Biden warns of threat from Hurricane Milton, condemns misinformation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden warned on Wednesday that Hurricane Milton carried incredible destructiveness, as he urged people to take safe shelter and condemned misinformation about the storm as un-American.

“It’s harmful to those that need help,” Biden said of misinformation on the storm and the government’s response.

Asked why former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was spreading misinformation, Biden said he did not know.

Trump, who is running against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has sought to portray the Biden-Harris administration’s response to recent storms as ineffective.

“It is dangerous – it is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who would consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled, and that’s why I call it dangerous,” Harris said, according to CNN.

As U.S. officials struggle to push back against misinformation about natural disasters, at least three congressional Republicans condemned conspiracy theories repeated by fellow members of their party.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason; Editing by Leslie Adler)