Donald Trump has repeatedly spread falsehoods about the US federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicising the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.
The former president and Republican nominee claimed on landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia governor Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him”.
Mr Trump repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Mr Kemp said he had spoken to Mr Biden.
The president accused Mr Trump of “lying” about federal contacts with Georgia officials.
“He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Mr Biden said on Monday.
“I don’t care about what he says about me, but I care what he what he communicates to people that are in need,” Mr Biden continued.
“He implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are. We are.”
The White House previously announced that Mr Biden had spoken by phone on Sunday night with Mr Kemp and North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, as well as Scott Matheson, mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, and Florida Emergency Management director John Louk.
Mr Kemp confirmed on Monday morning that he had spoken to Biden the night before.
“The president just called me yesterday afternoon and I missed him and called him right back and he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we’ve got what we need, we’ll work through the federal process,” Mr Kemp said.
“He offered if there are other things we need just to call him directly, which I appreciate.”
Mr Biden said he will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to get a first-hand look at the devastation, but will limit his footprint so as not to distract from recovery efforts.
In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign where North Carolina and Georgia, two battlegrounds, were among the hardest hit states.
Mr Trump over recent days has used the damage wrought by Helene to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and suggest she and Mr Biden are playing politics with the storm — something he was accused of doing as president.
