Hurricane Milton is threatening to overshadow presidential campaigning as it menaces Florida.
The storm has already scrambled Donald Trump's schedule. He put off a virtual event Tuesday night focused on health care and postpone a Univision town hall in Miami. He was in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris denounced the misinformation and disinformation surrounding the federal response to Hurricane Helene, which hit last week and killed more than 220 people. Both singled out Trump as driving much of the falsehoods.
Harris plans to head to Nevada and Arizona on Thursday. She spent Tuesday in New York taping interviews on ABC’s “The View,” with radio personality Howard Stern and on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
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Here’s the latest:
Trump campaign uses ‘Full Metal Jacket’ clips to portray his vision of the military
Donald Trump’s campaign is stoking the Republican nominee’s admiration of a movie version of a Marine drill sergeant and using it to portray his vision of the military while mocking the Biden administration’s.
Before a Trump rally began in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, Trump’s team aired for the crowd a video featuring clips of R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, the memorable drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 classic Vietnam War film “Full Metal Jacket.”
The video toggles between clips captioned with “THEN” of Ermey’s character, known for his vulgar and at times racist outbursts, and clips of figures expressing support for LGBTQ rights and drag performers, captioned with “NOW” and “THE BIDEN HARRIS MILITARY.”
Trump last week hailed the performance by Ermey, who served in the Marines as a drill sergeant before acting. “He was supposed to get the Academy Award,” Trump told his audience in Waunakee, Wisconsin, outside Madison.
The video ends with a shot from the movie, a scene before the recruits were sent to Vietnam, captioned with “LET’S MAKE OUR MILITARY GREAT AGAIN.”
In using the movie to illustrate Trump’s ideal of the military, the campaign was borrowing from what is recognized as an anti-war film. Never mind that the film is about Vietnam, for which Trump received medical deferments, despite having attended high school at New York Military Academy.
Biden blasts Trump for an ‘onslaught of lies’ about handling of Helene
President Joe Biden on Wednesday blasted his predecessor for spreading an “onslaught of lies” about how the federal government is handling the damage from Hurricane Helene as another hurricane, Milton, was on the verge of making landfall in Florida.
“Quite frankly, these lies are unamerican,” Biden said from the White House. “Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies.”
Biden said that Trump and his allies have misrepresented the response and resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The president singled out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R- Georgia, saying that she claimed the federal government could control the weather.
Asked why he believed his Republican opponents were not talking accurately about the government’s response, Biden said, “I don’t know.”
Trump talks about Hurricane Milton
Trump says he is praying for the people of Florida as Hurricane Milton begins lashing the state.
Speaking at a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Trump says he wants to “send our love to everyone in Florida. They’re going through a big one tonight.”
Trump went on to say that he was “praying for” those in the storm’s path and “asking God to keep them all safe.”
“I’ve never seen a hurricane like that. So often you know, they talk about it and they talk talk talk because they want you to watch. This is the real deal. This is a bad one,” he said.
He added that many of the states expected to be impacted have Republican governors whom he predicted would “do a phenomenal job.”
Walz talks about Hurricane Milton
Campaigning in Arizona, where early voting kicked off on Wednesday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, talked about Hurricane Milton moving toward Florida and said, “Those are Americans. Those are our neighbors. Those are our family members. Those are our friends.”
Walz, the Minnesota governor, called unifying across party lines in the face of natural disasters “critical.”
“It’s not about politics. It’s about basic human decency,” Walz said. “It’s about leadership and character.”
Trump insults Harris at Pennsylvania rally
Trump is continuing to insult Harris at a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and says he has no interest in stopping, even if turns some voters off.
“I don’t want to be nice,” Trump said at his first of two rallies of the day in the pivotal battleground state. “You know, somebody said, ‘You should be nicer. Women won’t like it.’ I said, ’I don’t care.”
“The women want safety and the women want to have a country they can be proud of, I think,” he says.
Trump, as usual, is casting Harris as “an incompetent person,” calling her “grossly incompetent” and “totally ill-quipped to do the job of being President of the United States”
He also criticized the hosts of “The View,” where Harris appeared on Tuesday. He called one of the women hosts “dumber than Kamala. She’s a dummy,” he said. “That is one dumb woman. Sorry. I’m sorry, women, she’s a dummy.”
