We found a couple more examples of Newsmax peddling right-wing conspiracy theories about disaster relief after hurricane Helene. A right-wing politician served up a related conspiracy in a Nov. 5 Newsmax TV appearance:
Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., says the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is misappropriating funds intended for homeless veterans and disaster victims, funneling them through NGOs to support illegal immigrants.
“This isn’t a recent development,” she said during an in-studio appearance on Newsmax’s “Saturday Report.”
“We started talking about this over four years ago. My first year in office. I was looking at receipts where homeless veterans’ funds under FEMA were being redirected to buy plane tickets, bus tickets, and hotel rooms for illegals.”
She claimed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launders these funds through non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Catholic Charities.
Writer Jim Thomas did unusually mention the other side of the story:
According to an AP report, state and local officials from both parties have condemned the conspiracy theories as rumors, saying the focus should be on recovery, not political division and hearsay. Responding to the hoaxes is taking up time that should go toward assisting victims, said North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican, in a Facebook post on Thursday.
Still, Thomas concluded by touting Cammack cheerleading for electing Republicans and ranting about how “past incidents, such as baby formula being prioritized for illegal immigrants over American families, as an example of how resources have been misallocated.” In fact, government is legally required to provide formula to infants in its care, and it’s unclear why helping babies stay alive is somehow misallocation of resources.
Sndy Fitzgerald documented another Republican politician playing to the audience in an Oct. 6 appearance:
The federal government, under the watch of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, has continued to put Americans last with its response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, former Rep. Kelly Loeffler said on Newsmax, Sunday.
“We see that while Kamala Harris is out on X, bragging about $357 million to Lebanon, over $170 billion to Ukraine, you can cross the border illegally and have food, housing, anything you need at the drop of a hat,” the Georgia Republican said on “Sunday Report.”
But with Helene, “you have to compete for $750. If you’ve lost your family, your home, your business. I mean, they’re setting up a real-world Hunger Games. But this is not a game. It’s a tragedy.”
Fitzgewrald did admit that “FEMA also this weekend denied claims that it is only providing $750 for disaster survivors, stating that that money is an upfront, flexible payment to cover immediate needs while the agency assesses eligibility for federal funding. “
On Oct. 10 Nicole Weatherholtz touted another Republican congressman pushing the same conspiracy theory:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent assertion the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) budget was crafted for the needs of a bygone time, simply is not accurate, Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told Newsmax.
Its budget is “actually constructed around current needs,” Gimenez told Thursday’s “National Report.”
“Then obviously there are things that happen throughout the year that you don’t account for, some extraordinary event, and then we go back and appropriate additional money for that,” he said. “But FEMA has certainly enough money to do what it needs to do and there’s flexibility in that budget so that the director and the president can move whatever resources they need in order to protect the American people.
“Don’t tell me you don’t have enough resources. We only have a $1 trillion budget for God’s sakes, OK? So you do.”
Unlike Thomas, Weatherholtz didn’t see fit to tell readers the whole story.
Despite that apparent funding issue, Newsmax wasn’t in a rush to encourage Republican politicians to do the right thing. An Oct. 10 article by Jeremy Frankel reported without comment that “House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., rejected the notion on Thursday that Congress should return from its recess to approve more funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency after two major hurricanes” and declared that “the $20.3 billion allocated in the funding bill last month should be enough.”