Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller subpoenaed to testify in his former political consultant’s criminal trial
Todd Smith was indicted in 2022 on felony charges of theft and commercial bribery related to taking money in exchange for hemp licenses that are issued by Miller’s office.
Political storm: On Trump ‘onslaught of lies,’ Biden urges former president to ‘get a life man’
There’s no let up in the war of words between President Biden and former President Trump over the federal government’s response to back-to-back devastating hurricanes that slammed into the southeast. After Trump continued to charge that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been slow and ineffective in steering the government’s storm efforts, the president once again fired back. Biden told reporters on Thursday that Trump needed to “get a life man, help these people.” And he argued that “the public will hold him [Trump] accountable” for making false claims regarding the capabilities of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to assist storm victims. The former president’s son, Eric Trump, posted on X on Wednesday that the family has opened up one of its Florida hotels to house over 200 linemen who are helping in the storm’s aftermath. Trump has also launched a GoFundMe campaign for victims of Hurricane Helene in Georgia, which has raised more than $7 million so far. BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES ROCK PRESIDENTIAL RACE The president spoke as millions in Florida remained without power after Hurricane Milton tore a path of destruction across the central and northern parts of the state late Wednesday into Thursday. Meanwhile, cleanup and recovery efforts continue across the southeast, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene nearly two weeks ago. With less than four weeks to go until Election Day in November, Harris and Trump are locked in a narrow margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election, the politics of federal disaster relief are again front and center on the campaign trail. CLICK HERE FOR UP-TO-DATE FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE STORMS “Vice President Harris and I have been in constant contact with the state and local officials. We’re offering everything they need,” Biden emphasized on Thursday. Among those the president spoke with was Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. While DeSantis and Harris have traded verbal fire this week over whether he ignored hurricane-related calls from her, the governor and Biden have worked together on storm response and relief efforts. “I spoke with the president this morning,” DeSantis said during one of his numerous briefings on Thursday. “He said he wants to be helpful. And so if we have a request, he said, send them his way, and he wants to help us get the job done. So I appreciate being able to collaborate across the federal, state and local governments and work together to put the people first.” Despite those comments and others from DeSantis as well as other leading Republican officeholders in the storm-struck southeast, Trump has continuously slammed Biden and Harris. DESANTIS AND HARRIS TRADE FIRE OVER HURRICANE CALL “THE WORST RESPONSE TO A STORM OR HURRICANE DISASTER IN U.S. HISTORY,” Trump claimed in a social media post on Tuesday. “The worst hurricane response since Katrina,” the former president charged on Wednesday as he pointed to the much-maligned initial federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was heavily criticized for being slow and ineffective. Trump, speaking at a campaign rally in battleground Pennsylvania, lobbed another political bomb at Harris, arguing that “She just led the worst rescue operation in history in North Carolina…the worst ever, they say.” And the former president once again made false claims that FEMA diverted money intended for disaster relief and spent it on undocumented migrants in the U.S. as he turned up the volume on his inflammatory rhetoric over the combustible issue of illegal immigration. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS WEATHER UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON “You know where they gave the money to: illegal immigrants coming,” Trump said as the crowd of MAGA supporters loudly booed. Hours later, Biden pushed back, accusing the Republican presidential nominee of leading an “onslaught of lies.” Biden charged that the rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans was “beyond ridiculous” and that “it’s got to stop.” But on Thursday at a campaign event in Michigan, Trump kept up the attacks. He praised southern Republican governors for doing a “fantastic job” reacting to the storms and argued that “the federal government, on the other hand, has not done what you’re supposed to be doing, in particular, with respect to North Carolina. They’ve let those people suffer unjustly, unjustly.” Harris, in a Wednesday interview with the Weather Channel, also chided Trump. “This is not a time for us to just point fingers at each other as Americans,” the vice president said. “Anybody who considers themselves to be a leader should really be in the business right now of giving people a sense of confidence that we’re all working together and that we have the resources and the ability to work together on their behalf.” Fox News’ Kirill Clark and Matteo Cina contributed to this report Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Biden, NATO head claim a stronger Obama response to Crimea invasion may have prevented Ukraine war
