{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-tuberville-joins-fox-business-to-discuss-biden-harris-administrations-slow-fema-response/", "ICYMI: Tuberville\u00a0Joins Fox Business to Discuss Biden-Harris Administration\u2019s Slow FEMA Response", "2024-10-08", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cFEMA is worried more about diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change than they are helping the people of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Yesterday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined \u201cKudlow\u201d on Fox Business Network with guest host David Asman to discuss the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s slow FEMA response to victims of Hurricane Helene, amid reports of money being allocated to house illegal immigrants and Vice President Harris touting the administration\u2019s move to send another $157 million to Lebanon.\n\nExcerpts from Senator Tuberville\u2019s interview can be found below, and his full remarks can be found on YouTube or Rumble.\n\nON MAYORKAS CLAIMING FEMA IS OUT OF MONEY\n\nASMAN: \u201cSenator, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it. You know, there\u2019s a big question about whether the administration is contradicting itself now based on what they\u2019ve said before about 1.) whether FEMA has enough money to deal with all these crises, these emergencies, and 2.) whether or not they waylaid a lot of that money for spending on migrants.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo, it was pretty frank. He said, \u2018We don\u2019t have the funds to make it through the season.\u2019 Now the question is, why? Senator, on the one hand, they\u2019re saying this. On the other hand, they say exactly the opposite. I leave it to you now to try to figure out what\u2019s going on here.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cWell, our country is in a mess and we are in a mess. And this administration, David, has no clue what they\u2019re doing. I\u2019ve been in the Senate now for going on four years, and it\u2019s been like this the entire time. Now, when it comes to spending money, they know how to do that, but they don\u2019t know how to prepare for anything. Let\u2019s go back to North Carolina. First of all, it\u2019s not about money at North Carolina in the first few days. It\u2019s about security. People on the ground like the military, helping find people that are stranded, opening up roads, doing the things to get communication into the area in North Carolina. They heard zero from FEMA for five or six days. It was a disaster. And it\u2019s continued to be a disaster\u2014more people still missing, but David, this administration\u2014Mayorkas being the leader of this pack when it comes to some kind of security, whether it\u2019s the border, or whether it\u2019s FEMA\u2014he\u2019s never prepared. He always blames somebody else. Another blaming President Trump for all this is going on. These people know how to spend money, but that\u2019s the only thing they know how to do. They can\u2019t do anything other than just spend the taxpayers\u2019 money, and they usually waste it when it comes to that.\u201d\n\nASMAN: \u201cWell, and then they misappropriated. I mean, on the one hand, yes, you know, last week, [Karine] Jean-Pierre was saying that they haven\u2019t used any money from FEMA for the migrants. But in 2022, she said very clearly funding is also available through FEMA\u2019s emergency food and shelter program. That\u2019s money that was going to the migrants. That\u2019s money that the folks in Appalachia need right now.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cYeah. And we\u2019ve all known that. They\u2019ve been spending billions of dollars on the illegals coming across the border. Once they get here, they take care of them much more than they take care of our veterans or the homeless people living in this country. David, I was coming from Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, a few weeks ago, and half the plane was filled with Venezuelans and people from South America that our government and taxpayer money\u2014they were flying people on those planes to Houston. It was a commercial airliner, and then they were going places from there. It is a disaster. It\u2019s getting worse every day. But this group could care less. All they want [are] votes, David. They don\u2019t want to take care of any American citizen. They want votes to get reelected to carry this power on for another four years and Heaven help us if that happens.\u201d\n\nASMAN: \u201cAnd by the way, those folks that were on the plane with you haven\u2019t been vetted. I mean, it\u2019s quite clear that some of them\u2014they just had to arrest, ICE just had to arrest some horrible people. They were child molesters from a bunch of different countries that were flown in and clearly, they hadn\u2019t been vetted because if they had, they would have found out they had a horrible record from where they came from.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cExactly. And it\u2019s gonna get worse before it gets better. Our prayers are out to the people of North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina. But, David, let me tell you. I\u2019ve lived in the South for all my life. I\u2019ve been through hurricanes. I went through a terrible one in [Hurricane] Andrew back in \u201891 in Miami when I was coaching down there. There\u2019s one coming named \u2018Milton\u2019 coming at Tampa. Right now, it\u2019s a Category Five. It\u2019s supposed to go down a little bit, but that usually never happens. The people of Tampa need to prepare to get out. Thank God, we have Governor DeSantis [who is] preparing for this because I promise you one thing, FEMA is nowhere to be found.\u201d\n\nON VP HARRIS BRAGGING ABOUT SENDING MONEY TO LEBANON\n\nASMAN: \u201cWell, meanwhile, while Mayorkas says we are running out of money for FEMA, Vice President Kamala Harris was bragging over the weekend about sending money to Lebanon of all places. She put out an X post saying, \u2018I am concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all the civilians there.\u2019 All the civilians there, what about the civilians here?\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cWell, this is for a longer conversation, David, but that\u2019s a war there. Our friend and ally, Israel is fighting for their livelihood over there. And we\u2019re funding both sides. We\u2019re giving some money, some weapons to Israel, but now we\u2019re sending money to Lebanon who they\u2019re fighting. We continue to do this. We\u2019re sending money to Hamas. We\u2019re building ports for Hamas. We\u2019re letting Iran run rampant in terms of making money to fund all this stuff. [\u2026] It is out of control. All they\u2019re trying to do is sell the people in Michigan and some of these areas that have people from Islamic countries that, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re taking care of your people over there. Vote for us in four or five weeks. And we promise you, we\u2019ll help you again.\u2019 We care nothing about the American people, and it\u2019s out of control and [I] hope the American people see what\u2019s going on.\u201d\n\nON DEI STANDARDS IN FEMA\n\nASMAN: \u201cSenator, one more on FEMA for you. The chief of FEMA\u2014a woman named \u2018Deanne Criswell\u2019\u2014claims it\u2019s disinformation to essentially tell the truth of what the administration including Mayorkas, including Jean-Pierre, have been saying about money being used from FEMA for migrants, etcetera. Now she\u2019s the one who last year signed a pledge to, and I\u2019m quoting here, \u2018instill equity in disaster relief.\u2019 Do you know what equity in disaster relief is?\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cWell, we probably could ask the ex-Secret Service Director who is the same way when she was all DEI\u2014diversity, equity, and inclusion\u2014in terms of the Secret Service. They almost got President Trump killed. Now the same thing here, people are dying because FEMA is worried more about diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change than they are helping the people of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Again, these people have no clue about organization and taking care of the people that they are being paid to take care for. So, they need to get off their tails and go to work. But, again, we\u2019ve got another terrible tragedy getting ready to happen here in 36 hours. I hope they get their stuff together. If they need the money, we will pass it for them. But unfortunately, they\u2019ve wasted $20 billion on these illegals coming in for four years, and that has created more disaster than anything else.\u201d\n\nASMAN: \u201cSenator Tommy Tuberville, great to see you, sir, and we do pray for those folks in the in the line of fire from Milton. I appreciate it.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, and HELP Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:55:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-tuberville-joins-fox-business-to-discuss-biden-harris-administrations-slow-fema-response/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3532100711017847, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}