Biden says people have to be “brain dead” to doubt that “the climate crisis” fueled Hurricane Helene

President Biden urged Americans on Wednesday to “put politics aside” to focus on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts – just before delivering his own message, saying everyone involved in the role of Climate change in the catastrophe doubts, “must be brain dead”.

“In a moment like this, we put politics aside, at least we should put everything aside, and that’s what we have here,” the outgoing 81-year-old president said during a recovery briefing in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“There are no Democrats or Republicans, there are only Americans, and our job is to help as many people as possible, as quickly as possible and as thoroughly as possible.”

The comforter-in-chief, sitting next to the Tar Heel State’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and emergency officials after a tour of the Asheville area, turned moments later to an attack on mostly Republican skeptics about the role of fossil fuel use in severe weather .

“No one can deny the impact [the] There is no longer a climate crisis – at least I hope they don’t. If they do that, they must be brain dead,” Biden gasped.

“Scientists report that as the oceans warm, leading to more intense rainfall, storms like Helene are becoming more powerful – they’re not getting smaller, they’re getting stronger. “Today I saw the effects of that fury in North Carolina.”

At least 189 people have died in six states due to the storm, with at least 70 of those deaths recorded in North Carolina alone. Another 100 state residents are missing.

The remark that Biden’s political opponents were “brain dead” quickly sparked an outcry – after the president himself voiced criticism of the slow emergency response in the hardest-hit areas, according to local residents.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign team sarcastically tweeted: “Biden – the commander in chief of the United States – says Americans must be ‘brain dead’ if they ‘deny’ that hurricane damage is due to climate change.”

“Comatose and mentally retarded Joe Biden calls Americans like me brain dead. “That’s a joke, right?” conservative commentator Leo Terrell responded.

Biden has come under fire for his management of the storm – including the fact that he monitored the first days of devastation in the Southeast from his beach house in Delaware.

The president bristled at that criticism Monday when asked by an Associated Press journalist whether he should have directed the federal response to the White House.

“It’s called a telephone!” Biden chided.

The president also had to walk back his original assertion on Sunday that no additional resources would be needed to respond to the storm. He said in his briefing with Cooper Wednesday afternoon that Congress needs to approve more funding.

“Responding to this storm will cost billions of dollars … and Congress has a duty to ensure states have the resources they need,” Biden said.

The outgoing president visited North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday, while Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee in the Nov. 5 election, visited storm-hit Augusta, Georgia.

Harris, who was campaigning on the West Coast over the weekend, also faced criticism from Republicans, including for tweeting a picture of herself addressing the crisis on Air Force Two – wearing headphones that weren’t connected to her phone — and because she had foregone annual hurricane preparedness briefings that were a fixture on her predecessor Mike Pence’s calendar.

“The people of Western North Carolina rightly feel abandoned,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), whose district includes some of the worst-hit areas, told NewsNation on Monday.

“The response has been disappointing,” Edwards said. “We started bringing in some resources today, but the storm passed about 80 hours ago. The storm passed around 10 a.m. Friday. We knew the storm was coming and it’s only today that we’re seeing the first FEMA workers, trailers and helicopters arrive.”