The West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 has been brought under fresh scrutiny this week – as outgoing NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg insisted the war in Ukraine may not have happened if the U.S. and NATO had a stronger response to that incursion. “If we had delivered a fraction of the weapons we have delivered after 2022, we may have actually prevented the war,” he said in an interview with Politico. Stoltenberg, a Norwegian politician, led NATO from 2014 until last week. President Biden reportedly expressed a similar sentiment. “They f—ed up in 2014,” Biden said, according to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “War,” obtained by Fox News Digital. “That’s why we are here,” the 81-year-old said. “We f—ked it up. Barack never took [Russian President Vladimir] Putin seriously.” NORTH KOREA TROOPS NOW FIGHTING FOR RUSSIA IN UKRAINE, SEOUL SAYS “We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue!” the president went on. “Well, I’m revoking his f—ing license!” In 2014, the Kremlin annexed the Crimean Peninsula after the so-called Revolution of Dignity, when Ukrainians ousted Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. It was a quick and bloodless takeover. Russia flooded the regions with migrants and fended off Ukrainian efforts to take it back. The Obama administration provided Ukraine with defensive weapons, sanctioned the Kremlin and kicked Russia out of the G-8, but some, even reportedly including Obama’s then-vice president, Biden, believe he should have done more. It came as Russia had also invaded Ukraine’s Donbas region and shot down a Malaysia Airlines flight with nearly 300 people on board. He stopped short of providing Ukraine with lethal weaponry. As president, Donald Trump reversed Obama’s policy, approving a plan to sell Ukraine Javelin missiles for $47 million. In a 2014 interview with The Atlantic, Obama said he saw no benefit in the U.S. getting involved in the unfolding events in Europe related to Russia and Ukraine. “The fact is that Ukraine, which is a non-NATO country, is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what we do,” Obama said. “This is an example of where we have to be very clear about what our core interests are and what we are willing to go to war for.” In 2012, Obama famously downplayed the threat of Russia during a debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Romney had asserted that Russia was the U.S.’s greatest geopolitical foe. RUSSIA JAILS MERCENARY STEPHEN HUBBARD FOR FIGHTING AS A MERCENARY IN UKRAINE “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” Obama chided at the time. He also tasked his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, with pursuing a “reset” in U.S.-Russia relations, scrapping plans by President George W. Bush to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe that Russia saw as a direct military threat. Putin called that decision “correct and brave.” Obama defended his 2014 policy in a 2023 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Ukraine of that time was not the Ukraine that we’re talking about today,” Obama said. “There’s a reason there was not an armed invasion of Crimea, because Crimea was full of a lot of Russian speakers, and there was some sympathy to the views that Russia was representing.” The U.S. has offered some $175 billion in security assistance and financial aid since the outbreak of war in 2022. Earlier this week, Ukraine struck a large oil terminal off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea in the latest wave of attacks on Russian-controlled energy facilities.
Mayorkas refuses to answer questions on Afghan accused of Election Day terror plot
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday refused to answer questions about an Afghan national accused of an Election Day terror plot on behalf of ISIS, amid ongoing concerns about the vetting of those brought to the U.S. Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich questioned Mayorkas at a White House briefing on Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who was arrested and charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and receiving a gun to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism. The filing in the case initially said Tawhedi came to the U.S. on a special immigrant visa in September 2021, after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and is now on parole. Although, officials have since clarified that he came to the U.S. via humanitarian parole and later applied for SIV status. AFGHAN NATIONAL CHARGED WITH ELECTION DAY TERROR PLOT REIGNITES VETTING CONCERNS Heinrich asked Mayorkas how Tawhedi was brought to the U.S. and about the screening he underwent. But Mayorkas said he wished to focus on the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton. He was in North Carolina and participated in the briefing remotely. “Over 200 people have lost their lives in Hurricane Helene. We have reports that at least ten individuals have lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Milton. And I’d be very pleased to answer your question in a different setting, but we’re here to talk about emergencies and the support that we can deliver to people in desperate need,” he said. Heinrich asked again, specifically asking why he did not have answers prepared, but Mayorkas said that was not the case. “What I said is I’d be pleased to discuss this issue at a different time, but I am here to speak about disasters that have impacted people’s lives in real time. And that is a subject that I am addressing today,” he said. Heinrich followed up to ask again but Mayorkas again declined. “Jacqui, your persistence in questioning can be matched by my persistence in answers,” he said. After the exchange, a senior administration official told Fox News Tawhedi was screened three times. He was screened first to work security for the CIA in Afghanistan, then for humanitarian parole to enter the U.S. in 2021, when