♪ host: good morning. welcome to "washington journal"

on this thursday, october 10. you're looking at footage from a lot about 7:00 p.m. eastern time in florida one hour before the hurricane came ashore at 8:30 eastern time south of tampa bay as a category three storm with a maximum wind of 120 miles per hour. the associated press reporting 3 billion homes and businesses without power this morning. here on the washington journal we want to note your confidence levels in the local, state, and federal government to respond to natural disasters. here is how you join the conversation this morning. if you live in the eastern central part of the country, dial in at (202) 748-8000 stop mountain pacific (202) 748-8001. if you have been impacted with the hurricane and have dealt with the government, call in at (202) 748-8002. you can also text at (202)

748-8003. go to facebook.com/c-span or post on x with the handle @cspanwj to join the conversation. this is the front page of the washington times this morning with the headline "biden/harris try to bolster public confidence as disastrous storm hits." this is the president yesterday at the white house employing residents of florida to evacuate and also outlining the white house plan to respond. >> to save lives and livelihoods i want to emphasize a few things. any communities in hurricane milton's path do not have a moment to catch their breath between helene and milton. two historic storms in two weeks. i want to thank everyone who has followed local guidance to evacuate ahead of landfall. i know it is tough leaving

behind your home and belongings, everything you own. i urge everyone in hurricane milton's path to follow all safety instructions as we head into the next 24 hours. it is a matter of life and death. second, for last week fema has done everything possible to prepare for the storm. i approved emergency declarations in florida. i also served search and rescue teams, water, food, and power generators to the region. and at my direction the director will be at the emergency operation center in florida tonight. kamala and i will keep pressure on companies so prices stay stable on gasoline and goods people need. we are teaming up with state and local officials to support impacted communities. i spoke with the florida governor ron desantis and with

the tampa mayor, the clearwater mayor and the dallas county chairwoman and offered everything we need -- everything they need. i made it clear that they should reach out if there's anything more they need. i gave them my personal phone number at the white house to contact me directly if that is necessary. host: president biden from the white house yesterday before her kate middleton made landfall, which was yesterday evening. -- before hurricane milton made landfall which was yesterday evening. as that part of the country deals with another hurricane, your confidence level in the government to respond to these natural disasters. the governor of florida has been holding multiple briefings. here is yesterday where he talked about how his state will be ready to respond to hurricane after it has passed. >> we are facing this with the

seriousness it deserves but also the determination we will get through this. folks here at the eoc and our first responders throughout the west coast of florida have been working nonstop for weeks to prepare and respond to hurricane helene and then to prepare and respond to this new major hurricane. the common virtue has been dedication to the task at hand, dedication to responding to help our fellow floridians in danger and dedication to ensuring that florida weathers this storm and emerges stronger on the others. we are prepared and we will respond. i've spoken to the president. we remain in regular contact with fema. we are marshaling all available resources to be able to prepare and respond to hurricane milton. i also want to thank the 20 other states who are assisting

florida ahead of the storm. this is what we as americans do. we have had opportunities to help other states in the past, including most recently in western north carolina and it shows the spirit that these states are stepping up and providing valued support. host: florida governor ron desantis on how the state plans to respond to hurricane milton. your confidence level in the local, state, and federal officials to respond to natural disasters. dolores is in tennessee. good morning. caller: can you hear me? i have had surgery when i fell. host: we can hear you. go ahead. what is your confidence level in natural disaster? caller: 100%. the men and women risk their lives and leave their families to come and save the people.

they are god's angels. one other thing i want to say, please correct me that i am saying it right. i heard the other day that when vice president harris called a talk to him he was not responding to her calls. correct me if i am right. i am praying for the people down there. republicans, democrats, and independents, we are all god's children and i'm hoping everything is all right. the ones who have passed on i hope they rest in peace and i love c-span. thank god in heaven for you all. host: here is a headline relating to what you are talking about. other news outlets have similar ones. nbc news. "ron desantis is refusing to take harris calls on hurricane helene. an aid set the call seemed

political, she was trying to reach out and we did not answer." that is nbc news reporting. danny, in virginia. what is your confidence level? caller: i believe in the federal government and state government taking care of people during disasters. i was in hurricane isabel. i was in a mobile home. the federal agents flew a helicopter into the mobile home park and said there is a leaf center five miles away and they said we are telling you to evacuate and i said i am saying. everybody left the trailer park except for me. trees were falling down. we prayed and that is what happened. you listen to the federal government when they tell you to evacuate, listen to the state government. caller: -- host: danny in virginia. darlene is watching in virginia beach. what do you say? caller: i think they have

handled it, but at the same time, when the fema thing came out and the lack of help from fema, i think the gentleman who is secretary of homeland security is the one who said fema ran out of money. then biden says all of those are rumors and none of that is true. i think they have done as good a job under the circumstances and i respect our government and our leadership no matter who it is. they should be careful. they orc -- mayorkas good not have said what he said because that stirred up controversy. host: the washington post, what to know about the federal aid recovery crunch. "the several questions and

answers might be on people's minds. his art can relieve money going to migrants instead of relief victims? it is not. this claim is spreading so wildly that fema set up a website to debunk it and other falsehoods. though fema and migrant relief programs are both part of the department of homeland security funds for each set in separate accounts that are not intermingled at the money earmarked for assistance to migrants cannot just be shifted to cover hurricane costs. former president donald trump has continued to repeat the falsehood about migrants during campaign rally's and on truth social." ricardo in pennsylvania. let's hear from you next. what is your confidence level in the government respond to a natural disaster? caller: my confidence level in the government is very high. only because we have an honest

president and vice president. if we had a president like donald trump who constantly tells lies or when we had a vice president like jd vance who constantly pushes other lies, then it is dangerous for everyone, not just democrats, also republicans. there are republicans who believe in these lies and because they believe these lies they got hurt. just like in covid. donald trump was saying that covid was a hoax, a democratic hoax. i know republicans. one of my neighbors actually died because of covid. it is because of the lies. now there are people in ohio come immigrants in ohio that are suffering because of lies from donald trump and jd vance.

i do not have a problem with republicans. it is good to have two healthy parties. it only helps us citizens because of the democrats do not do what we want we vote republican. if the republicans do not do what we want we vote democrat. host: i will leave it at that. back to the hurricane. yesterday's briefing at the white house the president and vice president took part in a briefing that was virtual with the heads of different agencies. the president and vice president asking them questions. here is the vice president urging florida residents to listen to local officials to evacuate saying the storm will be catastrophic. >> to the people of florida and the people of the tampa region, we urge you to take this storm seriously. as has been said before, this is a storm that is expected to be

of historic proportion. many of you are tough and you have written out these hurricanes before. this will be different. we ask you that by every measure you understand it will be more dangerous, more deadly, and more catastrophic. please listen to your local officials. they know what they are doing. if you are told to evacuate please evacuate immediately. do not wait until it is too late. in the hours and days ahead, president biden and i will continue to do everything we can to protect the people who've been in the path of this storm. once the storm has passed we will be there to help folks recover and rebuild. as we continue to do for those communities in florida, georgia, north and south carolina, and across the southeast would been devastated by hurricane helene. as the president mentioned, to

any company or individual that might use this crisis to exploit people who are desperate for help through illegal fraud or price gouging, whether it be at the gas pump, the airport, or the hotel counter, no we are monitoring these behaviors in the situation on the ground very closely and anyone taking advantage of consumers will be held accountable. the bottom line is this hurricane poses extreme danger and we urge everyone in florida to use extreme caution. we will get through this together. host: the vice president yesterday. when the white house held a briefing she joined in yesterday along with other agency heads. if you're interested in what the president and vice president had to say you can find that on our website. that was the head of hurricane milton which landed ashore around 8:00 eastern time 70

miles south of tampa. the wind is 120 miles per hour according to the newspapers this morning, setting off multiple tornadoes in florida. not only dealing with wind and rain but tornadoes in the sunshine state as well. this morning as florida -- as the sun rises there and folks have to wake up and deal with the devastation and destruction we want to know your confidence level in the government to respond to these natural disasters. the former president at a campaign rally in pennsylvania yesterday spoke about the hurricane response. here is what he had to say. >> she did not send anyone or anything at all. men and women and children drowned. north carolina has eight military bases.

remember fort bragg, they change the name. we won two world wars from fort bragg, but they change the name. i will not even say it. let's just call it fort bragg. what do you think? it has nothing to do with pennsylvania. the people of north carolina would like to leave it as fort bragg. can we do that? i think so. they had rescue helicopters that could have easily been sent. there was no coordination. i'm not surprised because i have been dealing with them. instead kamala recorded a podcast known for its graphic content. she did nothing as people struggled and drowned. no one came. fortunately the private sector kicked in and they are helping and doing a good job.

i will tell you. [applause] it took six days before kamala and joe said a small number of troops to help and despite all of this she said she would not do anything differently. you had your chance. would you do something differently, no, i would keep it the same. that is a small portion of the incompetence. host: president trump yesterday on the campaign trail. your confidence in government during a natural disaster. the former president talking about first responders that have been deployed for hurricane helene and hurricane milton. the washington post says does fema have enough staff to respond to milton. as of tuesday morning roughly 9% of fema's workforce was available to respond to milton or other disasters according to the agencies taylor operations briefing.

the leader of fema under president barack obama and the leader under trump both said they were not worried about staffing levels as milton headed toward florida. they know fema can request personnel from other federal agencies including the department of defense and health and human services and that state officials typically help lead response efforts. the national guard as well. steve, in new york, what is your confidence level? caller: trump is making some great points. you keep going back and forth with kamala. he does not answer the questions. -- she does not answer the questions. we need to focus on our country with taxes. the war, benjamin netanyahu laughed at joe biden. host: we will have open forum

where you can talk about different policy issues coming up today on the washington journal. on the hurricanes and natural disasters, what is your confidence level in the government? caller: my confidence with the government is fine but we need to deal with taxes. host: we need to go on to ron who is in arkansas. caller: i have pretty good confidence in our government -- just like donald trump said they have to clear all of those people out of the houses so they can get gold out of the ground. host: ron in ohio. good morning. caller: i don't think we can have confidence in the government under any circumstance. in particular we are the united states and we are a rarity in the world. we have 50 states and 50 governors which are like 50 miniature presidents.

