Over the weekend, as Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, the contrast between leadership and distraction couldn’t have been starker. With more than 100 lives lost as of Monday and communities facing large-scale flooding, President Biden was lounging on a beach in Delaware, while Vice President Kamala Harris was busy raising money in California. As the country faced a natural disaster of historic proportions, its leaders were nowhere to be found.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Governor Tim Walz, who’s set to debate Sen. JD Vance on CBS News this week in the vice presidential showdown. With Biden and Harris conspicuously absent during both the hurricane crisis and the ongoing labor strife, Walz might find himself scrambling to defend the lack of leadership from the current administration. It’s hard to run alongside key players when they’re off the field during critical moments.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Helene left a devastating path, isolating much of western North Carolina as roads became impassable and authorities had to resort to airlifting supplies to those stranded. With such a tragedy unfolding, one might expect the Commander-in-Chief and his Vice President to at least make an appearance or offer some form of leadership. Instead, they’re either sunbathing or fundraising, leaving others to pick up the pieces.
Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., weighed in on the disaster during a television appearance, acknowledging that while lawmakers may eventually assess the pre-disaster planning, the sheer scale of the flooding was beyond what anyone could have predicted. Her comments underscored the catastrophic nature of the event but also hinted at the obvious—real leadership shows up when the chips are down. Unfortunately, the only thing Biden and Harris seemed to show up for this weekend were beach towels and donor dollars.
As the vice presidential debate approaches, the glaring absence of Biden and Harris during such a critical time could serve as a major talking point for Vance. After all, if a natural disaster and a labor crisis can’t pull the President and Vice President away from their personal priorities, one has to wonder what it takes for them to lead at all.