he was vetted and screened in a third country, and then for special immigrant status, for which he was approved. His status has not yet been finalized. Officials believe he was radicalized after coming to the U.S. There is also no indication that there were any red flags that should have barred his entry at any point in the process. His alleged co-conspirator in the case entered the country in 2018 and also passed vetting to receive a green card. AFGHAN MAN IN OKLAHOMA PLOTTED ELECTION DAY TERROR ATTACK IN US ON BEHALF OF ISIS, JUSTICE DEPT SAYS The U.S. brought in more than 97,000 evacuees during the evacuation in 2021, of which about 77,000 were admitted via humanitarian parole through a program called Operation Allies Welcome. But the new case has renewed concerns about vetting in the program, which has been identified for years by the DHS internal watchdog and by Republicans in Congress. In 2022, the DHS Office of Inspector General released a report in which it said it found that officials “did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees. “As a result, DHS may have admitted or paroled individuals into the United States who pose a risk to national security and the safety of local communities,” the report said. DHS OIG FAULTS AFGHAN VETTING, WARNS NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS MAY HAVE ENTERED US A Pentagon inspector general report the same year revealed that at least 50 evacuees were brought to the U.S. whose information indicated “potentially serious security concerns” and that officials were unable to locate dozens with derogatory information. A 2024 report found “vulnerabilities” in the processes of two DHS agencies for resolving derogatory information. It also found that DHS did not have a process for monitoring the expiration of the two-year parole period and guidelines for determining “re-parole” for parolees are “undefined.” The Biden administration has repeatedly defended the vetting process, arguing there is a multilayered process that includes classified and unclassified vetting, including against Pentagon and FBI databases as well as Interpol notices and other information. “Afghan evacuees who sought to enter the United States were subject to multilayered screening and vetting against intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism information,” a DHS spokesperson said Wednesday. “If new information emerges after arrival, appropriate action is taken.” But the latest revelation has only fueled concerns from Republicans. In a letter to Mayorkas on Tuesday, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said it was “unacceptable that the Biden-Harris administration is precariously failing to take measures to safeguard U.S. national security by allowing alleged terrorists into the interior of the United States to plot terrorist attacks.” Fox News’ Matteo Cina contributed to this report.
‘Out of money’: Whistleblowers allege lack of Secret Service funds, delayed payments, top senator reveals
New whistleblower records allege a failure of the Secret Service to provide funding for Homeland Security “jump teams” and their travel to support security efforts on the campaign trail ahead of the November election. One email sent on Sept. 26 read, “Subject: Jump Team ‐ Out of Money,” according to a record obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and his oversight team. The Department of Homeland Security’s investigation unit jump team provides “a mechanism to build the connections between mission support and the front-line,” according to the DHS website. FOR WISCONSIN DEMS, A 2024 WIN IN THE BATTLEGROUND STATE IS YEARS IN THE MAKING Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an agency within DHS, is charged with addressing global threats. “Jump Team members are responsible for helping to solve immediate issues, guide how funding is allocated, and to assist in developing solutions to deliver support most effectively to our front-line,” the DHS website added. In the wake of two separate assassination attempts against former President Trump, who is currently campaigning to be president again, jump teams have been deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service. SEE IT: WISCONSIN DAIRY FARMER SAYS ‘NO QUESTION’ TRUMP ADMIN WAS ‘MUCH BETTER’ THAN BIDEN-HARRIS However, the documents provided to Grassley’s office via legally protected whistleblower disclosures show that fears of unpreparedness and mismanagement in the DHS and Secret Service could still be true, despite efforts to ramp up security. “Please do not submit or resubmit Jump Team authorizations. There is only $33 on the line right now,” DHS officials told HSI agents on Sept. 9, per Grassley. The senator’s office pointed to this email as an example of just how low the funds had fallen. On Sept. 26, agents were informed, “We will not receive more money for Jump Team this year.” The email instructed agents not to use the usual methods of expensing items, laying out a process of what to do instead. “If by some miracle money is added, you will be notified immediately,” the email continued. “The Secret Service has a critical, no-fail protective mission to carry out. Based on protected whistleblower disclosures, it neglected to transfer enough funds for HSI to reimburse its agents, calling into question the agency’s ability to manage federal resources and raising major concerns,” Grassley said in a statement. “Congress and the American people have witnessed too many Secret Service shortfalls in recent months – they deserve answers, and it’s Congress’ job to bring transparency and accountability.” WISCONSIN SENATE RACE SHIFTS TO ‘TOSS UP’ BY HANDICAPPER AS TAMMY BALDWIN FIGHTS FOR RE-ELECTION In the Sept. 26 email from a DHS official, they revealed that “we had over $371,000 worth of Jump Team Authorizations Fail last night.” According to Grassley’s office and the documents it has obtained, agents have been required to pay for expenses the agency can’t cover. The senator noted that this would be in violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from obligating or spending federal funds before they are appropriated. Reimbursements to agents are also apparently being delayed, and employees are left with uncertainty about their pay. In a Wednesday letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe; Patrick Lechleitner, the deputy director and senior official performing the duties of the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Katrina Berger, HSI executive associate director, Grassley described that “HSI agents are deployed, usually on very short notice, across the country on Jump Teams from as short as a few days for as long as multiple weeks, several times throughout the year.” TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT “The whistleblower disclosures further show that in some cases HSI agents have had to pay for their own travel expenses such as flights, food, rental cars, and hotels, and other incidentals, because HSI has delayed reimbursing agents for costs due to the Secret Service failing to transfer funds to HSI.” “If you have an explanation to add context to these emails, I welcome it,” he told the leaders. Grassley requested additional information from the department and agencies, including documentation about the finances of HSI and its jump teams. Neither the Secret Service nor Homeland Security immediately provided comment to Fox News Digital.
Trump calls for federal education dollars to ‘follow the student’ in push for universal school choice
Former President Trump is proposing that federal education dollars “follow the student” in his possible second term, while pushing his “universal school choice policy,” and stressing that he backs it “all the way.” The former president championed school choice last week, making his strongest case yet for the movement on the federal level. “We want federal education dollars to follow the student, rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.,” Trump said at an event in Milwaukee. TRUMP PUSH TO DISMANTLE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT MET WITH ENTHUSIASM IN HOUSE GOP “If you want a better education for your child, Kamala Harris stands in your way,” Trump said. “Kamala and the Radical Left Democrat Party want to keep Black and Hispanic children trapped in family government. I think that’s really the reason.” The former president said he believes school choice “is the civil rights issue of our time.” “A child’s fate should be determined by their love of education, by their parents, by so many factors. But it can’t be determined by a ZIP code,” Trump said. “And no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government-run school.” Trump’s universal school choice would allow parents to send their children to public, private or religious schools. Trump’s stance is reflected in the 2024 Republican Party platform. According to proponents of school choice, it recognizes a role for both federal and state governments in expanding tax credit scholarship programs and Education Savings Accounts, which currently serve more than a million K-12 students across the country. The Trump campaign said school choice “leads to higher graduation rates, higher parental satisfaction and involvement, lower costs, increased competition among schools, and higher reading and math test scores.” At this point, 11 states have universal school choice, and 32 states and Washington, D.C., have at least one private school choice program – but 18 states have none. “Before President Trump took office, zero states had a universal school choice policy. Now, almost a dozen do, and it is in large part because of the voice and visibility that he gave to elevate the issue into the national consciousness during COVID – but even before that,” former Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Digital. “There is an increase in the number and needs of American school children with respect to alternatives to conventional public schools,” Conway said. “There is an increase in resistance among Kamala Harris and Democrats to allow these types of alternatives – these types of options and choices – to be in the hands of parents.” On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are expanding their opposition to school choice, and teachers’ unions rejoiced when Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, dubbing the ticket as a major win for public educators. Walz is a former teachers’ union member who has said he is opposed to the school choice “agenda.” MINNESOTA WALZ-APPOINTED BOARD REQUIRES TEACHERS TO ‘AFFIRM’ THEIR STUDENTS’ GENDER IDENTITIES Teachers’ unions pushed hard to prolong school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many districts shuttered for more than a year. Former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Walz was a “5-alarm fire for parents and students.” As for the Democratic Party platform, Democrats support all children “no matter their ZIP code” to have access to a “quality public K-12 education and for college to be affordable for every American.” Democrats are looking to push federal dollars toward public schools in an effort to “expand opportunities for higher education and job training.” Harris’ campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but her website lays out her plan to “ensure parents can afford high-quality child care and preschool for their children.” Harris also plans to focus on working to “end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to the middle class.” Harris said she would work to “scale