that is what is great about this country. host: who you think should be leading responses? it sounds like you think it should be these governors. caller: everyone looks to the federal government, but the federal government -- anyone who watches c-span can see how the federal government operates. it is so slow. it is a slow moving machine. they are reactionary, they are not proactive. each governor asked to take control of his state and plan ahead. the weather is unpredictable. you cannot put an entire state on lockdown because a hurricane is coming. you cannot predict where anything will happen, whether it be an earthquake or a tornado or a hurricane, whatever. you have to have a good system in place. when it does happen, you are not blaming the federal government

because as the governor of a state you have to take care of issues like that. and he states span rivers, mountains -- many states span rivers, mountains, and it gets down to the county level. you have to be prepared and have things in place to begin with make it as easy as possible when something happens. when it comes to the weather there is no way you can predict anything. i am old enough to remember when the big tornado in the early 1970's came and wiped it out and then it headed toward cincinnati and did some damage. i was here is a little kid and i remember that, this huge funnel cloud. we never had any tornadoes. nobody could predict it. things were different. it irritates me that some of the people depend on the federal

government. i wish these people would watch c-span more often and see how congress operates because everything comes out of congress. they're the ones who make the laws. host: brought in ohio. while -- rod in ohio. while he was talking we are showing footage from storm chasers in florida. this is footage on x. you can find it in different parts of florida as the hurricane came ashore last night and the flooding and the rainfall and the wind and the tornado, all of that occurred overnight in florida and those residents waking up to that destruction today. earth cam has a live camera they have going right now. this is the coast -- this is what the coast of the florida area looks like. this is earth cam footage.

let's talk to john in california. your confidence level? caller: my confidence level in the state of florida and their governor would be pretty high in my confidence level in joe biden and kamala is nonexistent. when he is on the beach she is in california hobnobbing with millionaires and billionaires raising funds while the hurricane is devastating florida and georgia and north carolina. then biden turns around and lies about what trump said. he said trump is telling everybody you will only get $750. he never said that. he said marjorie taylor greene said the government can change the weather. she did not say that. what she said is the government thinks that driving prius and

electric cars will change the weather. anytime you criticize this administration it is misinformation. we need to wake up. i think we are doomed. they take care of these immigrants. they can move that money within the agency without any act of congress. it is there in fema. all fema has to do is take it from one account and put it into another. they do not want to because they want to take care of future voters the last three and a half years. host: here is the washington post with a quote from the former president at a rally in pennsylvania saturday. "this is been the worst hurricane response by a president and vice president since katrina. this is not acceptable. they are offering them $750 to

people whose homes have been washed away and yet we sent tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries most people have never heard of." what you make of that quote? caller: it is 100% right. that is the washington post, that is not one of the other more conservative newspapers. that is the washington post. i think they are 100% right. this government has supplied billions of dollars to people that jump the line, came here illegally and overcrowded our schools, our hospitals and our prisons and when the chips are down and we need help those people in eastern carolina, a lot of them would have died had it not been for donald trump at the billionaire that is backing him. his name escapes me. host: let me go back to the washington post.

following that quote they write "the $750 payment designed to defray immediate costs as claims are processed represents just a portion of the federal funds that victims can access. trumps reference to hurricane katrina, which struck new orleans in 2005 highlighted how national campaigns have collided with natural disasters throughout history." they say the $750 is just the beginning while they are processing claims and then there is more money available after that. caller: i don't disagree with that. that is true. i think -- i agree with that. they will get more than $750. what biden said was donald trump said that is all you're going to get is $750. trump did not say that. that is a lie on biden's part.

trump did not say all you will get is $750. i think what trump is trying to apply is immediately we will give you $750, you have no home, you have no car, you have no power. you do not have any access to any kind of food and water. $750 would not make much difference. what biden said it donald trump is telling everyone all you will get is $750. trump did not say that. caller: got it. -- host: got it. a little bit more from the washington post. "fema officials declined to say how much disaster aid is available but disaster experts say the agency appears to have enough money for its individual assistance program which provides immediate cash to disaster victims to cover the

cost of food, water, baby formula, breast-feeding supplies, and other emergency items. if congress does not act, fema could run out of money for its public assistance programs which reimburses state and local governments for the cost of debris cleanup, first responders, and other needs. fema could temporarily stop reimbursing officials in hawaii for wildfire cleanup costs. the public assistance program is where the system will be strained, city disaster expert and non-scholar at the carnegie endowment for national peace. how much disaster eight does the small business administration have left? despite its name the administration does not fully help small businesses. it also provides low income loans to residents and homeowners whose properties are damaged by disasters. this could run out of money in the coming weeks depending on

how much disaster milton causes. the agency needs $1.6 billion to stabilize its budget for fiscal year 2025 which only began october 1. it is already receiving about 3000 applications a day from hell lean survivors, said one official. -- from helene survivors so congress is expected to approve more disaster aid. congress is on recess until november 12 as lawmakers focus on campaigning but president joe biden said last week he could call lawmakers back to washington for emergency session to approve additional disaster aid." do you think congress should return to washington to approve more disaster aid? should congress be here while the country covers and responds to two hurricanes in two weeks?

stephen in fort lauderdale, florida. what was it like in fort lauderdale? caller: fort lauderdale, we have been getting a lot of rain every day for a week. it was very windy here but we did not have any problems. as far as i know we did not lose any power. we know our neighbors to the north are having a really tough time. to get back to the original question that you ask your listeners today, the problem is not who is in office. the problem is half of our government and donald trump and half of the population of this country is involved in a very dangerous cult. george washington warned us about something similar. our country could see its end from within. donald trump and its followers and the people that hold power in this country are following donald trump's words no matter

whether they are truth or lies. you only have to listen to the callers that are calling. no matter what donald trump says, no matter what he does, no matter what he does to create problems, they defend him to the end. they will never get them to understand because it is a cult. i've been saying that before the media was saying it. host: i will return to the hurricane natural disasters and how the government response to them. clark in west virginia. you have been impacted by a hurricane. what was your experience dealing with the government and their response? caller: hurricanes usually pass right over top of these mountains. we are protected by god and these mountains. the natural disaster i was in was the buffalo creek flood. the dam burst at the head and it

washed 120 five of my classmates and people off and everything i own. i had the shirt off my back. yes -- this was due to greed. the buffalo creek flood was not an accident. that was in 1970's. -- 1972i think it was. you can research it. the dam, you could float a barge for a big sized ship over that dam. relieve the pressure they sent some guys out there with dynamite blasting materials to blow a hole out the other side so it would drain. that dam was cold earth and when

you compress that you may cast. host: what is your point. caller: let me get the whole thing out. i am sort of slow but listen. the response was very slow. the coal company did not pay a dime. it was their fault. i did get a fema small business loan. i think eventually i did pay it back. the response now, somebody explained to me where all the money is at fema and all of these disaster places? have we given it all away? what is the previous caller go to politics? nothing to do with politics. every congress and senator ought to be there. i can guarantee if it was their

family they would be johnny on the spot. host: i will get to willie in georgia. welcome to the conversation. caller: let me first of all say i pray that all of the people in harm's way have been recovered and everything is well. i want to say i have the utmost respect and confidence in the federal government in doing what they need to do. the caller from fort lauderdale summed it up. politics got in the way. i prayed to god that everyone in harm's way this morning is safe in the storm goes to see. let me say something. some of these callers calling in go way off base. the question you asked was to have confidence in the federal government? i have the utmost response for the ministration that is in office, president joe biden and

vice president kamala harris and the fema operators whether republican or democrat. they are doing exactly what they need to do. you do not expect people to come out when the water is as high as it is now and do something. when the storm clears and people can assess the damage the federal government will step in. i'm in georgia and we have had disaster. a few weeks ago trump said the governor of georgia cannot reach the president. the governor had to come back on and say i spoke to the president and he offered a. what they are doing is politicizing a situation where people need help. they do not need to hear voices like we are hearing. we are hearing more stuff from donald trump with his maga republicans about the storm is created in republican areas.

the caller from california is so far off and the caller from the mountains were so far off it is unbelievable. host: willie in georgia. rich in ohio. your confidence levels in the government to respond to natural disasters? local, state, federal officials. caller: lots of good questions coming up. lives on the line. it is very important to try to get it right. one example is we had the chicago fire and it was caused by environmental. from one end of the city to the other was lumber and it burned down. we learned from that incident not to do that and have fire breaks in our buildings. thank goodness lives were saved. the fires in our lumber and our woods, we have had fire in hawaii, in australia, many fires over there. no fire breaks.

lumber for hundreds of miles, no fire breaks. loggers would lock those and give fire breaks. it cost us money for all of those fires. the other thing is we need someone on duty, not three days later. our lifeguards do be remote and say i was there when someone dropped it. i could have done something about it and please forgive me. we have our defense with people not on guard for a whole week. we have other situations down there. we are not ready for these things coming in. there is no excuse not being ready. this morning they know what is happening. we need someone on guard. not we will get someone to cover an excuse why we were not there and we will argue about why we should of been there because lives were on the line. we are in a world where minutes count and a response may be a

half-hour -- i will hang up and listen to the answers. caller: new york times with the headline "hurricane milton carves a destructive path across florida. storm spawns tornadoes and leaves more than 3 million without power." laura in north carolina. were you impacted by hurricane helene? caller: yes i was. i want to say my heart goes out to florida right now because i know exactly what they are going through. i live on the outskirts of hendersonville. we were devastated. henderson county is devastated. my husband and myself are retired and we live on a fixed income. i had a tree fall on my rental property. my neighbors across the street had a tree fall down. right of the road they had a

tree fall down across their house. fema showed up on friday. they are staged at the local blue ridge community college under guard. under guard. my husband is a type two diabetic and he lost all of his medication. i called fema to get his medication back. i will hear back from them within seven to 10 days. then they will come out and do an investigation. i have absolutely no confidence in the fema program. host: when you say your committee was devastated, can you give us details on what types of devastation? what happened?

caller: trees are uprooted all over the county. roads are washed out all over the county. power was out all over the county. we were without power and cell service for nine days. our service has come back on late sunday evening. my husband lost all of his medication. host: other than fema, and have you tried other sources for the medication? caller: we replaced it. it is not cheap. we lost as much out of our freezer as the $750 fema may or may not give. i don't know. they told me i would be hearing from them between seven to 10 days. host: have you been told how

long fema will stay in your area? you said they are set up at a local college. caller: they are set up at a local college under guard. under guard. i have no idea how long they will be here. host: have you seen it yourself? caller: yes i have. host: what you mean by under guard? caller: they have five or six big water tanks, they have five or six big gasoline tanks, they have trailer after trailer, and there are two ways in the fence and police officers at both gates. host: is that to protect supplies? caller: i think so. i don't know. all i know is they are under guard. host: we will go to tim in michigan. you are next. caller: good morning.

the question of confidence in the government. the problem i see with the government handling fema and all of that. we have so many people that work for fema but they cannot control all of what is going on. it should go back to the states to where they go in and talk to the governors and passed down what they need so they can supply the needs for them. also, with all of this information that is coming out with the billions of dollars that keeps going out and out, to realize -- i've listen to your show every morning for a while. we throw around money like it is water.

