Harris says Trump’s putting politics over people with his hurricane response: ‘He really lacks empathy on a very basic level’

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said she thinks former President Donald Trump has no empathy for others as he continues to spread misinformation about the federal response in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness. … Lives are literally at stake right now,” Harris said during an interview on ABC’s “The View.” “I mean we’re talking about real human beings and their lives and they’re losing everything, everything.”

She added, “The idea that somebody would 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 that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up especially in a time of crisis,” she added.

Following Hurricane Helene, and with Hurricane Milton barreling toward Florida, Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed, without evidence, that the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs. While FEMA does manage grants for housing and helping migrants, that is a separate account and unrelated to the disaster relief funds.

Trump has also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s response to Helene, including falsely saying that the president wasn’t picking up the calls and that there is an anti-Republican bias in how President Joe Biden and Harris are responding to the crisis.

Harris described traveling to both Georgia and North Carolina to survey the impact of the hurricane, emphasizing the “pain” and “shock” people are still in. At least 235 people have died due to Helene, and Milton is expected to pound Florida in the coming days after quickly intensifying into a major hurricane, at one point reaching Category 5. It’s expected to remain a powerful Category 4 storm before it hits landfall on Wednesday night.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has lamented the state of disinformation around relief efforts to date.

“I’m going to divorce the disinformation that is being spread from any one individual and just say this: Disinformation harms survivors of a disaster because they lose trust in their government and they don’t seek the assistance that they need and to which they are entitled and that we can deliver,” Mayorkas said on CNN on Tuesday.