signalmankenneth
Verified User
I ask you, is this someone you want in the oval office again?!! Some petty immature little bitch with power?!!
In early September 2020, wildfires tore through eastern Washington state, obliterating tens of millions of dollars of property, displacing hundreds of rural residents and killing a 1-year-old boy.
But then-President Donald Trump refused to act on Gov. Jay Inslee’s request for $37 million in federal disaster aid because of a bitter personal dispute with the Democratic governor, an investigation by POLITICO’s E&E News shows.
Trump sat on Inslee’s request for the final four months of his presidency, delaying recovery and leaving communities unsure about rebuilding because nobody knew if they would get federal help.
Trump ignored Inslee’s 73-page request even after the Federal Emergency Management Agency found during weeks of inspection that the wildfires easily met the federal damage threshold for disaster aid.
“It really was an outrageous abuse of power,” Inslee said in a recent interview with E&E News.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to E&E News’ questions.
The two men had been feuding in the months leading up to the wildfire with Trump calling Inslee "a snake," a “nasty person” and a "failed presidential candidate" after the governor criticized the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And Inslee, in an open letter two days before seeking disaster aid, assailed Trump’s “reckless statements” on climate change and his “gutting of environmental policies.”
Trump’s spurning of Washington — documented by internal emails, letters, federal records and interviews — is the latest example of how the former president used disaster requests to punish political foes. E&E News reported in early October that Trump had refused to give disaster aid to California after wildfires in 2018 because the state is strongly Democratic.
E&E News’ current investigation found other previously unreported examples of Trump denying or delaying disaster aid to governors who had criticized him, though the reasons for the White House moves are unclear.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican representing the wildfire-damaged area in Washington state, asked Trump at least twice to approve disaster aid and wrote him a desperate letter on Dec. 31, 2020, obtained by E&E News.
“People in my district need support, and I implore you to move forward in providing it to those who have been impacted by devastating wildfires,” McMorris Rodgers wrote. Her district was one of three in Washington state to support Trump in the 2020 election. Washington has 10 congressional districts.
Five months after Trump left office, McMorris Rodgers introduced a bill to require presidents to act on governors’ requests for disaster aid within 30 days. She did not respond to a request for comment.
President Joe Biden ultimately approved Inslee’s request two weeks after taking office — 141 days after Inslee had made it — and has given Washington $45 million.
The time span — nearly five months — is the longest it’s taken a president to approve a disaster request, according to an E&E News analysis of more than 1,000 FEMA damage reports since 2007 when they first became publicly available.
The average time period for presidential approval is 17 days.
Trump has faced scrutiny of his record with disasters as he has criticized the Biden administration during recent campaign stops in Georgia and North Carolina for its response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
But Trump recently endorsed using disaster aid to bully opponents. During an Oct. 12 rally in rural California, Trump celebrated a proposal to increase agricultural water supplies by weakening endangered-species protections and threatened Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We’ll force it down his throat,” Trump said, “and we’ll say, 'Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re not giving you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the forest fires that you have.'”
Newsom recently told POLITICO that Trump withheld disaster aid to California “on multiple occasions” over political differences and stepped up the threats during his final months in office.
“He was very threatening,” Newsom said. “He was telling me right before the [2020] election … ‘You better work with me now, because I'm going to get reelected, and you’re going down on this.’”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-ignored-disaster-aid-request-180000047.html
In early September 2020, wildfires tore through eastern Washington state, obliterating tens of millions of dollars of property, displacing hundreds of rural residents and killing a 1-year-old boy.
But then-President Donald Trump refused to act on Gov. Jay Inslee’s request for $37 million in federal disaster aid because of a bitter personal dispute with the Democratic governor, an investigation by POLITICO’s E&E News shows.
Trump sat on Inslee’s request for the final four months of his presidency, delaying recovery and leaving communities unsure about rebuilding because nobody knew if they would get federal help.
Trump ignored Inslee’s 73-page request even after the Federal Emergency Management Agency found during weeks of inspection that the wildfires easily met the federal damage threshold for disaster aid.
“It really was an outrageous abuse of power,” Inslee said in a recent interview with E&E News.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to E&E News’ questions.
The two men had been feuding in the months leading up to the wildfire with Trump calling Inslee "a snake," a “nasty person” and a "failed presidential candidate" after the governor criticized the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And Inslee, in an open letter two days before seeking disaster aid, assailed Trump’s “reckless statements” on climate change and his “gutting of environmental policies.”
Trump’s spurning of Washington — documented by internal emails, letters, federal records and interviews — is the latest example of how the former president used disaster requests to punish political foes. E&E News reported in early October that Trump had refused to give disaster aid to California after wildfires in 2018 because the state is strongly Democratic.
E&E News’ current investigation found other previously unreported examples of Trump denying or delaying disaster aid to governors who had criticized him, though the reasons for the White House moves are unclear.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican representing the wildfire-damaged area in Washington state, asked Trump at least twice to approve disaster aid and wrote him a desperate letter on Dec. 31, 2020, obtained by E&E News.
“People in my district need support, and I implore you to move forward in providing it to those who have been impacted by devastating wildfires,” McMorris Rodgers wrote. Her district was one of three in Washington state to support Trump in the 2020 election. Washington has 10 congressional districts.
Five months after Trump left office, McMorris Rodgers introduced a bill to require presidents to act on governors’ requests for disaster aid within 30 days. She did not respond to a request for comment.
President Joe Biden ultimately approved Inslee’s request two weeks after taking office — 141 days after Inslee had made it — and has given Washington $45 million.
The time span — nearly five months — is the longest it’s taken a president to approve a disaster request, according to an E&E News analysis of more than 1,000 FEMA damage reports since 2007 when they first became publicly available.
The average time period for presidential approval is 17 days.
Trump has faced scrutiny of his record with disasters as he has criticized the Biden administration during recent campaign stops in Georgia and North Carolina for its response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
But Trump recently endorsed using disaster aid to bully opponents. During an Oct. 12 rally in rural California, Trump celebrated a proposal to increase agricultural water supplies by weakening endangered-species protections and threatened Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We’ll force it down his throat,” Trump said, “and we’ll say, 'Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re not giving you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the forest fires that you have.'”
Newsom recently told POLITICO that Trump withheld disaster aid to California “on multiple occasions” over political differences and stepped up the threats during his final months in office.
“He was very threatening,” Newsom said. “He was telling me right before the [2020] election … ‘You better work with me now, because I'm going to get reelected, and you’re going down on this.’”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-ignored-disaster-aid-request-180000047.html
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