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Opinion: After Helene relief lies, Republicans are out of time to do the right thing about Trump

By Billy Ball

October 15, 2024

Some Republicans in North Carolina are standing up to the Helene relief lies, but they’ve failed again to stand up to the black hole at the center of it all—Donald Trump.

When US Rep. Chuck Edwards, a western North Carolina Republican, issued a press release last week debunking the worst of the Helene relief lies, he was applauded by many on the left. 

“Amidst all of the support,” Edwards wrote, “we have also seen an uptick in untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains.” 

Edwards’ statement is admirable, but incomplete. Depressingly so. At no point in the press release’s 796 words does Edwards say the name “Trump.” 

The congressman, like many of his Republican colleagues, failed to acknowledge the single largest source of the lies, the black hole at the center. That the lies came from Trump and his allies, like NC candidate for governor Mark Robinson, doesn’t require detective work — just two eyes and a head and a heart. Those lies have been reported on extensively in the days since Helene, including here at Cardinal & Pine.  

But Edwards wasn’t the only one to miss the forest for the trees. 

The congressman, like many of his Republican colleagues, failed to acknowledge the single largest source of the lies, the black hole at the center — Donald Trump.

When Sen. Thom Tillis denounced them, he didn’t name Trump either. Nor did Sen. Kevin Corbin, when the western NC Republican pleaded with people to stop spreading bad information that hurt the relief effort. 

At a press conference outside the Biltmore Estate last week, many of those same Republicans tied themselves into knots over the lies. US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, told lies about the relief effort that Edwards—who was literally standing next to him—had refuted hours earlier.  

So why aren’t these Republicans calling a thing a thing? 

The short answer is that, in their party right now, elected officials who tell the truth about Trump probably won’t win any upcoming elections. It’s likely they wouldn’t even make it past a primary. Ask former US Rep. Liz Cheney, once considered one of the most conservative members of Congress. Now she’s a pariah on the right for doing what we always asked of our leaders—telling the damn truth. 

“The people that stopped him from his worst desires last time around won’t serve again,” Cheney said Sunday about the prospect of a second Trump term. 

But some things are bigger than party, right? 

Will those NC Republicans name Trump now, after federal aid workers were forced to flee some areas in western NC this weekend from threats of armed militias? The militia threat didn’t pan out, law enforcement says, but they did arrest a local man on charges of making threats against FEMA workers. 

And most of the people on the ground out west, including the Republicans, acknowledge by now that the lies and disinformation are hurting the relief effort.

The only thing Trump sees in Helene victims is potential votes for him on Election Day. His political career is a testament to that. 

The hurricane relief effort hasn’t been and won’t be perfect. Nothing involving people is. It’s a disaster scene, complicated by remote mountain communities with roads made inaccessible by Helene’s flooding and mudslides. 

But to believe because of a politicians’ lies that aid workers out west are trying to steal your land or your money, or that they’re working to help Kamala Harris win the presidential election, is a tragedy. 

These are lies designed to fool vulnerable people who’ve been hurt. Gov. Roy Cooper, who led North Carolina through the COVID-19 pandemic without a whiff of partisan shenanigans, said as much in a press conference Tuesday.

“We don’t know how many people are not going to apply for FEMA [aid] because they’ve heard misinformation about FEMA taking their property or other wild accusations that are out there,” Cooper said. “People who desperately need this help but have been convinced that they should be afraid of FEMA or other government officials. The people that you’re hurting are the very people who need the help the most.”

The only thing Trump sees in Helene victims is potential votes for him on Election Day. His political career is a testament to that. 

In 2017, when he was president, he gave North Carolina just 1% of the relief funding that state leaders requested following Hurricane Matthew. And, in 2017, when he was president, Trump blocked badly-needed aid to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, following Hurricane Maria. He only released that aid weeks before the 2020 election

Nor did Trump make a big fuss in 2016, as he did this month, about making sure everyone could vote after the storm, even though Matthew, like Helene, left parts of North Carolina underwater with weeks to go before Election Day

The difference is Matthew flooded eastern NC communities filled with Black and Brown people who might vote for Democrats. Western NC communities are expected to vote for Republicans. 

Trump’s tainted so much about who we are as Americans, now he’s tainted the way we hurt, the way we handle a disaster. 

It’s not about party or political beliefs. The time for talking about liberal or moderate or conservative philosophy is gone. 

Many of the Republicans who represent us at the local, state, and federal level know this to be true. Some of them might even be quietly hoping for Trump to lose this election, in the hope that, if Harris wins, they could retake their party from MAGA grifters. 

But the time for “quietly” taking back their party is past.

Trump’s tainted so much about who we are as Americans, now he’s tainted the way we hurt, the way we handle a disaster.  

That moment was when Trump refused to accept his defeat in 2020, when he was at his lowest, after he drove a mob to the Capitol to intimidate or kill anyone who didn’t keep him in office, including Republicans like former Vice President Mike Pence.  

Weeks later, though they were forced to run for their lives on January 6th, many Republicans, including Tillis, voted to excuse Trump of wrongdoing. Then they quietly got in line to support another Trump run for president, even as his words got darker and more disorganized

But this time, Trump’s lying about us. He’s lying about North Carolina. 

The people who should be standing here with us to denounce Trump are the “principled conservatives” we keep hearing about, the ones who undoubtedly see, as we see, and who feel, as we feel, that Trump is a scoundrel. But they keep it to themselves to survive.  

You can’t have both. If you call yourself a patriot, you have to stand up to the gravest threat to it, as retired Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump and Biden, did when he reportedly called Trump “fascist to the core” in a forthcoming book.   

Conservatism doesn’t require cowardice. It doesn’t demand fealty to a convicted con man. So let’s give our Republicans one more chance: 

You’ve called out the lies, now tell us who the liar is. 

Sen. Tillis? Rep. Edwards? Sen. Corbin?

 

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Author

  • Billy Ball

    Billy Ball is Cardinal & Pine's senior community editor. He’s covered local, state and national politics, government, education, criminal justice, the environment and immigration in North Carolina for almost two decades, winning state, regional and national awards for his reporting and commentary.

CATEGORIES: LOCAL NEWS
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