WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is holding rallies on Wednesday in pivotal Pennsylvania while Vice President Kamala Harris prepares for another visit to the West — even as Hurricane Milton menaces Florida and threatens to overshadow presidential campaigning.
Trump, the former president and current Republican nominee, has events scheduled in Scranton — the birthplace of President Joe Biden — and in Reading, where he is expected to talk about the economy and immigration in a city that is two-thirds Hispanic.
The hurricane caused Trump to put off a virtual event Tuesday night focused on health care and postpone a Univision town hall in Miami.
Harris has her own Univision town hall planned for Thursday in Las Vegas before returning to Arizona for her second visit to both states in less than two weeks. She was set to fly to Nevada later Wednesday, but first attended a briefing on the storm and the federal response that Biden received at the White House.
Milton is approaching just days after Hurricane Helene killed more than 220 people in six Southeastern states and left behind a swath of destruction that federal, state and local authorities are trying to alleviate even as they now brace for the next storm.
Both Biden and Harris denounced the misinformation and disinformation surrounding the federal response to Helene, including the false assertion that there is a cap on assistance funding families can receive. They also denounced the false notion that funding is diverted away from Republican-heavy areas and to people in the country illegally and that federal authorities offering aid could eventually steal property from its owners. Both singled out Trump as driving much of the falsehoods.
“I want to be clear about something. Over the last few weeks, there’s been a reckless, irresponsible, and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people," Biden said during the Milton briefing. "It’s undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken. And it’s harmful to those who need help the most.”
“What a ridiculous thing to say,” Biden said of the false rumors that funding is being diverted to migrants in the country illegally. Biden also referenced Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene 's false suggestion that “I control the weather," he said, calling her comments like something “out of a comic book.”
“It’s beyond ridiculous," Biden said. "It’s got to stop.”
He also told Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “You’re doing a hell of a job.”
Harris said that once the hurricane passes, “We will be there to help folks rebuild.”
“This is a storm that is expected to be of historic proportion," she said. Addressing Florida residents, Harris added, "Many of you, I know are tough, and you’ve ridden out these hurricanes before. This one is going to be different.”
Harris also joined a phone call with Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about ongoing tensions in the Middle East. Trump’s campaign said that the former president had spoken to Netanyahu after Iran launched recent missile attacks on Israel.
“World leaders want to speak and meet with President Trump because they know he will soon be returning to the White House and will restore peace around the globe,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Biden, meanwhile, already postponed a trip scheduled this week to Germany and Angola, saying, “I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time.”
Harris 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.” During her interview on “The View” and later amid her taping with Colbert, Harris failed to name major ways her future administration would be substantially different from Biden's.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said on “The View.”
Trump reacted on his social media platform, posting that Harris said “she would have done nothing different” than Biden whom he called “the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.”
Harris had her own sharp words for her opponent. Reacting to reports in Bob Woodward ’s new book, “War” that Trump, while president, secretly sent COVID-19 test kits to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2020, when they were hard to find in the United States, she said incuriously, “You remember what those days were like?”
"You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?" Harris asked during the taping with Colbert. “Remember how rare it was to have them?”
She said of Trump, “And this man is giving COVID test kits to Vladimir Putin. Think about what this means,” before adding, “He thinks Vladimir Putin is his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friends.”
Trump denied the reporting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the U.S. sent test kits. which he referred to as “testers," but denied that the exchange occurred in secret.
“There were no secret shipments. The pandemic was starting back then," Peskov said in a message on Wednesday. “Many countries were exchanging equipment. We sent ventilators. Testers came from America.”
Will Weissert, The Associated Press
