‘We will be here’ with hurricane help, Trump says in Evans visit

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EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Two days after his rival Kamala Harris came to Augusta to see the damage from Hurricane Helene and pledge federal assistance, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was in the CSRA.

He went to Evans to learn about the Hurricane recovery.

The Trump jet landed in Augusta around 2:10 p.m., and Trump got off the plane about 30 minutes later, briefly waving on his way down the stairs.

He was asked a couple of questions on the tarmac.

“This is the worst istration in the history of the country,” he said before getting into a black vehicle.

Later, he went to the Columbia County emergency operations center for a briefing along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

After that, he and Kemp delivered remarks to the media.

Kemp said he and his wife Marty have spent recent days traveling the state to see the damage from Helene.

He said despite the stories of tragedy – tragedies like the deaths of Kobe Williams and her weeks-old twin children in McDuffie County – he’s heard other stories of survival and perseverance.

He said he’s sending every resource at his disposal to help with the hurricane response.

Trump started speaking around 3:50 p.m. and talked for about 10 minutes.

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“Your governor’s doing a fantastic job; I will tell you that,” he said.

Trump said he’d just met a group of “really wonderful patriots,” he said, people who “say they’ve never seen anything like this.”

He said he wanted to thank them and others who are working hard in the aftermath of the storm.

“When you look and you see the kind of suffering that’s going on right now, but one of the biggest, I guess, question marks is the fact that there’s so many people missing,” he said.

“Hopefully, they’ll be found and they’ll be found very healthy, but it never looks great.”

Regarding Williams, the mother who died with her babies, Trump said “such sudden and tragic loss must be almost unbearable” to her family.

The damaged homes and roads are still being worked on, he said, but “I will tell you that I have no doubt that whatever can be done is going to be done. ... It’s a very heartbreaking situation.”

He said if he’s elected president again, he’ll make sure the state gets “the best treatment.”

“Whenever the governor needs us, we will be here,” Trump said.

Later when he was asked questions by reporters, he characterized his relationship with Kemp – a man with whom he feuded for years after the 2020 election – as good.

“It’s great,” he said. “We’ve worked together. We’ve always worked together really, really well.”

He again slammed the Biden istration’s response to Helene.

“It’s been a terrible response from the White House,” he said

He spoke briefly about the poll numbers for himself and Harris, but ultimately said the election wasn’t on his mind at the moment.

“I’m not thinking about voters right now; I’m thinking about lives,” he said.

“Right now, we’re focused on this; we’re not focused on the election.”

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