this is amazing to me. i do not understand. $60 billion should be able to cover quite a bit. then they say we need more money. somebody says we don't, we have the money there. how do we know? the american people do not know. you're just throwing around billions of dollars. i understand it takes a lot for people to build a house. it does not take a brain surgeon to figure that out. when you are throwing trillions of dollars because you are taking care of illegals, you are taking care of wars and all of that stuff, it is amazing. host: it sounds like you wish there was more transparency so you can see where the money is going. fema set up a website to deal with what they have said is misinformation about fema funds and what fema is doing.

would you trust that? there is on your screen? caller: the problem i have with that is with obamacare, when that came out years ago they set up all of that program. people that work for the government get paid regardless of whether they do anything or not. they have to do their work, but if they decide i think i will go do this because i know a lot of people -- i live in michigan and they work for the state -- they kind of get to do what they want. you can set up anything later. it is just amazing to me that things do not get done in a manner that should be done and more transparent. they can sate we threw this out on the internet and this is what

$1 billion went for, this is what $1 billion went for and stuff like that. that does not tell you anything. host: tim's thoughts. the tampa bay times this morning as we transition from that footage on your screen, which is by a producer for the weather channel. this image from the tampa bay times. this is the home of the rays the roof loan off of it from hurricane milton. strong winds ripping through st. petersburg where the tropicana field is located. it has been set up for first responders, their supplies and cods were inside the stadium there for a place for them to collect and respond to hurricane milton. the roof is blown off. debris inside the stadium

because of hurricane milton. david in michigan. confidence level in the government to respond? caller: good morning. i am pretty confident in the government responding to this. they are not jesus. they cannot wave a wand and get everything fixed in florida and north carolina overnight. i have confidence. i have a few things to say about this. where is mike johnson residing over the congress? he is a republican in a red state. i am still worried about the people and i am praying for the people. why don't he come back and do what he can do to help in florida and georgia and north carolina? also why is donald trump stirring up trouble at a time like this? i am 71 and i am retired but i am still working.

i hear a lot of older people calling in saying they need to do this for us, they need to do that. we can still work. host: your question on mike johnson. the washington post says he has given no indication that he plans to call members back early. he was on fox. "we will be back in session immediately after the election is what he told them. it takes a lot of calculate damages and the states will need time to do that." he is saying you can rush back to washington but they do not know the true cost yet. caller: that is understandable in a way. i am also worried. the lady from north carolina saying she is having trouble paying for the drugs. kamala harris has offered to lower the drug prices. this would help out.

i think the administration is doing all they can. you have people sitting around quarterbacking and trying to get votes at a time like this. we older people are supposed to be understanding and have wisdom. a man like trump and these older people that are calling in, you do not try to get votes at a time like this. i am just praying for them. host: we will talk about politics and natural disasters coming up on the washington journal. we will look into the c-span archives to show you past footage of presidents and governors from different parties working together to respond to natural disasters. we mentioned 3 million homes and businesses without power this morning as florida wakes up to the aftermath of hurricane milton. here is a map on the tampa bay times website and it shows the concentration of power outages.

the darker counties are the ones where power outage is 50% or more. susan in clarksville, tennessee. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i have been up all night long. i have a brother and his wife and three kids in a small town near orlando and i have been saying please find shelter somewhere. they wanted to stay, which made me worry all night long. i just got a text saying they are ok, they did not lose power. they have three major leaks in the roof. it blew off partially. i am so grateful to hear that. i was grateful to hear governor

desantis care about the people and leave the politics alone for a minute. usually i do not like the guy. host: you feel the governor has stayed away from politics in his preparations and response to two hurricanes? caller: yes, thank goodness. mr. trump -- i understand he is scared of prison and blah blah blah, but he is not the president. he does not to be involved in anything right now. it does not need to be calling world leaders. he is not the president. host: susan in tennessee. marilyn in illinois. caller: i have called before. i wrote out two hurricanes in florida. i am 81 and i was caring for my

mother. then i was in my 60's. i understand government. first of all, i have faith, whether they are republican or democrat's, the governors do care for their state. they are the ones that oversee the beginning of after a disaster. a disaster is the word you have to know. government moves slow because they have lots of departments that have to get together. i saw that yesterday with kamala harris and president biden. for the first time i have seen the federal government show what they do and who they talk to and how they coordinate it, how they

will come in with fema and that. the other thing that nobody is talking about is a couple weeks ago the house was supposed to vote on funding fema. they voted it down. will you please talk about this? will read about that on the air? how it came up and they voted it down to find more money for fema. that was the republican house. it never was able to get to the senate. politics. ok. i understand politics. everybody says what everybody else wants to hear. it is not what they say what they counts, it is what they do. i saw then president trump throw

kitchen paper towels to the people in puerto rico who were suffering. tell me what a paper towel could do? i am done. that gentleman said that wisdom comes with age. you experience and see the past, the present, and we understand the future. caller: here is -- host: here is an nbc station with this headline. "claim 100 republicans voted against fema funding needs context. the bill to fund the entire federal government includes fema funding. it was the continuing resolution.

100 republicans voted against it and there are various reasons for why they voted against the continuing resolution. someone at the safe act in it, the legislation that -- some wanted the safe act in it, that made it federal law which already exists that illegal immigrants cannot vote in elections. others voted against it because they did not want to continue spending at the levels the federal government was spending. there are a variety of reasons why some republicans would have voted against that. caller: can iraqi for one second? dashcam i -- can i interrupt you for one second? the government is run by taxes. it runs on taxpayer money. if you do not fund the government, if the billionaires who pay nothing compared to a

teacher or a fireman or a policeman who are funded by local government that gets the funding from the federal government, when trump had taxes reduced -- i don't know the exact amount and they paid less, and he did not close up the loopholes, that money that would have helped fund the government never made it. host: the point they are making is that because the house and the senate did pass this legislation we are talking about, it did pass, because they passed a continuing resolution at cap the government funded at current levels because they did not pass the appropriations bills for the next fiscal year in time to fund the federal

government at what in some cases would be higher levels to putting on the agency and the budget. they are coming back to it now when they returned to washington because they passed a continuing resolution. the debate continues. they will have another deadline they will have to meet when they come back to washington after the election. brock in newark, new jersey. caller: good morning. i just have a few comments. to the $750 from fema, fema said it is not just that, that is just initially to get people anything they can have. they want you to go to the website sue can apply for more money. i would like to say the federal government is reactionary, but they are doing the best they can

. i think the state government is where most of the blame should go. they are more reactionary than preventative. i believe the republicans do not want to give right foot credit to the biden administration for responding. i get the context of he has given us what we are asking for but they are not explaining what they're asking for because the people may feel like they need more than what the governors are asking for. that should be something thought about. i wanted to quickly pivot. i think we should also be thinking about the question of how these storms impact voters. if they have no storms to go back to -- if they have no homes to go back to where will they be sending all of these ballots? we have a couple of weeks and i'm looking at the landscape. the republicans will be harping on that part next. i that we should be thinking about how they are spinning it with their language.

i heard one of the fox ladies earlier talking about how biden was lecturing these people who are going through these tragedies. they fact -- the fact that they use language to manipulate people's minds is very disheartening, especially when people are suffering. we should remember it is our state governments that are being reactionary. they are not putting in preparation. i voted for my city council all the time and i talk about where is the disaster plan? you cannot just have a sign that says go north in case of emergency. people should be demanding a plan for any kind of disaster. host: brook in new jersey once a planned ahead of the natural disasters. mark in north carolina. were you impacted by hurricane helene? caller: not directly but my family is an emergency services

and i am in intermittent contact . my son-in-law and his crew went there initially right after the impact to help emergency services in charge of a local community emergency services. my nephew works in hendersonville and was impacted directly. he lives up in the mountains. he has been going to work and then helping the community. i am originally, although retired, i am a retired nurse. host: what did your son and son-in-law tell you about what they saw? caller: law, he

said it was devastating. our family vacationed up there multiple places so he sent me pictures of place after place where we actually stayed and it is just gone. host: are these places in the mountains? caller: what is right along the river host: -- river. host: what happened to the homes? caller: they are just gone. one was therefore over a hundred years and it is just gone. and other areas we state have been devastated.

he sent me pictures from that. host: given that year family is involved in responding, what is your confidence level? caller: my confidence level is a pretty high. that is what is so frustrating. i have been following some of the county websites that have been talking about the conspiracy theories and that is the problem. conspiracy theories are spreading and it makes emergency personnel fear for their lives. i want to help people but these people don't trust the emergency services if they don't test fema, then their lives if you like they are threatened and that is a huge problem. for example, some of the houses

the people are living in have no power and no information other than what they are getting from other people. in one area there were conspiracy theories that were spreading that said that fema was out there trying to take their property it so they were afraid to let fema help them. we live on the ocean and have hurricanes come in and out every couple of years. we have had to deal with this and fema. fema comes in and sets up aid and give initial checks to help them get started. you have local services that come in to address immediate needs, for example the lady who

called in complaining about the fact that she lost her medication. that is a horrible thing in my heart goes out to her, but she was able to get her medication. they are coming to help you do the things you need and after they cut the checks they do help people with additional needs. host: i am going to leave it at that point. caller: i find it very frustrating when i hear people calling in and saying they don't have control. you have control over this. you have known about global warming for a long time. people need to start supporting governors that support things about climate change. host: i will leave it at that point because we are going to take a break. we'll be come back we will continue the conversation about

natural disasters and dig into the world of fema and the role they play in disaster management with samantha montano "disasterology: dispatches from , author of the frontlines of the climate crisis." and later, david jackson talked about hurricanes that have impacted presidential politics and elections. his stay with us. -- stay with us. ♪ >> will you solemnly swear that in the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> watch our encore presentation of american history tv's series,

