‘He’s Lying’: Biden Unloads on Trump over Bogus Hurricane Claim and Says ‘I Don’t Know Why He Does This’

Reporter: “Donald Trump has accused both of you of ignoring the disaster —“

Biden: “He is lying. Let me get it straight, he’s lying. And the governor told me he was lying. The governor told me he was lying. I’ve spoken to the governor, I’ve spent time with him and he told me he’s lying. I don’t know why he does this. And the reason I get so angry about it, I don’t care about what he says about me. I care what he — what he communicates to people that are in need, implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are. We are. And you — and you spoke to the — I assume, heard the Republican governor of Georgia talk about that he was on the phone with me more than once. So that’s simply not true, and it’s irresponsible. I don’t know what the governor wants to say about that.”

Reporter 2: “Mr. President, in retrospect, do you wish that you had more resources in North Carolina knowing what you know now? And do you wish that you spent the weekend here in Washington, not going to Delaware?”

Biden: “Come on, it’s not that [inaudible]. 90 miles from here. OK. I was on the phone the whole time working on that and the resources — the question is not whether we get more — this is a list of every resource we’re getting in there. But the question is how to get it in. It’s hard to get it from point A to point B. It’s hard to get if some of these roads are wiped out, the communities are wiped out. There’s no ability to land, there’s no ability to get trucks through, there’s no ability to get a whole range of things through. So, I mean — anyway, if I sound frustrated, I am.”

Reporter 3: “Can you talk a little bit about the death toll? We were speaking in the briefing today about [inaudible] It’s such a huge number for the United States of America.”

Biden: “Well, first of all, the death toll, the confirmed death toll is high enough, well over 100. OK? There are roughly — correct me if I’m wrong, Gov or Deanne, but there are about 600 people still unaccounted for, if I’m not mistaken. Is that about right?”

COOPER: “Well, we know, Mr. President, because cell phone service is down —“

Biden: “Yes.”

COOPER: “— that there are a lot of people who haven’t been able to get in touch with them. But what’s happening now, and we’re getting assistance from you to coordinate even more efforts as we’re doing door-to-door welfare checks on people to make sure that they are accounted for. We know there will be more deaths because this was an unprecedented devastating storm that it was something that people in North Carolina, in western North Carolina have never seen before. So, we are working as hard as we can to get in touch with everybody and to make sure that we are telling relatives that people are safe and also making sure that search and rescue, because we have rivers that are still rising, the danger is still occurring for a lot of people.”

Biden: “And by the way, as the FEMA can tell you, they have pre-positioned an awful lot of material, an awful lot of material throughout that area, from the Bend all the way up into Tennessee. And so the idea that we weren’t prepared, the question is no one knew exactly how devastating it would be. We knew it would be significant. And we’ve got a lot already in place. But there’s more. But here’s the point. I’m going to be asking the American people to continue to help fund the needs of these people. It’s not going to be one hit and it’s over. It’s going to take a hell of a long time. It’s going to cost a hell of a lot of money, but this is the United States of America and we’ve got to do it.”