up programs that create good career pathways for non-college graduates.” But Conway explained that parents are focused on having more of a role in their child’s education – now more than ever. “There is a continuation of the parent’s rights renaissance that started during COVID and spilled over into 2021 and into Glenn Youngkin’s election over Terry McAuliffe in 2021 and continues unabated in so many states across this country,” Conway said, noting that since the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered schools at the request of the teachers’ unions, there “are a higher number of people running for school board, and you have more parents engaged in choices of schools and character of curricula.” “There is a need for a charismatic and compelling leader to take this on,” Conway said, referring to Trump. By December 2020, Trump signed an executive order to expand education opportunities for American children and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That order offered flexibility to provide children with emergency K-12 scholarships to access in-person learning opportunities – an effort to provide an in-person learning option after prolonged school closures. The Trump administration also invested nearly $1.5 billion in the development of public charter schools and, under his tax reform bill, made it possible for parents to withdraw up to $10,000 tax-free per year from 529 education savings plans to cover public, private, or religious K-12 schooling costs. “President Trump says this is the civil rights issue of our time, and it is true, but also, when you look at the sheer numbers of charter schools and school choice scholarship recipients and even the alternatives, like homeschooled students – and that is still a growing piece – but parents want to take things into their own hands. They know their children best,” Conway said. “If Trump is re-elected, this is going to be a biggie.” As for the word “choice,” Conway said the left “wants to own that word” but only when it relates to abortion. “The
Russia has suffered more casualties in Ukraine war than all other conflicts combined since WWII: Pentagon
Russia has suffered some 600,000 casualties in its war with Ukraine – more than its losses in every conflict since World War II combined, according to U.S. officials. This September was the deadliest month of the entire war for Russia, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on a call Wednesday. “Russian losses, again both killed and wounded in action, in just the first year of the war exceeded the total of all Soviet losses in any conflict since World War II combined,” the official said. However, the steep casualties are not a “definitive metric” of success for Ukraine, the official warned. Ukraine has also suffered mass casualties, though the U.S. has not disclosed how many. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in February that some 31,000 troops had been killed. The U.K. ministry of Defence put Russia’s daily casualty count at 1,271 in September, and said some 648,000 Russians had been killed or injured in the war. NORTH KOREAN TROOPS NOW FIGHTING FOR RUSSIA IN UKRAINE, SEOUL SAYS “It’s kind of the Russian way of war where they continue to throw mass into the problem, and I think we’ll continue to see high losses,” the U.S. military official said. South Korea warned earlier this week that North Korea was sending its forces to fight alongside the Russians. Russia has also lost two-thirds of its pre-war inventory of tanks to Ukraine, along with 32 medium-to-large naval vessels. Russian President Vladimir Putin is “trying to avoid a mass mobilization because of the effect that would have on Russia’s domestic population,” the official said. “At this point, he has been able to significantly increase the pay of these voluntary soldiers, and he has been able to continue to field those forces without doing a major mobilization.” “And I think we’re just watching very closely how long that stance can actually be one that he can maintain, and I think it’s an important one for all of us to watch very closely,” the official added. FMR ESTONIA PRESIDENT TELLS US TO STOP BEING AFRAID OF PUTIN Ukraine’s military said it struck a base in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region storing nearly 400 strike drones on Wednesday. Russia has made some progress in the Donetsk region, taking the town of Vuhledar earlier this month and pressing toward Povrosk, a key railroad hub and supply station for Ukraine. The U.S. official said the Russian strategy around Vuhledar and Povrosk had brought “substantial casualties” for minor gains. Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine invaded in August, is also in the midst of heavy fighting. Ukraine had hoped to divert Russian troops from the front line to defend Kursk. Russia has since recaptured some of the region, though the military official said that Ukrainian troops could hold onto the Kursk region for months or longer. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to pour billions into Ukraine’s defense. Last month, President Joe Biden announced an $8 billion package for Kyiv to supply it with military equipment through January. It is the last of the $61 billion that Congress approved in April for Ukraine. Despite Zelenskyy’s calls, Biden has resisted authorizing Ukraine’s use of U.S.-given long-range missiles, known as ATACMs, to strike inside Russia and take out its stores of weapons capabilities, for fear of escalation. Many U.S. lawmakers have backed Zelenskyy’s request, but the U.S. official said the Biden administration is not considering reversing its policy. He said many of the arms that Ukraine is looking to take out, like Russia’s deadly glide bombs, have been moved out of range of ATACMs.