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equality. at 6:00, the congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the african-american women who worked at nasa and their contributions to space expiration and helping to calculate the apollo 11 mission sending men to the moon. at 7:00 p.m., watch the series historic presidential elections, exploring what made these elections historic, and the lasting impact on the nation. this week the election of 1948 and what was considered a major upset with harry truman defeating the republican new york governor in 1948 to win a full term in the white house. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, a history professor jamie myers on southeast american tribes and the impact of colonialism, the american revolution in emergence of the united states. at 9:30 p.m. eastern, and author looks at how eleanor roosevelt used film and television in the

early 1930's to the 1960's to invoke her political and civil causes. watch on c-span 2. watch online any time at c-span.org/history. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us this morning is samantha montano, the author of the book "disasterology: dispatches from the frontlines of the climate crisis." as florida wakes up this morning to the devastation of hurricane milton, what happens first on the ground with officials, first responders, those on the front lines as you work? guest: the first priority is

always life-saving measures. that will be everything from making sure that hospitals and other critical facilities have what they need to start their operations doing search and rescue, checking on folks who were unable to evacuate, checking in at shelters and making sure they have the resources they need and is starting the process of assessing damage, getting basic supplies like food and water out to folks who need it. host: who does that work? guest: a whole bunch of people, all different agencies, organizations are going to be involved from a local first responders to other first responders who have come from outside of the state of florida. you'll have fema officials involved in that and state and local emergency management and lot -- local nonprofits and local groups and the disaster it

nonprofits that come in two places that are affected. host: what do you make that president biden had told the florida governor that the defense department was on standby to conduct a if needed? guest: it is coming for dod to do -- be tasked with various needs that arise and i take that as a sign of being responsible and acknowledging the potential impact of the events. host: what experience did you have on the frontlines? guest: i got started doing disaster work in new orleans after hurricane katrina and the levee failure. i started out as a volunteer and we began working with different disaster recovery nonprofits. i did a lot of work that folks from north carolina to florida are going to have to start

doing, everything from mucking and gutting out houses to rebuilding homes, helping people fill out fema paperwork, insurance paperwork, kind of anything and everything that needs to be done in the aftermath of a disaster. the subtitle of your book, from the frontlines of the climate crisis. why did you say the climate crisis? i think it is a crisis. we have seen the effects of climate change particularly on extreme weather events. communities across the world are suffering from those consequences. from an emergency management standpoint, we are in a crisis and it is important to frame that to the public so we understand the urgency of acting to try to prevent the climate from changing more but also making sure we are doing everything possible for the

communities of climate change affected and changing aspects of emergency management systems so we are better able to help communities across the country. host: what changes do you think need to be made? guest: there is a long list. i would call for conveyance of emergency management reform. i mean everything from the federal government to state and local government needs to be making changes here and we also need to be thinking across the emergency management mission. emergency management is responsible for not only saving and recovery but for preparing for the responses and recovery and also didn't mitigation to try to prevent impacts from these disasters and try to minimize our risk across the country. the system has a broad mission.

everybody is involved in the system. you see disaster survivors are often called the true first responders. the system needs to be thought of comprehensively. it changes made to one part of the system affects the other part of the system. as we move into the period of time with increasing risk, i think it is really important that we stop and take time to make sure that we are making changes that are actually going to address the very real problems and shortcomings of the system. host: we are talking with samantha montano, who can take your questions and comments about the role of first responders in disaster preparedness and response. if you live in the eastern and central part of the country dial in at (202) 748-8001, mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8000, and

if you have been impacted by a hurricane, we want to know your story or dial in at (202) 748-8002. you can join us in a text with your first name and city and state at (202) 748-8003. let's begin with the role of fema. what is it that they do when it comes to natural disasters? guest: so fema is in charge of coordinating the federal efforts to emergency management across mitigation prepared and -- preparedness response and recovery. fema sets the direction for the rest of the country and what the approach to emergency management is going to be. they are responsible for being the backup for local and state governments when it is needed. they are also responsible for coordinating the federal elements of the response.

it is not only fema that is responding within the federal government. most federal agencies at some point will find themselves involved in a disaster. fema is in charge of helping them navigate that. host: when the florida governor says, "we are in charge in the state," what does he mean? guest: i don't know exactly what he means. it is typical for local and state governments to be the ones who are coordinating on site. fema sees their role in all cases as being extra support for what locals are doing. and here you see the state government taking on maybe a bigger role fulfilling the work that local and county emergency management agencies are doing. host: what does fema not do?

fema does not make anybody hole after a disaster. i think that is one really major misconception especially with forums that i have seen. fema will provide some aid to survivors. we have seen that with the 700 $50 initial cash infusion for folks -- $750 initial cash infusion for folks. and also the money they are making available through individual programs for things like housing. the amount of money you will get from fema is not meant to be enough to actually have you fully recover from a disaster. they are there to try and fill some of the emergency gaps that individuals have. host: who does make you whole? does anyone make you whole? guest: unfortunately, the way our recovery system is set up in the u.s., the responsibility of

getting you through a recovery is you. there are resources through fema and other government agencies like the small business administration has a loans that people may be able to access if they are eligible. then we have the nonprofit groups that work on rebuilding and other aspects of the recovery who will help to an extent. but our system is reliant on people having insurance to pay for the bulk of those recovery costs. we have seen in parts of north carolina, unfortunately a lot of people in this country do not have the type of hazard insurance that they needed to be able to rely on that as their primary recovery source. unfortunately what we have seen in disaster after disaster is that people get thrown into this

complex system and try to navigate it as best they can but often fall through the cracks and it takes a really long time for them to be able to accumulate the resources that are needed for them to feel like they have reached the point of recovery. host: the new york times, after floods soaring premiums become a hot election issue. in north carolina, a proposed 42% rate increase raises the stakes in the race for commissioner there. that is what the state of north carolina is facing after hurricane helene. an issue before the hurricanes hit, to hurricanes in two weeks and florida wasn't dealing with having insurance for the residence there for the hurricanes. what are your thoughts about where insurance companies are in this country in the climate crisis that you wrote about? guest: i think insurance is one

of the biggest issues when it comes to the impact of the climate crisis because insurance is what affects our overall economic well-being and affects our housing. insurance is at the center of this crisis. historically, insurance said that flooding was not an insurable risk for them, meaning they didn't feel like it would be financially beneficial for them to cover flooding which is why congress created the national flood insurance program which is a federally backed insurance program. i think that although it was done it many decades ago was actually something set up to be able to better manage the climate crisis in severe flooding impacts we can expect

to see. the challenge here is that there are modifications needed for the national flood insurance program and one of the biggest ones is increasing the number of people who are brought into it. not enough people across the country have flood insurance and there are several reasons for that. one of the most urgent things is getting more people into the national flood insurance program. past that program, you also have issues with wildfire insurance in parts of the west coast and having a homeowners insurance crisis in parts of louisiana. we are seeing this in different insurance areas and it is one that i believe has escalated to the point that congress is probably in the best position to intervene on. so far this has been handled

primarily at a state level to the extent it has been handled but at least there are conversations at the state level. given what the future looks like and how critically financially this insurance piece is in the impact it could have two other core parts of our economy, like the real estate market, this is something we need to be proactive in addressing, particularly for individual survivors who are now trying to navigate that insurance. host: reuters in the recent report in recent days about hurricane milton, could cost 68 $100 billion in insured losses. this is from analysts and reported by reuters. they also talk about the situation in florida, high risk

state from 41 florida insurers have declared bankruptcy or have otherwise failed since 2003 were 37 have failed in the rest of the country over that same time period. found that six of the state's largest providers rejected nearly 50% of their claims in 2023 and is an unusually high figure. let's get the calls. sarah in south carolina. you are up first. caller: a comment, as i was sitting here waiting, the guest actually he said what i was going to say. i want to thank the guest for her work during hurricane katrina, because my family went through that devastating event. judas confirmed a few minutes ago that in order for the average person to get immediate

assistance during an emergency is to rely first on your local, second on your estate and then the national government. for some reason, all of the callers and articles i am at reading, people are downing the national government. it is the local government. that is why it is so important for you to know who your local representatives are. finally, i wanted to compare what she said, in a school you have a superintendent, principal and teacher. if something breaks out in the classroom, do you skip the principal and go straight to the superintendent? we don't skip the local and go straight to the federal. and thank you for what you are doing. host: samantha montano, talk about that a little more. we also heard from a previous

color that on the local level he is not seeing the planning he believes should be done ahead of these type of storms. guest: emergency management at the local level is absolutely critical. unfortunately, across the country, we have seen a dramatic underinvestment in our local emergency management agencies. there are many parts of the country where communities only have part-time emergency managers where the fire chief is pulling double duty. in this moment of climate crisis, there should be no such thing as a part-time emergency manager. community needs staff who are trained, educated and have experience in how to do all aspects of emergency management. and doing so to build out the system at a local level and state level will also take some of the pressure off of fema.

if you have a strong local response, that is going to enable fema to use less resources, to make sure they aren't really just fulfilling the backup role to local and state rather than feeling like they need to come in and take over and coordinate because the system has broken down. host: follow up on reuters reporting about the insurance situation in florida as the sunshine state wakes to the devastation of hurricane milton. the state has set up a nonprofit citizens property corp to help people who cannot find help through private sector. it is now the largest provider in the state of florida. done in michigan, good morning. caller: good morning.

i want to say my prayers to all of my friends at the country club village where the tornado came through and killed four people last night. evidently, i got a text last night that we lost our home and the lady who watches it for us told that. what do i do here in michigan. it is not insured. they wanted $4000 of insurance for $25,000 worth of coverage on our mobile home that was probably worth $60,000 or $65,000. we would just self-insure. but now my home is gone and car is gone. what do i do in michigan? does wait what to do in a few

days. is there somebody i can call and get a hold of? am i responsible for the cleanup of my house that is gone? i don't even know if it is on the pad. i had a car under the carport and couldn't get a hold of anyone. i will let you go. but everybody pray for people along the turnpike spanish lake country club village, portofino shores and all areas affected by the terrible tornadoes. host: samantha montano, can you respond? guest: you can definitely start the process now. what i would recommend doing is going to the fema website, more pacifically it is disasterassistance.gov and you can create a profile on there and you should be able to start with the initial $750 which might be a little help.

