ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — President Joe Biden on Sunday toured the worst-hit areas of Florida after Hurricane Milton ripped through the state, while Vice President Kamala Harris visited North Carolina, still recovering from Hurricane Helene, as she sought to balance a final sprint before Election Day with a demonstration of empathy for those reeling from the deadly storms.
Biden’s and Harris’s stops came after a devastating two weeks when a pair of hurricanes devastated the Southeast. Helene, which made landfall late last month and killed more than 200 people, flooded western North Carolina and caused severe damage in Georgia and Florida. Last week, Hurricane Milton hit the west coast of Florida and killed more than a dozen people.
Harris faces a striking challenge as North Carolina, one of the states most damaged by the storms, is also a critical battleground state she is seeking to win in the final three weeks before Election Day. Later Sunday, Harris was set to hold a campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., hundreds of miles from the hardest-hit western part of the state, ahead of early voting that begins in North Carolina later this week.
The trip to Greenville highlighted the delicate balance Harris faces as she seeks to navigate her role as a compassionate leader with that of a presidential candidate in the final three weeks of a deadlocked race. Harris arrived in the state Saturday night and made an unannounced stop at The Pit, a barbecue joint in Raleigh, pitching in with local volunteers to package supplies for a hurricane relief supply drive.
In Florida on Sunday morning, Biden took an aerial tour of the damage in Tampa and St. Petersburg, the cities hardest hit by Milton, and received a briefing from federal, state and local officials. The damage was extensive, with mattresses, filing cabinets, couches and other large pieces of furniture scattered outside wrecked homes.
Residents of the neighborhoods Biden toured had spray-painted some of the debris with heartfelt appeals for assistance. One read, “Mayor, Gov, Mr Pres, Small Businesses Need Help Too.” Another announced, “Family owned and devastated.” Still another begged simply, “Help us.”
After surveying the devastation, Biden laid out the steps the federal government was taking to help Florida and spoke of the personal losses local officials had suffered as a result of the storm, including flooded homes and family cars that were washed away.
“It’s in moments like this we come together to take care of each other, not as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans,” Biden said. “Americans who need help, who would help you if you were in the same situation. We are one United States.”
His comments may have been an indirect response to Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has spread misinformation about the federal reaction to the storms and accused Democrats of mishandling the response.
Biden was joined by Florida’s Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, two of his biggest Republican critics. But Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis did not appear with the president, and when reporters asked Biden if he had spoken to the governor Sunday, he responded, “No, I didn’t.”
The president spoke against a poignant backdrop, with a destroyed home behind him and debris on the street beside him. As he walked through the uneven ground leading to the lectern, he held the arm of Cathie Perkins, Pinellas County’s director of emergency management.
“Thankfully, the storm impact was not as cataclysmic as we’d predicted,” Biden said. “But for some individuals, it was cataclysmic. … Entire neighborhoods were flooded and millions [are] without power.”
After Helene devastated mountain towns in North Carolina — areas unaccustomed to dealing with hurricane damage and still struggling to rebuild — Trump incorrectly said the Biden administration had insufficient funds to mount an effective response because it had used its disaster money for migrants. Trump also accused North Carolina officials of withholding aid from Republican areas, an allegation sharply denied by the office of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
On Sunday, Biden announced $612 million in new federal funding to be distributed through six projects aimed at helping communities rebuild after the two storms.
In the days after Helene but before Milton, the White House was more aggressive about proactively releasing information on the federal response, for example announcing each phone call Biden and Harris made to state and local officials. Biden and Harris also held several public briefings about the hurricane and delivered remarks throughout the week about the work the administration was doing to assist the affected states.
These efforts coincided with a bitterly fought campaign that is entering its final, frenzied weeks. Two of the states hit by the storms — North Carolina and Georgia — are pivotal to the hopes of both candidates. More broadly, voters have a history of judging presidential candidates by their competence and compassion following natural disasters.
Polls show Harris and Trump are effectively tied nationally. Across the seven battlegrounds — North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — Harris and Trump are also within the margin of error of each other.
In Pittsburgh on Thursday, former president Barack Obama criticized Trump for spreading misinformation about the storms. Obama, who was holding his first campaign rally for Harris, said Biden and Harris visited the damaged states to meet with officials and comfort families while Trump “started making up stories” about the administration siphoning off aid to give to undocumented migrants.
“Now the people of Florida are dealing with another devastating storm, and I want you to watch what happens over the next few days, just like the last time,” Obama said. “You’re going to have leaders who try to help, and then you have a guy who will just lie about it to score political points.”