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Mayorkas doubles down, hammers ‘pernicious’ misinformation amid FEMA criticism
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday doubled down on his fierce criticism of those he accused of deliberately spreading false information about the work the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doing during hurricane season. “There is so much false information being spread, and we cannot have people relying on that false information or actually deterred from seeking relief that’s available to them that they need because of that false information,” Mayorkas said on “Morning Joe” Wednesday before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida Wednesday night. “It’s really pernicious.” Mayorkas, along with DHS and FEMA, have been under pressure over the handling of Hurricane Helene. The agency has been pushing back against claims online that it has diverted resources to illegal immigrants, that it is out of money, that it has been slow in responding and that it is blocking recovery flights. MAYORKAS RIPS ‘POLITICIZED’ ATMOSPHERE OVER FEMA DISASTER RESPONSE AMID GOP CRITICISM’ Focus on the agency was fueled when Mayorkas said last week that FEMA does “not have the funds to make it through the season” although he said it did have enough for “immediate needs.” The administration has pushed for Congress to return and pass a spending bill to provide additional funding for the hurricane season. But the questions over funding led critics to look at the $650 million provided for grants to help illegal immigrants in the Shelter and Services Program (SSP). It led to accusations, including from former President Trump, that money that could have gone to disaster relief was being diverted. The administration pointed to the fact that the funding is congressionally appropriated and is separate from the much larger Disaster Relief Fund. But Republicans have still expressed concern that an “entanglement” in the border crisis has had a knock-on effect. SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ Others have pointed to a possible political bias after an “equity” blueprint went vital, saying “Diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be optional.” Republicans have accused the administration of mishandling the response more broadly, with House Speaker Mike Johnson accusing it of “egregious errors and mistakes” and a lack of leadership. But FEMA and DHS have been pushing back against numerous viral online claims that it says are false, including claims that FEMA grants must be repaid, that it is distributing aid based on demographic characteristics and that it is restricting airspace for recovery operations. President Biden has also slammed “reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people.” On Wednesday, Mayorkas warned that misinformation can stop recovery efforts. TRUMP TARGETS BIDEN, HARRIS OVER FEDERAL RESPONSE TO HURRICANE: ‘INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED’ “Historically, this country has come together as one in times of crisis, in times of disaster. We need that history to be lived today. We cannot have the irresponsible voices that actually wreak damage to individuals in need and prevent survivors from seeking the relief that is available to them,” he said. He had made a similar appeal on Tuesday night on MSNBC, speaking on the impact on the workforce and on the ability for individuals to get help. “It is extraordinarily damaging. Most of all, it is extraordinarily damaging to the survivors of Hurricane Helene, of natural disasters. Individuals lose trust in their government, they are reluctant to seek the assistance that they need to meet their immediate demands — food, water, shelter. They don’t seek it. They are entitled to it. They need it,” Mayorkas said. “We implore them to ignore the false information that is being spread and to seek the help that we have available to them. “It is also extremely demoralizing to our federal law, our emergency response personnel, the state and local emergency response personnel who are risking their lives in the service of those in need. When we reach into flooded zones, when we reach into a home that has been destroyed to assist another individual, we don’t ask about their party affiliation. We are there to help, and they need to understand that. They need to trust us. They can rely on us.” Earlier this week, Mayorkas warned that people “are not seeking that relief because of the disinformation, the intentionally false information they are receiving.”