it sounds like you are in a position to do is ask who our neighbor if they would mind going over and it taking as many pictures and video of your property as possible. a really important step is documenting everything. as i mentioned, the recovery process is complicated to navigate and that is when you are dealing with fema, insurance, sba loans, you will be asked for documentation. start gathering as much of that as possible. host: wayne in hanover, pennsylvania. caller: hello. host: we are listening to you. caller: first of all, after watching news and listening to lindsey graham, the senator of south carolina, he was almost in tears saying that fema was out of money due to flying illegals and paying for hotels all over

the country and setting them up. there was another fund he is going to go to ask to see if he can get some money from to help these people in georgia. is that true? that fema spent that money and now they are going to go to other resources to pull the money out? host: samantha montano, do you want to take that? guest: no, fema is not spending any funding that is not for disaster survivors. any migrant sheltering related issues. the confusion here is that congress had asked fema to administer a program for migrants sheltering which included some funding. fema administered that program as they were asked to do by congress. that funding was separate. that funding was never meant for disaster survivors and was not

part of the disaster relief fund which is where it fema draws the relief funding from when there has been a presidential disaster declaration. host: teresa and dandridge, tennessee. caller: good morning. i am glad you are talking about the money allocated to the migrants. i am not being disrespectful. and i have a politico advertisement, they get millions from fema from asylum-seekers and that was in 2023. there was an article, the department of home and security which approved fema announced that $333 million allocation that went to communities along the southern border. new york received 30 million out of that. the press secretary said behind the podium that $800 million

from fema was given to the illegal migrants for housing. and you all sit there and want to call it a conspiracy theory and deny it. host: did you hear samantha montano talk about a program that congress asked fema to administer? caller: it is one pot. i get one set of money when it is allocated. plus, the democrats went to congress and asked to have the money allocated to illegals instead of disaster relief. the $750. it is not donald trump who said all you are going to get is the $750, and i live 20 miles from where the road that the road has

been taken out and people are being turned down for that. if you don't have the insurance you don't have that. it wasn't trump who said that. right after they said they were giving $750, they, and said we are out of money and we don't have the money for anymore disaster relief. congress is going to have to come in and give us more money. what do you expect the people do -- people to believe about the $750? host: samantha montano guest: unfortunately, this is a lot of the information we have been hearing. i just explained the relief funding is separate from the other migrant programs. you can't look at the fema budget and look at the congressional record and see how that money was allocated. the other thing i will say here is that the 750 dollars is that

initial wave of emergency funding for folks. perhaps somebody has been gotten denied because they didn't have all of the information that was needed. if that happens, and we see that with individual assistance through fema and others, if you are denied bite fema for individual assistance, you can appeal that -- denied by fema for that individual assistance, you can appeal that. you can figure out what was missing and what it was that was preventing them from approving it. this is extra red tape that survivors have to go through and is something that hopefully it fema continues to work at addressing. if you are denied, you need to keep appealing. you may need to appeal more than once but typically if you do that, you will be able to get that assistance. host: from the washington post, talking about the $750 saying it

is immediate and for clothing, food, baby formula and other essentials. then they say it, it is just the start, disaster survivors are eligible to receive up to four $2500 in financial housing assistance which can be used to cover the cost of home repairs or up to 18 months of rent. applications could take longer to process. could you talk about that? guest: the next wave of funding from hurricane helene will be looking to access is for housing largely. so what you need to do there is be looking at how much money you are getting from your insurance, what is your ability to take out a small business administration loan. you will talk with fema and going through the process where they will help you determine how much money you are eligible for

through that program. what i will say is the cap is the $42,500 which is set by congress. that is probably, if your entire house is destroyed, $42,000 is probably not enough to completely rebuild. keep that in mind as you apply for that assistance but still is potentially enough money to help you jumpstart parts of that recovery process. also important for folks to know that not everyone gets the $42,500. the average that people get is much lower. this is a process you go through based on the damages you have, what other resources you have available for you. host: jackie in cleveland, ohio. caller: good morning.

it is weird that we have people that believe the misinformation. i dug around and it was obvious that the government's role in the disasters are supplemental and i was glad that samantha pointed out that the states are the primary and the government comes in to supplement with the states are doing and that everything doesn't fall on fema. the other part is about the misinformation. it is so disasters in this country that you can tell people stuff and they don't read for themselves and then they start attacking the different institutions in this country that have upheld this country over the years. host: the florida governor ron desantis is briefing right now. let's listen in and we will come back and get your response and take more calls. governor desantis: as you survey

damage and clean up, please be cautious of hazards. we have post-storm fatalities almost every storm and a lot of these fatalities are avoidable. please be cautious of downed power lines, don't touch them, don't remove tree debris that may be entangled with downed power lines. standing water can conceal downed power lines so please be mindful and never walk through storm waters. standing storm waters can carry bacteria that can lead to fatal infections. this type of infection was responsible for a fatality following hurricane helene, so please avoid wading through standing water. please use proper ladder safety. please use proper generator safety. do not operate the generator inside your home. must be outside, a safe distance

from doors and windows. visit the florida visit accommodation modules. they will be available for those returning to homes and sustained damage. or in need of other type of shelter. these models will give real time resources making the experience easier for users. if traffic lights are out in your area, drive with caution and treat each light as you would a four-way stop and also remember if you are going to use a chainsaw, be very careful with that. we have had some mishaps on that after every storm. we are extending the hope florida line for another two weeks, 24 hours a day seven days a week. if you need assistance or resources post-storm, you can call one-833-get hope. activate hope is designed to

help people find help following a disaster such as a hurricane so you can call the hope line and visit the hope bus which will be in some of these areas very soon and there will be announcements about that. florida commerce in this state emergency response team activated the business damage assessment survey in response to hurricane milton. business owners can self-report physical and economic damage caused by the storm. this survey can be completed on line. that is floridadisaster. bic. also the small business -- floridadisaster.biz. we have zero interest loans with flexible repayment options that you can't apply for loans of up to $50,000 through the programs. loans of up to $100,000 are available for agriculture and other small businesses and loans of $150,000 are available for

citrus and cattle operations. these are short-term zero interest loans. get the cash in your hand and the repayment terms are very flexible. you can apply at ww w. floridajobs.org/ebl. host: the florida governor ron desantis given a briefing in the devastation of hurricane milton. he was telling the residents, there are loans available to them on the state level as well. can you talk about that? guest: this looks different from state to state. some states do have their own disaster assistance programs that you may be eligible for. the best thing to do is go to the website that the governor mentioned. you can always go to the county emergency management website and

you should be able to find the various programs and look at what you might be eligible for. host: we are talking about the role of first responders in disasters, natural disasters such as hurricane milton as it dumped a thousand year amounts of rain on parts of florida, 60 inches of rain in st. petersburg, representing more than one in 1000 your rainfall for the area. what do you make of that? guest: it is a tremendous amount of rainfall, horrifying wind speeds we saw, damaging storm surge. this is part of the real challenge with hurricanes is that there isn't just one hazard that you have to watch out for. you have multi-hazard events that come with all different

dangers that can affect what the best options are for people to take in terms of protective action and complicates the damage that we see afterwards and are just really difficult to respond to. host: ronald in california, good morning to you. caller: good morning. i was down in north carolina, asheville, some 20 years back during ivan. i had a shopping center there that was completely wiped out. everything was gone. if there was a supermarket, hardware store, tanning salon and things like that. i couldn't get a dime's worth of help from anybody. i went to fema and they give you a stack of papers and say, fill

this out. they shut the electricity off in the whole shopping center. there was two feet of mud. i don't believe in fema, i can tell you that. host: i went to pick up on what you said there appeared a of papers, what is the paperwork like? samantha montano, what is the paperwork like? guest: the paperwork can be really complicated. at this point fema has moved most of that paperwork online. if you go to the website you will be prompted to go step-by-step. but depending on what type of assistance you are applying for, you are going to be asked basic identifying information, social security number. you are going to be asked for your insurance information or you are going to be asked for documentation of losses, that

kind of information which is going to feed into fema's decision on what aid is available to you. i would also say that fema's process for applying for aid changes pretty regularly. they are updating the programs and updating their system and changing internal policies. if you are somebody who has been through a disaster in the past and had a bad experience with fema, as the caller said wasn't able to get the assistance that was needed and now you are affected again, i wouldn't be dissuaded by past experience. i know it was frustrating but there have been changes that have been made since that event that may make it hopefully easier for people to go through that process. at the same time, i want to

recognize that it is a difficult process to navigate. host: let's hear from trina in new york. caller: thank you for taking my call. i don't want to dismiss any of the well intended efforts by all of the people trying to assist in disaster relief as well as even well intended government organizations. however, the reality is the program in the one gentleman caller are really pointing out the difference between what the biden-harris administration are trying to tell people and what reality is. reality is, you don't have to fill out an application to speak with god because prayer is with jesus. anybody can go to prayer. you don't need to fill out an application for sit in front of a laptop.

the reality is you don't need to fill out an application to give your money to are actually on the ground with bucket and mop and helping neighbors. you don't have to fill out an application to get a neighbor to help you. you don't have to fill out an application to give them food and water and assistance for those on the ground doing actual work for the things that are needed right now. you don't fill out an application to give to you the united ministry because of a goes to relief. host: i want to pick up on what you are saying. samantha montano, her point? guest: there are a number of really great nonprofits that are going to be out in these communities helping and certainly neighbors are going to be helping neighbors. we see that in every disaster in every disaster and those are incredible resources.

we would not be able to rebuild communities without the work that people do to help family, friends and neighbors and without the works of art disaster nonprofits do. at the same time, i think it is important to understand the limitations of the nonprofit sector. in the way the recovery system was designed, the nonprofit sector is supposed to fill the gap between what people can afford on their own and what government provides in recovery. as we discussed, government is not providing the whole thing. we know many individuals do not have the money to recover from their own and don't cap insurance and savings accounts. so that leaves a lot to the nonprofit sector. the amount of needs across the country has grown exponentially since around 2015, 2016 as these events have accelerated.

the nonprofit sector is doing amazing work and have an all hands on deck for helene and will be for milton i am sure. they also have limited capacity and are limited by how many donations come in and limited by the number of volunteers they have and the staff members they are able to maintain. so many places that are in desperate need of recovery assistance in those groups are having to make decisions about which events they respond to and how long they are able to stay in those communities. i agree and i encourage folks to volunteer with those organizations, certainly if you are in any of the impacted areas, any volunteer work you are able to do would be greatly appreciated. but it is important to understand that nonprofit sector alone is not capable of meeting

all of the needs we have in recovery, not only just for individuals but also in terms of the public assistance. nonprofits are not going to be rebuilding roads and bridges. they don't have the resources for that. host: marianne in minnesota read good morning to you. caller: i haven't called for at least six months. i hope you'll let me get to where i am going. i am listening to all of this and samantha, government employee. these people you are talking about, they don't have any communication. they don't have the means to fill out any paperwork. many times they don't have any of their papers to prove who they are and you are talking about them filling out forms on laptops. you're talking about doing appeals on this area these people made activities of daily living taking care of.

that is what the federal emergency program should be helping with. host: let's take your point. samantha montano, we heard from a colorsync fema is set up in north carolina on the ground at a local college. can you talk about filing online versus going to fema in person? guest: in the affected counties, you will find that fema has set up or is in the process of setting up a place where, usually in a central location, where survivors can go in person if you are still in town to register for fema assistance. they will have computers, internet and will walk you through that process. if you are having a hard time accessing that online or struggling with how to fill that out, that is a resource available to you. there is a phone number you can call.

fema fully understands the circumstances that people are in immediately following a disaster and they are in those communities also and know if there is no internet access. fema is doing what they can to make those programs more accessible. the other thing callers brought up for me is it is going to be really important as we move forward to recognize we have folks at different stages of response and recovery right now. we have folks from helene who are at the point where they are ready to start applying fema housing assistance. whereas in florida right now, we have folks who we haven't even heard from yet re-it will be days before they are in a position to even be thinking about what kind of resources are available to them from fema or otherwise. as the caller pointed out, those emergency lifesaving needs of

the focus in florida in terms of making sure search and rescue is done and making sure folks get to shelters if they needed and making sure they have food and water and talking about recovery assistance available is not to detract from those response efforts. it is just in recognition of people in being in different points in the process. host: samantha montano, author of "disasterology: dispatches from the frontlines of the climate crisis." also a emergency management professor. thank you for the conversation this morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: when we come back, we will be an open forum. and later we will look at past disasters have impacted presidential politics and elections with usa today's david jackson.

