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Mayor Of North Carolina Town Exposes Harris Over FEMA Claim
Charlie Kirk Staff
10/10/2024
A North Carolina mayor, whose daughter’s home was devastated by last week’s historic Hurricane Helene, is accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of misrepresenting FEMA’s efforts to assist residents.
Derek Roberts, the mayor of Newland—a town with a population of just 719 according to the 2020 census—is advocating for his daughter in her ongoing battle with FEMA.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, the small-town leader revealed that his daughter’s request for a $750 relief payment was denied by the disaster relief agency.
“My daughter, whose house got completely wiped out – she has no flood insurance – meets with a FEMA person, applies for everything, doesn’t get the $750 that Kamala says she’s supposed to get. Gets approved for $300 for personal items. What is that gonna do?” Roberts asked in outrage.
“Her entire first floor is literally wiped out,” Roberts continued as he described his adult daughter’s ordeal. “Everything hauled everything off. So where is FEMA?” The little money she was given, Roberts added, wouldn’t even have replaced “what was in her refrigerator” when Helene hit.
Earlier this week, Blaze TV’s Glenn Beck reported that he had spoken with FEMA sources who claim that officials seem more focused on shutting down makeshift helicopter rescue operations than on exploring all available options to assist those still stranded in small mountain towns.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, meanwhile, has publicly acknowledged that FEMA, which falls under DHS, lacks the funds to last through the entire storm season, a statement conservatives have seized upon as they point to excessive spending related to the nation’s migrant crisis.
In a letter to Mayorkas, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) expressed his astonishment at Mayorkas’s earlier admission that FEMA “does not have enough funds to make it through the [hurricane] season.”
“My office has been in contact with whistleblowers in numerous emergency-management functions at the federal, state, and local levels, and they all point to the same critical mismanagement issues,” Gaetz noted. “FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds, misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground.
“As reported and further confirmed by my office, hundreds, if not thousands of service members were deployed by the Department of Defense to North Carolina and have sat idle, waiting for FEMA. We have confirmed FEMA employees deployed, on the clock, awaiting orders in hotels. FEMA pre-disaster aid was withheld, exacerbating the emergency. It is also public that NGOs have purchased airline tickets for migrants through the use of FEMA funds,” he added.