In-person voting has started in Arizona
Early in-person voting has started in Arizona, making it the first of this year’s presidential battleground states where all residents can cast a ballot at a traditional polling place ahead of Election Day.
The start of in-person voting on Wednesday in the closely contested state also is drawing the presidential tickets. Both campaigns scheduled visits here this week.
Each of Arizona’s 15 counties is required to open at least one site for in-person voting, which runs until the Friday before the Nov. 5 general election.
In-person voting begins next week in four more presidential swing states — Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's suggestions that Democrats control the weather is ‘beyond ridiculous,’ Biden says
President Joe Biden is calling “beyond ridiculous” suggestions by a Republican congresswoman that Democrats are controlling the weather, and might even be directing especially strong storms toward conservative parts of the country.
During a briefing at the White House on federal preparations for Hurricane Milton, Biden denounced widespread misinformation about the federal assistance that’s available to victims. He called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene by name, saying she was suggesting “the federal government is literally controlling the weather. We’re controlling the weather. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s gotta stop.”
The president referenced Greene’s comments again later in the briefing, calling them “off the wall.”
“It’s like out of a comic book,” Biden said
Biden discusses FEMA's efforts
President Joe Biden has told the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “You’re doing a hell of a job.”
Biden made the comment to FEMA chief Deanne Criswell during a virtual briefing at the White House with federal authorities bracing for Hurricane Milton’s making landfall in Florida.
It was meant as a compliment, but it immediately recalled then-President George W. Bush telling his FEMA director, Michael Brown, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” Bush said that before the extent of the mismanaged federal response to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina had become clear and it later long haunted him.
South Dakota kicks 273 people off its voter rolls with voting underway
South Dakota’s top elections official has removed hundreds of people from the state’s voter rolls even with voting already underway.
Republican Secretary of State Monae Johnson says the move was necessary to defend the integrity of the election.
But critics say it violates a federal law and could disenfranchise valid voters who are naturalized U.S. citizens. The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota has called for the 273 voters to be reinstated.
South Dakota was one of the first states to begin early voting for the November general election. Absentee voting began Sept. 20.
Harris warns against price gouging
Vice President Kamala Harris warned against jacking up prices on Americans dealing with back-to-back hurricanes.
“Those evacuating before Hurricane Milton or recovering from Hurricane Helene should not be subject to illegal price gouging or fraud — at the pump, airport, or hotel counter,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Harris said the federal government is tracking allegations and “will hold those taking advantage of the situation accountable.”
President Joe Biden made a similar demand Tuesday.
“I’m calling on the airlines and other companies to provide as much service as possible to accommodate evacuations and not to engage in price gouging, to just do it on the level,” he said at the White House.
Biden says Congress needs to step up after Hurricane Helene
President Joe Biden says that the destruction from Hurricane Helene is going to cost billions of dollars that victims will need quickly and that “Congress better be ready to step up to help.”
Biden made the comments in excerpts of his interview recorded Tuesday with theGiro. The excerpts were released as Hurricane Milton threatens to unleash new devastation in Florida.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced him at the top of the Democratic Election Day ticket, have previously criticized former President Donald Trump, now the Republican nominee, for spreading false information about the federal response to Helene.
In the interview excerpts, Biden says that, “A lot of folks are out there spreading lies about what we are not doing, that things are not going well. That we are not responding.”
He responded, “We’ve been completely responsive, and we’ve been ahead of the game.”
Trump schedules rally in New York for end of October
Donald Trump is returning to New York in the race’s final stretch, scheduling a rally at the city’s iconic Madison Square Garden stadium.
Trump is planning his event for Oct. 27, kicking off the final week of campaigning, according to a campaign official familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity before a formal announcement.
It will be Trump’s second rally in the city he grew up in following a stop in the South Bronx in May.
Trump has claimed he believes he can win New York, even though it is an overwhelmingly Democratic state and the city even more so. But such an event is likely to draw outsized media attention.
The former president is also campaigning this week in other Democratic states, including California and Colorado.
— By Jill Colvin
The Associated Press