open forum is next. we will be right back.. ♪ >> american history tv, saturdays on c-span 2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 5:30 p.m. eastern, supreme court justice neil gorsuch and his former law clerk talk about the founding ideals of democracy, liberty and equality. and the congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the african-american women who worked at nasa for the space expiration in earliest days and for calculating the 1969 apollo mission to the moon. watch american history tv's series historic presidential elections, employing -- exploring what made them historic, the issues of the errors and a lasting impact on

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cbs evening news. watch book tv every sunday on c-span and find a full schedule on your program guide arrive at any time on book tv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: and we are back this morning on "washington journal." florida officials are breaking after hurricane milton made landfall. let's listen in before we get to your calls this morning. [video clip] >> they are slowly raising pressure in the lines to figure out exactly where the brakes are at and will start repairing the brakes one by one by one. you may see things come out of the hospital industry. we have stabilized the hospital situation. there is one active evacuation of a hospital right now and i don't have the name of the hospital could we can get that back to you through our folks.

we have stabilized the water pressure in four out of five hospitals from getting any worse . we will continue to closely monitor that throughout the day. one active evacuation going on. we have water tankers on site pushing pressure back into the systems. i think the biggest thing right now in the saint pete canalis -- pinalis areas on what they need. we have sent out engineers on our dime to be as helpful as we can and in one situation and might be a gasket or a phalange and it in others it could be a complete water break. we are hoping to get the water back on and running because the power and water go together.

>> the pipeline system? >> i don't have anything on that particular pipeline system but will find out what i can offline get back with you. >> will it impact recovery efforts in jacksonville? governor desantis: some team from jacksonville and they were put in different places to write out the storm and come back in. it will not have any major impact at all on these. they are things you have to do. you state and you figure out how to go. they were staged during helene there and it worked well when the forecast said it may not make it through with the roof and then they adjusted accordingly. thanks. host: florida governor ron

desantis wrapping up his morning briefing after hurricane milton made landfall 100 20 mile-per-hour winds when it came ashore last night at 8:30 p.m. eastern time. before we brought you to the briefing, the governor was telling the media gathered that the storm surge was not as bad for hurricane milton as they expected as it was for hurricane helene and also compared it to hurricane ian dead -- and said he doesn't think hurricane milton will be as destructive but said they are still assessing even after hurricane helene and the damage done by two hurricanes in two weeks. cnn reporting that largely the storm surge they saw was in sarasota county and 10 foot surge in the area. we are in open forum. you can talk about the

government's response to national -- natural disasters and other polity -- policies. a caller: i have done some research and we offer about 200 countries and territorial areas about $80 billion a year in humanitarian efforts. i'm just wondering how many of those countries are helping us now with humanitarian effort here in the united states. if none of them are, i think it is time to change the policy. host: gary in st. louis, missouri, independent. caller: i'm calling and point out these hurricanes are a great example of why it is important to have mail-in voting and drop

boxes and extended voting periods. when you have a disaster like this, millions of people are affected just before an election and not every time you are going to have something this large but there are disasters of people having problems where they cannot get to a polling booth on the day of the election, so i thing this is a great example of why we should have extended voting periods and mail-in voting and that sort of thing. i was wondering if c-span could give information on what these people are going to have to do to be able to vote. host: i do not have anything right now. we can look for stories about that. jim in missouri, democratic caller. >> recently, 60 minutes did a segment about insurance companies not paying the full

amounts of claims with the high taxes and high insurance that flora has, why do they need any kind of federal money? and how long before our congress talks about we have to spend less money? the continuing resolutions to fund the government at last year's levels, we have another disaster that was not figured into last year's budget. you cannot have it both ways. host: jonathan is in texas, republican. we are in open forum. what is on your mind? caller: i am a little upset with c-span and you in particular as a moderator seem to want to

abandon the idea that some people are built very smart and highly capable. so proof of that is the article you did not read in the wall street journal, which provides evidence of this perspective, which is the article that elon musk is providing help to north carolina storm victims. yesterday, c-span had general mckenzie on, who is a brilliant strategist and genius on geopolitical events. he explained the dangers of iran in detail. brilliant man. on that subject, netanyahu came to congress. harris did not go. the next day, iran made a successful missile attack on israel, implying hamas can do whatever they want, so back to

the subject of smart people, of which ron desantis is in that group, he has a brilliant knowledge of efforts in the state of florida. what did biden and harris do yesterday? they had a conference call asking foolish questions and governor desantis was not on it. thank you for taking my call. host: jonathan's thoughts in texas. gregory is in kentucky, independent. >> good morning. i am 65 years old. i am just wondering, in the 19 70's or maybe the late 1960's -- there were not many hurricanes and disasters and i'm suspecting a be because of the emissions and climate control and we need to do something about that.

every time they try to do something good, it gets railroaded by someone and it is almost like when the twin towers went down and they had warning of that and the cia and fbi works together and people died. i am just paraphrasing that, so the insurance companies are all over television everyday spending millions of dollars on stupid commercials and when you need them they try their best to get out of helping you and there should be something past or part of the constitution so insurance companies should ensure people that live in those areas now that we have more hurricanes than ever and the one caller on your last phone -- we need the

lord. thank you very much. host: the previous caller asked about voting and how residents impacted by these hurricanes vote. this is a story by reuters. north carolina passed legislation to make it easier for those impacted by hurricanes to vote. the package allows local election boards and the 25 storm hit counties to modify voting hours, combined precincts, change voting sites, and permit absentee ballots to be returned to any county board or voting site, among other measures. that is what is happening in north carolina after the hurricane. if you are interested in that story, it is by reuters. >> thanks for taking my call. i'm watching one of my grandchildren today. i watched the other one yesterday and i will watch

another one tomorrow. when does personal responsibility start? i am in new york state. i pay some of the highest taxes in the country and every time there is an emergency down there they are taking our federal taxes. we had a blizzard a couple years ago. egg bunch of people died up here. we got nothing. host: you do not think the federal government should be spending money in florida year after year? caller: i am all for helping them, but we have to be paid back. we have bridges that are dilapidated. and we get nothing. we send our money down there and then they call us the welfare state when they are getting money from us. when will it end? host: on florida and how voters there will be impacted by these

hurricanes, the associated press , the governor there issued an executive grant of flexibility for election officials in those 13 hard hit counties to alter their procedures because of hurricane helene and hurricane melton. it allows early voting and election day polling places to be changed or consolidated. makes it easier to request a mail-in ballot be sent to a different address than where they are registered to vote and allows ballots to be sent in envelopes so they can reach voters in their new locations. those are some of the modifications being made in states impacted by hurricane helene and hurricane melton. we are in open forum. go ahead. >> first, thank you for taking my call. the more i watch what is going on in this world and country,

the angrier i get. we have so many citizens impacted by storms, that are impacted by the way that our government is handing out money to immigrants who we have not asked to come here. we do not need them. good a gentleman talking about how high taxes are. i'm sure he had no idea his tax money was going to go to fund all these other people who have not been vetted, who do not need to be here and we need to start taking care of our own people instead of everyone else. instead of people who are coming in and taking a vantage of our kindness and generosity and sending the most horrible people they can hear. americans are dying because of these people. host: as part of c-span's 2020

for coverage, today we will cover former president barack obama in pittsburgh. pittsburgh is at says he will be there for the get out the vote tour starting today in pittsburgh we will have live coverage of his remarks there at a rally, 7:00 p.m. eastern time on c-span , on our free mobile video app, or onlinet c-span.org. jd vance, the former president's running mate on the republican ticket, he will speak to voters at a town hall and we will have live coverage of that on c-span two, c-span now, and online at c-span.o. this afternoon, the republican presidential nominee is in michigan to deliver mas on the economy at an event hosted by theetit economiclub.

we will ha le coverage of that as well on c-span and online and on demand at c-span.org. let's go to sylvia in california , democratic caller. good morning. >> good morning. yes, i hear the concerns and they are genuine in how it has come to this for the people affected by the storms in the east coast. i am concerned about the united states' continued funding of wars, particularly the middle east, and the continued funding of israel. we must stop that. since 1948, the united states has been funding israel. we have provided them with all the weapons that have been used now to destroy gaza, now destroying lebanon and continuing to destroy countries

around israel. why does the united states continue to fund israel? we must stop it. host: i'm going to have you end there. when you call in for you and others, you have to mute your television so we do not get that feedback. romney in arkansas, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to bring up a couple points real quick. number one, if we keep our borders open, we will be just a big state of california. there will never be another republican. it will only be democrats. another thing, as far as these hurricanes, they say you have to apply for a loan and take that.

there is no accountability for all this money we are sending overseas. we do not ask for money back on that. people worked all their lives in this country. they paid in and people are taking advantage of all our tax money to live on. host: more on c-span's campaign 20 for coverage. last night, we were -- we were able to air the senate arizona debate hosted by the arizona clean elections commission, the debate between kari lake and ruben gallego. here is part of the debate where they discussed immigration. >> i want to finish the border wall. on day one, my first piece of legislation will be to fully fund and expedite construction of the border wall. we already paid for the construction materials to do that, but ruben gallego and kamala harris have $325 million

of border material from pennies on the dollar they gave away. >> in addition to finishing the wall, do you add security and technology? do you spend on that? >> absolutely. i do not think we can do enough to secure our border. it is the most important issue facing our country. every state is a border state because of this man's policies, which have been 100% open borders. he sided with the cartels and against the american people. >> a minute to respond. do you support open borders? >> i do not support open borders. a country that does not have a border the control is not a country. i agree with that. i have been proud of making sure in my time in congress i brought

thousands of border patrol agents to arizona. i funded hundreds of miles of border wall where needed, where our experts wanted it. this is why i'm supportive of the border -- the compromise bill that was supported by border patrol. kari lake cut for no reason -- she cannot ask plane why she was against that bill. this is why we have more support from border mayors than she does. one porter mayor started with her on the campaign cut met with her in front of the border wall with her campaign side, and now is supporting us because he knows we are not just talk. we are here to bring resources to actually control the border and not just use it as a talking point, which is what kari lake does. host: from last night's senate debate in arizona. if you want to watch more of it, you can find it on our website. we are bringing in competitive

house races as well as senate debates when they are happening in all of the senate races and governors races as well. our coverage of the races continues tonight at 8:00 p. eastern time. we will bring you the utah senate debate. there are three candidates vying to replaceit romneywho is retiring. watch that live hosted by the utah debate commission starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two or online at c-span.org. at 11:. eastern time, we will bring youebate for alaska'slarge congressional you can watch that debate from alaska public media live at 11:00 p.m. eastern time on c-span or online at c-span.org.

