Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance converses with former race car driver and model Danica Patrick at a Greensboro town hall
(Photo: Screengrab from YouTube video feed)
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, speaking at a town hall in Greensboro Thursday night, attacked the Biden-Harris administration for what he claimed was its delayed response to western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
At his rallies, the Ohio senator is known for answering questions from the media in front of the crowd, a contrast to the Democratic ticket’s usual lack of media interviews. On Thursday, he took questions from the audience and event moderator, former professional racecar driver and model Danica Patrick.
A pilot from western North Carolina asked Vance about revamping the national disaster strategy to make it more effective.
“The biggest fear right now is that when all this is over, western North Carolina becomes a footnote,” the pilot said.
Vance said he and former President Donald Trump wouldn’t forget about western North Carolina or other parts of the Appalachian region.
The GOP vice presidential nominee said the White House should’ve taken action sooner after Helene.
When a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, Vance said the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army touched down in the stricken area within 48 hours. The group specializes in parachute assault operations and is based out of Fort Liberty, N.C.
The units weren’t deployed to western North Carolina until six days after the disaster.
In fact, the two disasters were very different. According to a RAND report, the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 “collapsed 100,000 structures, damaged 200,000 more, killed more than 316,000 people, injured 300,000 others, and displaced more than 1 million people.” The Obama administration deployed U.S. personnel to the island nation in response to urgent and immediate pleas from the Haitian government.
Presidents don’t typically send troops into domestic disaster areas until requested to do so by the states in question and states don’t typically request them until it’s clear what their assignment will be. In North Carolina, the Biden administration deployed troops when asked to do so by state officials and has provided a large and steady stream of federal assistance almost from the moment the storm hit.
“The president and the vice president should’ve sent the 82nd Airborne to western North Carolina that day,” he said. “Instead, we had a president at the beach and a vice president at a fundraiser in San Francisco.”
President Joe Biden was at his beach house in Delaware at the time of the storm, while Vice President Kamala Harris was on the west coast. The president, who always travels with access to command-and-control assets at his disposal at all times, has explained that his trip didn’t affect his ability to help coordinate the disaster response and has angrily called out Trump’s lies on the subject.
Vance also reiterated the Trump-Vance campaign’s hardline stance on immigration.
He said a Trump administration would close the border. He also echoed Trump’s claim that undocumented immigrants are taking money away from western North Carolina, crowding Section 8 housing, and bankrupting Social Security.
“[Harris] wants to bankrupt this program, not by giving it to the people who paid into it, but by giving it to people who don’t even have the legal right to be in this country to begin with,” he said.
FEMA has debunked claims that disaster relief funds have been diverted to support immigrant-related issues. Many economists have similarly rejected Vance’s claim about immigrants and housing.
Patrick admitted to Vance on stage that she hasn’t voted before, and this election will be her first time.
“If I could vote twice, I would,” Patrick said.
“We don’t do that. We’re Republicans. We vote legally only one time,” Vance responded.
Ahead of the town hall, the Harris-Walz campaign held a virtual press conference denouncing disaster relief under the Trump administration.
“During my time at the Department of Homeland Security, I learned how Trump would play politics with the aid that was desperately needed in areas impacted by natural disasters, as he tried to refuse relief for one simple reason: the impacted areas didn’t vote for him” former Trump administration official Kevin Carroll said.
With less than four weeks until the election, there’s more national attention on North Carolina. Harris will host a rally in Greenville on Sunday, and former President Bill Clinton is campaigning for the Harris-Walz ticket in eastern North Carolina next week.