On Tuesday (October 4), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Vice President Kamala Harris’s defense, explaining his stance that Hurricane Ian relief efforts should be based on more than loss claims.
Buttigieg made his remarks in an interview on Fox News’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” when Cavuto questioned him about Harris’s comments on “equity.”
Harris stated, “it is our lowest-income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions… We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality but we also need to fight for equity,” when discussing the response to climate change at a Democratic National Committee event.
In response to Cavuto’s question that help may not be distributed evenly, Buttigieg indicated that each claimant’s case is indeed different. He contrasted the needs of a home with light damage to a home destroyed by the Hurricane, noting that residents requesting relief for a neighborhood that is “completely cut off from resources” is different from that of a neighborhood that is still accessible.
Buttigieg explained, “I think we all know that some Americans bear the brunt most-of-all of extreme weather events. And we’ve got to make sure that we’re helping everybody based on the need that is there; that it’s fair, that it’s equitable,” adding, “that’s something that I think you see built into the process right now.”
Cavuto continued pressing about Harris’ remarks, reframing his question about those comments by pointing to a statement by Rev. Franklin Graham, president of relief organization Samaritan’s Purse.
Graham had said, “A person that lost a roof, that may have a big house, another person lost a roof, maybe a small house, they still both lost their roofs and their contents are getting wet. They’re being destroyed, and they need help.”
In response, Buttigieg emphasized relief should be needs-based, adding, “there are some folks who see politics where it doesn’t need to be.”
Buttigieg added that irrespective of the process — whether its government process or insurance process — “you take account for people who are absolutely desperate, experiencing hunger and their lives are in danger even today, from those who just need to work their way through an insurance process to try to get things back to normal.”
Concluding that he believes “that’s something that we should agree on more than we disagree on.”