that does it for open forum here. we will take a break. when we come back, we will talk with david jackson on how natural disasters like hurricanes impact presidential politics and elections. we will be right back. ♪ >> at the 2024 presidential campaign continues, american history tv presents its series historic presidential elections. learn about the issues of different euros, uncover what made elections historic, and discover their lasting impact on the nation. this saturday, the election of 1948. >> we must safeguard our rights,

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host: david jackson at our table this morning, national political correspondent with usa today. your headline, disaster politics. donald trump and kamala harris are the latest to deal with fallout. define disaster politics. >> basically it is when a disaster happens and there is an election going on and candidates try to take a vantage of it. host: this is not the first time it has happened. guest: not at all. has happened in recent decades and been an issue in several presidential elections, resembled the way president george h. w. bush handled hurricane -- for example the way president george h. w. bush handled hurricane andrew. hurricane andrew was at the time the worst hurricane the united states had ever suffered. it gutted south florida and people felt the government was

too slow to respond. they had trouble getting trucks at equip down there, fuel, food. a lot of that wound up being blamed on bush. host: september 2, 2005, president george w. bush visits new orleans days after hurricane katrina. he thanked the fema director for efforts in the recovery. let's talk about the impact of that on the bush administration. >> >> community-based groups are responding. if you want to help, give cash money to the red cross and salvation army. there will be plenty of opportunities, but right now the immediate concern is to get food and medicine to people and stabilize the situation. i want to thank you. you have done a heck of a job. this is the fema director.

they are working 24 hour day. my attitude is if it is not exactly right we are going to make it exactly right. if there are problems, we are going to address the problems. i want to thank everybody. guest: most of the voters in louisiana and elsewhere did not think the government did a heck of a job in a trina. virtually bush was lucky that happened in 2000 five as opposed to 2004 because that would have been a big issue in his reelection year, had it happened then. >> explain the politics here if it had happened before. what was he facing? >> he did win election over john and began his second term trying to reform social security.

we were still having problems in iraq, so his political position was already undercut when katrina happened. that was a case where, when the storm first hit, people felt like president bush was inattentive. he was coming back from a campaign type trip for the west coast and flew over the damaged site and there was a picture of him looking down over the window and that did not serve him well politically, so anyway katrina ended his political influence. whatever political power he had was finished off with the response to katrina. it was not the storm so much but the flooding after the storm that was the problem. the government had a serious case of the slows and getting help to these folks. host: i want to show other video from that time. this is later, september 2 -- we

showed september 2. this is september 15, a primetime address from new orleans to announce plans to rebuild destroyed regions of the gulf coast. [video clip] >> i want to know all the facts about the government response to hurricane katrina. the storm involved a massive flood, a major supply and secure the operation, and an evacuation order affecting more than one million people. it was not a normal hurricane. and the normal disaster relief system was not equal to it. many of the men and women of the coast guard, the federal emergency management agency, the united states military, the national guard, and state and local governments performed skillfully under the worst conditions, yet the system at every level of government was not well coordinated and was overwhelmed in the first few days.

it is not clear a challenge on this scale requires rater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces. the institution of our government most capable of's massive logistical operations at a moment notice. four years after the experience of september 11, americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency. when the federal government fails to meet such obligation, i am responsible for the problem and for the solution. so i have ordered every cabinet secretary to participate in a review of the government response to the hurricane. this government will learn the lessons of hurricane katrina. we are going to review every action and make necessary changes so we are better prepared for any challenge of nature or act of people men that could threaten our people. host: what do you make of the politics there?

the location cut words he chose cut message she was try to send? guest: the reaction was kind of stunned at the ineptitude of the response in reaction they got and bush was under so much heat he had to address the nation and do something. that is where you got the comprehensive review. i think there's evidence that coverage officials did learn lessons and i know political candidates learned because since then every presidential candidate has gone out of their way to avoid another katrina. host: in what way? what lessons were learned by watching response from the bush administration? guest: i'm not an emergency management expert. host: for politics. guest: to be attentive. one thing you have seen from the storms as you saw the

governments in florida but georgia, and north carolina out front early warning people to take shelter and you saw the biden administration out there. president trump has a review of it, but the fact is president biden and government officials were out talking with governors and state officials and being prepared for what they were concerned they would have to deal with. host: we are talking about natural disasters and presidential politics. here is how you can join the conversation. democrats, (202) 748-8001. if you're republican, (202) 748-8000. independent, (202) 748-8002. if you have been impacted by a hurricane, you can call in at (202) 748-8003 and talk about politics in response to natural disasters. can you -- is there anything new about this time around versus

previous times that there have been politics intermingled with natural disaster? >> president trump was out of the box can planning about the response. i think that is relatively new. it was just destined to be able to click issue because of the way donald trump handles things. he was going to complain about the response regardless of what it was but the fact that it came in a political porton state that trump has to hold and vice president kamala harris feels she has a chance to win, there was intense interest in the politics of the situation from the get go. the suddenness of the complaint is new and the fact that so much of the damage was in a battleground state. host: what about the mediums people use now? you have no x and people talking about alleged misinformation

coming out of the former president's campaign. others are saying he did not say that and that is not what he meant. guest: that is a good point. social media is an important factor. that has been around for a while. in 2012 one hurricane sandy hit new jersey, social media was active. that response aided president barack obama in his reelection effort. social media has increased the politicization of the storms. host: tina, democratic caller, welcome. caller: good morning. this morning around 4:00 a.m., i was watching the news and i saw ron desantis not allowing any aerial view of the damage after the fact and i was wondering -- the president always does aerial damage shortly afterward as well

as the new stations, so is this political? also, are most of the waterfront properties owned by wealthy people who can afford insurance in florida? host: i will stop you there because david jackson is here to talk about the politics of natural disasters. let's take the first part of that. politics whose into the policy decisions. guest: the caller is right. a lot of wealthy land owners are going to be listened to more than other people. there is no doubt that is a factor. i don't know about the aerial situation because i think the iconic image from the storm is the baseball stadium's roof. i think we will see that picture for years. that was aerial shot. i do not know how people got it. there is surveillance of the

damage in milton. host: joe in new orleans, democratic caller. caller: i experienced katrina. my issue is the false information that donald trump and fox news are giving concerning the amount of money that fema gives to disaster participants. and it is just terrible how they are using their political influence to spread false information and instead of them using that opportunity to tell people how to apply for whatever assistance is available to them, they are telling them false

information and it is disheartening to see that. you have enough to deal with with the fact you have lost everything you own. all you have is what is on your back. host: could there be blowback if voters perceive that this is misinformation? could this turn out to not work out so well? >> people are already getting on trump for politicizing it in the first place and there has been misinformation. there's this myth out there that fema took money from her can relief and gave it to migrants. that is not true. we are talking about two separate budgets. that has nothing to do with her can relief. there is this myth that the government was only handing out 750 rest -- dollars to residents, but that is like a down payment to get them through the immediate situation.

the settlements in the case will be much bigger than that. >> we are talking about presidential politics and natural disasters. i want to go to 2012. you had mentioned then president obama and how he responded to hurricane sandy. this is october 2012, president obama joining the then a new jersey governor after surveying damage from hurricane sandy in new jersey. >> obviously this is a federal, state, and local effort and the first thing i want to do is thank everybody who has been involved in the rescue and recovery process. at the top of my list, i have to say governor christie throughout this process has been responsive. he has been aggressive in making sure state got out in front of this incredible storm and i

think the people of new jersey recognize that he has put his heart and soul into making sure the people of new jersey bounce back even stronger than before. i want to thank him for his or shorter leadership and partnership. i want to thank the congressional delegation. part of the reason we will be able to respond quickly to all this is because they helped make sure that financing was in place and we are appreciative of those efforts. host: your thoughts on how the former president and barack obama handled hurricane sandy and his relationship with the republican governor? host: -- guest: he was mindful of katrina as well. he visited when he was a senator, but it was obvious that he wanted to look like he was staying on top of it and to work with the governor of new jersey. he was a republican who was very critical of him.

he wanted to show people he was willing to reach across party lines and i think he was effective. certainly the way he handled sandy helped him. another situation is it hurt chris christie nationally with republicans. republicans got on him for being so cooperative with president obama, including a new art businessman called donald trump. this was held against him, his cooperation with obama. it was a good early indication of how politicized our country was becoming. >> and if you do not cooperate with the federal government? >> it would have been a disaster. the voters of new jersey, who he represented, liked the way he handled sandy. he walked into reelection two years after that. his constituents were pleased. it was national republicans who had a problem with it.

>> good morning. i am disappointed with the biden-harris administration. i think they have been flat-footed on more than one occasion. my example is the train derailment in east palestine, the scope and severity of which has not been felt and assessed. the transportation secretary took several weeks to get there. it never happened. it just was bad from an optics standpoint that he did not care that much. the final point was fema responded to asheville, but when it was still occurring with the water rising president biden was on the beach in delaware and i think the vice president was holding a fundraiser with donors in california. from an optics standpoint, it is not impressive. host: we will take those points.

guest: legitimate criticism. i think vice president kamala harris was in california, as was george w. bush was in california own katrina hit. i guess they would say they did not know they were going to have to deal with so they went ahead and pursue to regular schedules. even though biden was in delaware, he was making calls from delaware and working the phones on this. but there are always reasons to criticize government response, including this case. host: i want to show a little bit from an interview that president prompted on fox monday night on the biden administration response to hurricane helene and then we will show you what vice president kamala harris, his opponent, said as well. >> almost $300 billion to ukraine and they are offering

people $750. >> for immediate need. >> but for the worst hurricane anybody has seen. warm portly cut they do not have the people. it is a very bad thing. >> how would you do it differently? >> i would have a tremendous team of people. i was in georgia and georgia has a good governor doing a good job. what carolina is a disaster and it was also hit very hard but they do not have the people and they are complaining there is people around to help. that was a horrific storm. and late in the season. you would not think a thing like that could happen but you have to get the people out. i was there for the entire day and i saw virtually nobody other than the people who are badly affected. one man, he's got a house that is gone and he is sitting on a rock. you have to help him and you have to help him monetarily also. it is virginia, alabama.

south carolina was hit hard. i spoke to a great governor there and they were hit hard. >> biden said the response has been robust and well coordina>> nobody says that. he does not know what robust is. he should be there and she should be there. she should not be at fundraisers. host: the former president on fox monday night. you heard him list states there. red states ahead of the election. >> very much so and also stay to have republican governors who have not made the kind of complaints that trump has made. if you listen to the republican governors in georgia and south carolina and florida, they have not registered these complaints. north carolina has a democratic governor, but he has been supportive of the biden administration.

