WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday called former President Donald Trump “incredibly irresponsible” for spreading falsehoods about the federal response to Hurricane Helene 's destruction, offering especially sharp words as a new storm bears down on Florida with just weeks until Election Day.
"There’s a lot of mis- and disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, particularly to the survivors of Helene,” Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two to fly to New York. “It’s extraordinarily irresponsible. It’s about him. It’s not about you.”
Helene has killed more than 220 people in six states, and Category 5 Hurricane Milton is on a path toward Florida's Gulf Coast.
Trump has made a series of false claims in the wake of Helene, including saying incorrectly that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.
Harris said “the reality is that FEMA has so many resources that are available to folks who desperately need them now, and resources that are about helping people get back on their feet and rebuild and have places to go.”
“People are entitled to these resources, and it is critically important that people apply for the help that is there to support,” the vice president added. “All those resources were created for just these types of moments, in an emergency situation, knowing that folks are entitled to have the relief that they so rightly need.”
Trump also said during a visit Valdosta, Georgia, last week that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to calls from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Biden had, in fact, spoken with Kemp and said of Trump, “He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying.”
Harris also criticized another high-profile Republican, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, suggesting he's “playing political games” and engaging in “political gamesmanship” in Helene's wake.
Harris office says the vice president reached out to DeSantis last week in the storm’s aftermath. DeSantis said Monday that he “didn’t know that she had called” and “they didn’t call me.”
“It wasn’t anything anybody in my office did in saying that it was political,” DeSantis said.
But Harris, asked about DeSantis, said “people are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations … is utterly irresponsible.”
“It is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first,” Harris said without naming DeSantis.
DeSantis later spoke with President Joe Biden to discuss preparations for the coming storm. Biden, according to the White House, asked DeSantis “to call him directly if there is anything that can be done to further support the response and recovery efforts.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, at her briefing with reporters Monday, noted that DeSantis was invited to tour Helene damage in Florida with Biden but didn't join him.
“If you have the president, and you have the vice president, reaching out to offer up assistance — providing to your constituents, the people who live in your state, to make sure we are doing everything that we need to do from the federal response," Jean-Pierre said. “It’s up to the governor, it’s up to him if he wants to respond to us or not.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at LaGuardia Airport, Monday Oct. 7, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at LaGuardia Airport, Monday Oct. 7, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Nevada have dismissed a long-dormant sex abuse case against Nathan Chasing Horse.
The dismissal of the federal case was granted Oct. 1. The former “Dances with Wolves” actor had been charged in that case with two counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.
Prosecutors moved to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the charges can be refiled, on Sept. 27. That’s a day after the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of another indictment in state court against Chasing Horse, which was finalized late Friday.
The federal charges stemmed from the same allegations that led to Chasing Horse’s now-dismissed state indictment.
Federal prosecutors took no action in the case after filing the complaint in February 2023.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Prosecutors in Las Vegas have filed a new case against Nathan Chasing Horse that accuses the former “Dances With Wolves” actor of possessing and producing explicit videos of a minor.
The charges were filed late Friday, the same day authorities finalized the dismissal of Chasing Horse 's sweeping sex abuse indictment in Clark County District Court under an order from the Nevada Supreme Court that leaves open the possibility of charges being refiled.
District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said his office intends to refile the charges, which included sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping and child abuse.
In the new case, Chasing Horse faces one felony count each of possessing and producing child sexual abuse materials. He is being held on $200,000 bail.
Prosecutors said Monday in court that Chasing Horse, 48, recorded videos of himself having sex with one of his accusers when she was younger than 14. In at least one video, the girl was “fully passed out," prosecutor William Rowles said.
When Rowles described the videos, Chasing Horse closed his eyes and shook his head.
Rowles said the footage, taken in 2010 or 2011, were found on cellphones in a locked safe inside the North Las Vegas home that Chasing Horse is said to have shared with five wives, including the girl in the videos.
His defense attorney, Kristy Holston, declined to comment after court Monday. Rowles also said he had no comment.
The dismissal of his 18-count indictment was ordered in late September by the Nevada Supreme Court, after Holston successfully argued that a definition of grooming — presented to the grand jury without expert testimony — had tainted the state's case, and that prosecutors should have shared with the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of the victims.
The indictment was dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can refile the charges. Prosecutors haven't said when they plan to present their case to a new grand jury.
Chasing Horse has been jailed in Las Vegas since his arrest last January. But the case, which sent shockwaves throughout Indian Country and led to more criminal charges in the U.S. and Canada, had been at a standstill for more than a year while he challenged it.
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves," the former actor was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
In the decades since starring in the Oscar-winning movie, authorities say he built a reputation as a self-proclaimed medicine man among tribes and traveled around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He's accused of using that position to gain access to vulnerable girls and women starting in the early 2000s, leading a cult and taking underage wives.
FILE - Nathan Chasing Horse sits in Las Vegas court, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil, File)
FILE - Nathan Chasing Horse is led out of the courtroom after being arraigned at North Las Vegas Justice Court, Feb. 2, 2023. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)
