White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sparred with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy during Monday’s daily briefing after he raised a question based on a false claim about hurricane relief that has been kicked around by Republicans in recent days.
“President Biden is fond of saying, ‘Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value,’” Doocy said. “If he’s got money for people in Lebanon right now, without Congress having to come back [and approve it], what does it say about his values if there is not enough money for people in North Carolina?”
“His values?” Jean-Pierre asked in disbelief.
“That’s not misinformation,” Doocy quickly added, although nobody had claimed otherwise.
The funds flowing to Lebanon—$157 million pledged by the U.S. last week to help with humanitarian assistance—come from the State Department.
Domestic disaster relief funding comes from a different agency entirely, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of the Homeland Security Department.
Jean-Pierre broke in as Doocy tried to keep going. “Wait. No, that is—Your whole premise of your question is misinformation, sir,” she said.
Then, as Doocy tried to talk over her, she continued, “Yes, yes, it’s misinformation. I just mentioned to you that we provided more than $200 million to folks who are impacted in the area.”
The press secretary was referring to money in the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program, which has been doled out to impacted residents of the six states ravaged by Hurricane Helene.
The SBA’s coffers are in danger of running dry in a matter of weeks, however, as President Joe Biden said in a letter to congressional leadership late Friday. He urged the chambers to reconvene from recess to replenish the agency’s emergency funding.
Congress’ next session isn’t scheduled until after the November presidential election. An administration official familiar with the matter told CBS News that there was not enough money to tide the SBA over until that point.
Back in the briefing room, Doocy brought up Biden’s letter, asking if it was “misinformation, would you agree?”
“No, the way you’re asking me the question is misinformation,” Jean-Pierre retorted. “There is money we are allocating to the impacted areas. And there’s money there to help people who truly need it. There are survivors who need the funding.”
“You can’t call a question you don’t like misinformation,” Doocy said. “That’s very unfair.”
“I actually said we have the money available to help survivors of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton,” Jean-Pierre replied. “Now, there’s going to be a shortfall, right? Because we don’t know how bad Hurricane Milton is going to be. So we’re going to need additional funding.”
“That’s exactly what I just asked about,” Doocy whined. “And you said it was misinformation.”
“No, what you’re asking me is why Congress needs to come back and do their job,” Jean-Pierre said, closing her binder. “That’s what Congress needs to do, and we’re going to continue to urge that. You may not want that. But that’s OK. That’s what this president wants, and that’s what this vice president wants.”
She then thanked the reporters in the room and left the podium.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that he won’t call Congress back early to consider increasing disaster funding. “We wouldn’t even conceivably have the request ready before we get back in November,” he told The New York Times last week. “There’s no necessity for Congress to come back.”
In addition to outrage over funds earmarked for Lebanon, prominent Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have circulated false claims that the federal government has diverted FEMA funds from hurricane victims to illegal immigrants in the U.S.
“Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country,” Trump blustered at a Michigan rally last week. “The Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money, they’ve spent it all on—they spent all of their money, they have almost no money—because they spent it all on illegal migrants.”
Jean-Pierre dismissed such allegations as “categorically false” on Friday. The grant funding issued by FEMA to states to handle immigration comes from its Shelter and Services Program, an entirely separate pot of money from the agency’s disaster relief funds.
But although FEMA is meeting its “immediate needs,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned on Thursday that it does not have the funding to make it through the rest of hurricane season, which is set to run until late November.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm a little over a week ago and has killed at least 215 people since. Milton is expected to hit the Gulf Coast late this Wednesday as a Category 5 hurricane.
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