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With the federal response to Hurricane Helene becoming a major focus of the presidential campaign back home, President Joe Biden’s administration continued to push back Sunday against former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about storm recovery.

Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday and said her agency has all the resources it needs to respond to Helene, which has affected parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and others devastated states.

North Carolina and Georgia are key swing states, which has heightened the political stakes for the recovery efforts and the bickering surrounding them.

Criswell defended FEMA’s response, rejecting Trump’s claims that the agency is short of disaster relief funds because money has been diverted to help undocumented immigrants, and that aid is being withheld from Republican areas, calling such claims “downright ridiculous and downright false.”

“This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” she added. “It’s really a shame that we put politics above helping people.”

Criswell noted that state and local officials have refuted “this dangerous, really dangerous narrative that is creating this fear.”

Trump has made a series of unsubstantiated claims about Helene’s recovery at several events in recent days. He said Thursday at a rally in Saginaw, Michigan that “Kamala has spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal immigrants.”

“They have almost no money because they spent it all on illegal immigrants,” Trump said, adding that “they stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank so they give it to their illegal immigrants could give.”

FEMA does have a housing program, the Shelter and Services Program, which “provides financial assistance to non-federal entities to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants upon their release” from detention facilities, according to its website. There is $650 million in funding available this year, but that money is separate from disaster relief funds.

“No money is diverted from disaster response needs. None,” the White House said in a press release.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters at a White House news conference last week that FEMA has enough emergency response money to meet current needs, but not for additional storms.

“We are meeting immediate needs with the money we have,” Mayorkas said. “We expect another hurricane to come. We don’t have the money. FEMA does not have the resources to get through the season and… what lies ahead.”

Congress recently appropriated $20 billion in disaster funds, but Biden said in a letter this week that more is needed.

“Without additional funding, FEMA would have to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs,” Biden wrote, saying the Small Business Administration is especially in need of money.

Fact check The image of Donald Trump wading through floodwaters was generated by AI

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was asked about Biden’s letter on “Fox News Sunday” and said, “Congress will provide that, we will help the people in these disaster-prone areas.”

Pressed about Trump confusing FEMA funds for the Shelter and Services Program with disaster relief money, Johnson admitted that “the funding streams are different, that is of course not an untrue statement.” But he argued that FEMA should not spend money “to resettle illegal aliens who have crossed the border.”

Trump continued to criticize Helene’s recovery efforts at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. He focused on the $750 payment that FEMA is offering disaster victims to help them with immediate needs.

“Remember, $750 goes to people whose homes have been washed away, and yet we send tens of millions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of,” Trump said. “They’re offering them $750 because they were destroyed. “

The $750 Serious Needs Assistance will help “cover essential items such as food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies, medications and other emergency supplies,” according to the White House press release.

“There are other forms of assistance you may be eligible for, and Serious Needs Assistance is an initial payment you may receive while FEMA assesses your eligibility for additional funds,” the release continues.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, also answered questions about Trump’s claims about Helene during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. Host Dana Bash played a segment from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., praising the response to Helene.

“I’m actually impressed by how much attention has been paid to regions that probably wouldn’t have experienced the impact that they did,” Tillis said, adding, “I’m here to say we’re doing a good job.”

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Lara Trump defended criticism of Helene’s recovery as “coming directly from people there.”

“You can go online, you can watch videos of people recording themselves and posting online saying, ‘We need help, no one came here, we have nothing,’” Trump said.