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Perhaps the most fitting image of the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the destruction of Hurricane Helene — and Vice President Kamala Harris’ time in office — is that staged photo of a pensive-looking VP sitting at a table on Air Force Two with what appears to be blank pages before her. 

The photo, posted on Harris’ official X account, was manufactured to illustrate how the Democrat presidential nominee was springing into action days after the Category 4 hurricane pounded a wide swath of the Southeast. It was a CYA moment after the political climber, like part-time President Joe Biden, was caught flat-footed on the campaign trail. Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump, like many others, rightly lambasted the phony photo-op, calling it “Another FAKE and STAGED photo from someone who has no clue what she is doing,” 

In her message on X, posted three days after the hurricane first hit land, Harris claimed she had just been briefed by Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell. “We also discussed our Administration’s continued actions to support emergency response and recovery.” 

But in the show photo the cord connecting Harris’ earbuds doesn’t appear to be plugged into the smartphone on the table in front of her. 

“This is the most VEEP-like photo ever — pretending to be on a phone call but forgetting to plug in the antiquated earphones while pretending to write on a blank piece of paper instead of actually doing anything,” The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway wrote on X.

Blank paper, empty pants suit, empty vessel. That’s Border Czar Kamala Harris, campaigning for president like she’s actually done anything as vice president to merit the promotion. 

And that’s particularly the case when it comes to Harris’ pretend response to a hurricane that has killed more than 230 people, washed away entire communities, and exposed the Biden-Harris administration for the fraud that it is. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may have said it best this week, when he said of a politically pouting Harris, “She has no role to play in this.”

‘Still No FEMA’

While public pressure and mounting accounts of FEMA’s failures to assist drowning communities in western North Carolina and other hurricane-battered regions seem to have forced the federal government to do more, some living the nightmare say FEMA relief remains spotty at best. 

Sarah Parkhurst, a Montgomery, Ala., resident who was born and raised in Marshall, N.C., one of the hardest hit communities in the Tar Heel State, is assisting private relief efforts for hurricane survivors. Parkhurst told me that she and her family are heading to her hometown early Saturday morning, traveling with a semi-truck filled with essentials from her church for the Appalachian people in need. Everything from diapers to dog food, she said. 

Her mother, who leads a nonprofit health care clinic in the area, had been begging FEMA for oxygen tanks for days, Parkhurst said. A supply finally arrived late Sunday. 

“It took FEMA nine days to get my mom oxygen,” Parkhurst told me late Monday evening. “A FEMA truck driver randomly called and said, ‘I’ve got your oxygen.’ It was not really coordinated.” 

Churches and other private organizations continue to fill immediate needs, and sources say there still are lots of assistance gaps the state and federal governments haven’t covered.  

Matt McSwain, co-founder of Operation Helo, based out of Hickory Regional Airport in western North Carolina, has been deploying helicopters into remote locations. He told CNN on Sunday that when Operation Helo launched following the heavy rains and floods “there was no military presence, there was no military help, there was no FEMA. There was nothing.” As of Sunday, more than a week later, there was “still no FEMA, still no military, still no nothing. We’re begging — this is day eight, nine now,” McSwain said. 

‘We Don’t Have Internet’

President Joe Biden and his do-nothing vice president have growled at criticism the administration isn’t doing enough. On Tuesday, FEMA claimed that federal assistance for Hurricane Helene survivors had surpassed $286 million, with an additional $180 million in “mission assignments to federal partners.” The agency issued a press release claiming that nearly 7,000 personnel from across the federal workforce are assisting hurricane victims. FEMA says it had shipped more than 16.2 million meals, more than 13.9 million liters of water, 210 generators, and more than 505,000 tarps to the region, according to the press release. 

Caroline Miklosovic says FEMA has been slow to assist in eastern Tennessee, where Helene’s heavy rains forced the swollen Nolichucky and Pigeon rivers and their tributaries to surge over their banks and wash out communities in Greene and Cocke counties. Miklosovic, who lives in Morristown, Tenn., about 25 miles west of Cocke County, has been working with a group of volunteers delivering much-needed basics to the storm-ravaged communities. 

“I’ve not seen FEMA [staff] in a lunch line or FEMA doing clean up,” she told me in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “That’s what these people need the most, boots-on-the-ground help.” 

