfield in Congress, said on CNN. \u201cThis should not have happened; it\u2019s been tearing the community apart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n