he has been critical of the way trump has handled this. a lot of republican officials on the ground in red states have not made the same complaints. host: are republicans concerned about how this could impact folks in the states that are typically red or one that is a swing state and that both camps hope to win? guest: both parties are concerned about it. that is another thing about disaster politics. it effects candidates but also voters. disasters have a tendency to suppress the vote and make it more difficult for people to vote and they are too busy trying to rebuild their lives to worry about a presidential election. we have seen examples of where voters -- there has been lower voter turnout in areas where disasters have happened. there is concern in both parties about that, particularly in western north carolina. one of your callers mentioned

taking steps to try to make it easier to vote and expand voting hours and combined precinct in that kind of thing. i think that is an effort supported by both parties because asheville is a very democratic area. the harris campaign wants to get those voters out. host: the vice president was on the view on tuesday and responded to the criticism from the former president about how the bravo-harris -- biden-harris administration is handling these disasters. [video clip] >> it is the height of your responsibility and callousness. lives are literally at stake now. i traveled to georgia and north carolina after hurricane helene. in georgia, i met a woman who just days earlier, her husband was killed in their home by falling trees. days later, i met with her and her daughter.

you can imagine the pain and shock they are still in about what they witnessed. we are talking about real human beings and their lives. and losing everything. this woman lost her husband. her child lost her father. people are losing their homes with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return and the idea that somebody will be playing political games for the sake of himself -- but this is so consistent about donald trump. he puts himself before the needs of others. i fear he really lacks empathy on a basic level to care about the suffering of other people and understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down. it is to lift people up. especially in a time of crisis.

host: you hear her accuse the former president of playing politics you heard in her comments things she has said on the campaign trail. so could they avoid politics if they wanted to when running for president? do they need to think about how -- the politics of what they are saying? guest: there was a time when politics would take a rest after a disaster, 9/11 to a degree, although the trump people say they felt like the democrats send back to them in the covid pandemic, but we are in a world where everything is politicized. that includes storm damage. we are debating the effective response when it is just getting started, so there is no way to assess capability of the biden response because it is too early in the process. >> gary, republican. >> there are two ways to look at

this from the information side from both sides. i believe if anything this information battle is kind of a weekend -- weakened biden administration. how'd you get a democrat to do something? you tell them it is an election year. you have not seen kamala harris for 3.5 years and it is an election year, so i thing this country needs more than a promise or a view of hope. they need somebody to push hope upward. guest: to get somebody to do something during an election year -- i think that applies to all parties. host: nelson in florida, independent. caller: good morning. i'm actually calling on the03 -- on the 03 line.

i'm a retired firefighter paramedic and was a first responder in hurricane andrew. i have been living in florida since 1958 and been through a bunch of hurricanes. i think we as a nation are making a mistake and having faith in the federal government. to respond and to be the chief, if you will, of disasters and in the various states. fema should assist the states, not take over the scenarios which i think is causing more problems than resolving. hurricane andrew, we had a lot of help. most of the help came from other parts of the state of florida. we had fire trucks down here from tallahassee and jacksonville and the people that

were reestablishing the electrical lines were from all over the country. that was not federal government. that was a lot of local help coming from the communities and the state and other parts of the country and female was there to assist as they are now in the state of florida, where the person who is actually running is governor desantis. he is doing a very good job. i think it is a mistake to think that fema is somehow going to fix the problem. they are not. they are too big. the federal government is too bureaucratic. and politicians are always going to be politicians. that is all i wanted to say. i would like to hear your response. guest: it is a long-running

debate, federal power versus state power. ever since the expansion of the federal government going back to the new deal it has been a debate. that is a good point. i would say in florida it is a different case because they are hit by so many hurricanes and florida has long felt like fema is an advisory group. pride themselves on their own ability to respond hurricanes and that is what is happening now. >> governor ron desantis said we are in charge in this state. you heard the clip replayed of the former president saying basically the buck stops here. i am in charge here. the difference. >> he had to say that because he was under so much heat. louisiana does not have as much of a tradition of fighting disasters as florida does. it is a different set up. in that case, louisiana and other states need the assistance of the federal government

because that is really not their thing. in florida, disaster response is in every year occurrence. host: we will go to north carolina, joe, democratic caller. were you impacted by hurricane helene? caller: i was not. i am near raleigh. we have a problem here. i do not understand it. trump is in georgia and south carolina. they were not impacted like north carolina. a lot people lost their lives and livelihoods here and we have a strange situation where congressman like dan bishop have voted against fema aid. we are always getting hurricanes. this time it came right out into our mountains and the waters

came downhill at hundreds of miles per hour and killed all these people. these guys have voted against fema aid. host: are you referring to previous years or the continuing resolution? caller: this was the most recent fema appropriation. host: i believe you are talking but the continuing resolution. if you're talking about that cut you have to put that in context. republicans were not voting against fema and there were voting for a bill that would keep the federal government open and fund the federal government at current levels. fema funding was part of it, but there were a variety of reasons for voting against it. when you're in a storm like this , do those details matter? guest: i am glad this came up

because republicans will tell you and told me they are getting hit because they supposedly voted against fema aid when they were voting against other things in the bills. i also have to add after hurricane sandy there was a dispute in congress over funding and recovery of funds over that storm and it would not surprise me if you see something similar later this year after the election. >> anthony in brooklyn, republican. >> yes. why was fema only offering $750 to people? host: we talked about that before. that is the initial money that fema offered for immediate needs like medicine, food, clothing. then you have to apply for more money. that is where that number comes from. gary in new jersey, democratic caller. >> i have a couple questions.

when they talk about the $750, she did say $750 but the question is where are they spending it? in the mountains cut there was nothing. there were no stores. there was no anything. where are you taking that $750 and spending it? that is a little bit of a question. she did not say. when i listened to -- i'm concerned as a democrat because they are giving regular press conferences and all but i'm not seeing the democrats. where is he? host: which democrat are you talking about? caller: north carolina. host: governor cooper? caller: i'm not hearing from him, which concerns me. i do not know why he is not up there giving more updates.

host: let's talk about that. optics is an important part of how people perceive you are handling a disaster. guest: i do not know what cooper's schedule has been a have seen him on film. i assume he is giving updates. he should be. it is important for people to know someone is in charge of looking after them. that is often fallen to governors. both these callers have raised an issue about the mountains. one of the things differed about the storm is mountainous areas were affected and old houses were wiped out. that is relatively unusual. you do not think of mountainous areas as being hurricane alleys, but that is what happened. host: leah in new jersey, independent. caller: i'm listening to our program this morning. it is amazing when i listen to kamala harris. all she goes on about what she

is going to do for our country. she and biden have been in almost four years. what have they done for this country? they have done nothing. they have put this country in the sewer. now all of a sudden she is going to fix everything because it is an election year. she lied. the democrats lied to the public for a long time about joe biden. they put him up there. all you need do is look at him and no this is a sick man. host: this is a criticism the former president makes, that the vice president has not done anything in three years and could have done something on immigration and other issues. so while she is try to take credit for the biden administration's record, they

are saying she should also get the blame. guest: she is facing a problem many vice president have faced when they ran for president. it is difficult to be a vice president trying to run your own campaign because you are inevitably tied to the record of whoever was president. the unique thing here is that harris did not go through the primaries. she was actually ascended to the job after president biden review -- withdrew from the race, so she is in a unique position and i do not envy her for it. host: then there is this axios headline, that inflation falls 2.4%, lowest in three years. will the vice president try to take credit for this? guest: i assume so. she will need to because trump and the republicans say 2.4% is still an increase and we still have inflation. i am sure she will be talking about not just lowering of

inflation rate but the stock market. there are a lot of economic signs that are quite good and it is obvious that economic recovery is underway, so it is up to her to take it vantage of it. -- advantage of it. they get credit for the results of it. it is hard not to notice the stock market has reacted favorably to recent vegetations, so it is like being the coach of winning football. if the team does welcome what you get credit. if the team does not, you are not going to get credit. the economy seems to be coming back and it is hard to imagine that will not benefit harris. host: in texas, democratic caller. caller: kamala harris was under joe biden and they did a great job. if we let people like donald trump take over, we will become

a low nation. we are a nation of god and that is why we are a leader. kamala harris is so much greater than trump. host: heard your point. we will go to donna in illinois. caller: i would like to make one comment and ask one question. the cones i like to make is that i would like to remind people that donald trump does not believe in climate change. i think it would be a responsible of all of us to elect someone who does not even believe in climate change. and for a question, i would like to ask -- i thought there was an actual law that some people because of their position are held to a higher standard and i do not feel as though people

should just take this for granted that donald trump tells lies about fema and i think he should be held to a higher standard. host: got it. david jackson? guest: i think trump is being held to a higher standard because he is running for president. you made a good point on the first one. another way the politics of disaster has changed is a lot people bring up climate change when the storms we are seeing our fiercer than they have ever been an people attribute that to climate change and feel like the government should do something about it. the only difference is climate change affecting the outcome of an election. host: what are you watching in the response and possible fallout of it? >> former president trump is supposed to address detroit in

the afternoon, so i guess we will get initial comments on florida but just direction to the storm and how people react and what happens in florida. host: is florida in play? guest: no. george h. w. bush took florida in 1992, but voters and the rest of the country were not impressed with response to the hurricane, so i think it is the same kind of thing. if the response is botched, it will affect voters in georgia and north carolina and other places. host: the former president in michigan hosted by the detroit economic club. we will have coverage of that on c-span and online. david jackson, national political correspondent with usa today, thank you for your time. thank you all for watching today and participating in the conversation. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern time.

we hope you join us then. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> here is a look at some of our live coverage on c-span. senate intligence committee chair mark warner talks about global challenges facing the next president at an event hosted by the atlanta counsel. then 2024 republican presidential ninee and former speaks to the detroit economic club. form president barack obama campaigns inf vice president kamala harris at a rally in pittsburgh. you can also watch these events live on c-span now, our fr mobile video app, or online at c-span.org.

>> some debate coverage to tell u about on the c-span network, today republican larry hogan takes part in his first debate in the race to replace ben cardin in the u.s. senate. at the same time on c-span two, live coverage of a debate between canditerunning for u.s. senate in utah, those vng to replace republican senator romney, including republican congressman john curtis. that is live on c-span two. at 11:00 p.m. eastern, eris a debate for alaska's the candidat are incumbent democratic representative mary peltola, repubnick begich. you can watch the debate from alas public media live on c-span. all odebate coverage is available on c-span now, our free mobile video app or online

at c-span.org