Miklosovic said FEMA agents have been going door to door to asking if residents have applied for the $750 relief funding through the agency’s Serious Needs Assistance program. As you might imagine, eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina residents without homes, power and phone and internet connection to the outside world are a bit perplexed by the question. 

“The confusion has been, ‘How are we supposed to register? We don’t have internet,’” Miklosovic said. 

FEMA and its partners acknowledge, “the quickest way to apply for FEMA aid is to apply online at DisasterAssistance.gov.” The application requires individuals to create an account with Login.gov, or link to an existing account.” They then must upload specific documents. 

For those unable to apply online, FEMA offers a helpline at 800-621-3362. Nearly 85,000 western North Carolina residents remained without power as of late Tuesday evening, according to PowerOutage.US. Cell service remains dark for thousands of customers in the region, with outages as high as 59 percent in Yancey County, nearly 33 percent in Henderson County, and 20 percent or higher in five other North Carolina counties, according to the Federal Communications Commission. 

In Cocke County, nearly a quarter of cell customers are without service. 

Of course, victims may also apply by mail or visit a disaster recovery center, “if available,” FEMA says. 

‘Neighbors Helping Neighbors’

As in so many cases throughout this crucible, private citizens have stepped up where government assistance has been lacking. 

“We have had friends and family rally together and have gone to do cleanup throughout neighborhoods and on farms,” Miklosovic said. “Neighbors helping neighbors has made all the difference.”

The eastern Tennessee resident said a group of moms in the area got together, sent out a mass text appeal for help, and the volunteers were quickly packing bag lunches for 800 people. And volunteers from across the United States have stepped up, sending and personally delivering all manner of supplies, including desperately needed over-the-counter medicines.

“Before this happened, I never would have told you I would be at a motorcycle club in Greeneville, Tenn., but that’s where I was loading supplies with parents, families, volunteers, every single person you could think of,” Miklosovic said. 

‘Be Cautious’

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration —  with the help of its allies in corporate media— have done everything they can to silence or disparage the personal accounts of hurricane survivors that they find damaging to Harris’ political prospects. They’ve been feverishly working to dispute any criticism of FEMA’s response or the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the hurricane as “rumors“  and “misinformation.” Sound familiar? 

Google “Hurricane Helene survivor complaints about FEMA” and you’ll find pages of accomplice media reports covering for the federal government and their preferred presidential candidate. You’ll find plenty of others warning of “‘Dangerous’ Trump falsehoods.”

 “Misinformation has surged following Hurricane Helene,” CBS proclaims in a piece published earlier this week. The corporate news outlet, like so many others, pushes its version of a “fact check.” Democrat Party mouthpiece Politico on Tuesday ran a piece with the headline, ‘The worst I have ever seen’: Disinformation chaos hammers FEMA.

FEMA and the White House not surprisingly continue the CYA info dump with press releases praising the administration’s efforts and decrying “rumors” about FEMA’s failures. As The Federalist reported last week, FEMA has established a “Hurricane Rumor Response” page encouraging Americans to do their part “to stop the spread of rumors.” How? By finding trusted sources of information, sharing information from trusted sources, and discouraging others from sharing information from unverified sources. So an agency of the federal government, which has lied to us repeatedly about Covid, election administration, a laptop, and so much more is going to lecture us on finding and sharing “trusted sources of information.” 

“Be cautious of what the mainstream media shows you. It’s certainly not the full picture,” Miklosovic said about the White House talking points reported as fact by a lazy and complicit corporate media.  

‘She has Never Contributed Anything’

Harris got caught in her own crossfire hurricane this week when she accused Gov. Ron DeSantis, busy preparing for another potentially bruising hurricane, of being “selfish” for reportedly not taking the presidential candidate’s calls. She petulantly complained to reporters on Monday that DeSantis was being politically petty by not picking up the phone. 

DeSantis said during a Monday appearance on Fox News that he’s been on the phone with Biden and FEMA’s director and he doesn’t have time for Harris’ “political games” when lives are on the line. 

“She has no role in this,” the Republican governor said. “In fact, she’s been vice president for three and a half years. I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration, and she has never contributed anything to any of these efforts.”

And Harris isn’t contributing anything of value now, as the blank pages and the disconnected cord in the campaign photo of the empty pants suit vice president so suitably represents. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.