America is about to experience a second large hurricane in a short period of time. Florida is battening down in preparation. Hurricane Milton comes on the heels of Hurricane Helene, which devastated communities all across the South. Mountain towns in Georgia and North Carolina were hit particularly hard. But what is absolutely disgraceful in all of this is the storm of lies that has erupted over the recovery and aid efforts.

These lies are not being told by sketchy online characters or your all-too-credulous uncle. They are instead coming from the Republican Party's candidate for president, as well as far too many other Republican politicians. They don't care that hundreds of people have died. They don't care that tens of thousands are in dire straights. They don't care that their lies are making things worse for the survivors of the storm. All they care about is sowing fear and mistrust, in a cynical effort to score some cheap political points.

This is beyond disgraceful, it is downright dangerous. Donald Trump spouting conspiracy theories and outright lies is hampering the ability of FEMA and other disaster responders to do their jobs. Trump and his ilk are exploiting people's distrust of government to make them even more fearful of people who are genuinely just trying to help others.

FEMA has had to set up a rumor-debunking page in an attempt to get the truth out. President Joe Biden addressed the issue today in a briefing on disaster response:

But now I want to be clear about something. Over the last few weeks, there has been a reckless, irresponsible, and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people. It's undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken, and it's harmful to those who need help the most.

There is simply no place for this to happen.

Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies. Assertions have been made that property is being confiscated. That's simply not true.

They're saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more. That's simply not true.

They're saying... the money... for this crisis is being diverted to migrants. What a ridiculous thing to say. It's not true.

Now the claims are getting even more bizarre.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather -- we're controlling the weather. It's beyond ridiculous. It's got to stop.

In moments like this, there are no red or blue states. There's one United States of America, where neighbors are helping neighbors; volunteers and first responders are risking everything, including their own lives, to help their fellow Americans; state, local, and federal officials are standing side by side.

Even some Republicans are getting disgusted with all the lies. Representative Chuck Edwards of North Carolina issued his own lengthy fact-checking statement that debunks an exhaustive number of conspiracy theories, one by one. Here are just a few of them:

Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock.

Nobody can control the weather.

Local officials are NOT abandoning search and rescue efforts to bulldoze over Chimney Rock.

Chimney Rock is NOT being bulldozed over.

FEMA is NOT stopping trucks or vehicles with donations, confiscating or seizing supplies, or otherwise turning away donations.

FEMA has NOT diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid.

FEMA is NOT going to run out of money.

FEMA cannot seize your property or land.

FEMA is NOT only providing $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery.

This award is just the first step of a longer process to provide financial assistance to disaster survivors in need of federal support.

Fellow Republican House member Carlos Gimenez of Florida was more succinct. He wrote on social media:

NEW [sic] FLASH --> Humans cannot create or control hurricanes.

Anyone who thinks they can, needs to have their head examined.

At least Trump hasn't followed Marjorie Taylor Greene down the "they can control the weather" rabbit hole, but he's been spreading plenty of other lies about the government's response to the storms. Part of this is pure projection. A new ad was just released by Kamala Harris highlighting the fact that Trump, while he was president, disbursed natural disaster aid on a partisan basis. Former Trump White House officials were blunt in describing how Trump reacted: "He would suggest not giving disaster relief to states that hadn't voted for him." When a wildfire struck California, they had to show Trump that there were some Republican voters in the affected areas -- "people who voted for you" -- before he would approve any aid.

So of course, to Trump, this is how all presidents act, right? Which explains why he's been lying about the Biden administration's response, accusing them of withholding aid to Republican areas of the affected states. Because that's what Trump wanted to do -- so he figures that must be how Biden operates too.

A monster storm is going to hit Florida tonight. Let's hope that it isn't followed by the same storm of monstrous lies as the last one. Sowing all this fear and mistrust means that people who could be helped are not -- because they refuse to even apply for aid. They're scared that doing so will somehow mean their property is confiscated or that they'll only get $750. None of this is true, but it is the leader of the Republican Party telling them that these things are true, so who are they going to believe?

Donald Trump lied his way through the COVID pandemic. Countless lives were lost as a direct result. Donald Trump is now lying about hurricane aid efforts, and hopefully this won't result in anyone's death -- but it might easily cause a whole lot of needless misery for those affected. Trump doesn't care. As long as he thinks he can get some sort of political benefit out of saying these things, he is going to continue doing so.

If Trump keeps it up in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, then Joe Biden needs to be a little more direct and forceful in countering all the lies. He should give a short primetime speech (five minutes, tops) from the Oval Office repeating pretty much exactly what he said today in his briefing (updated to counter any new post-Milton lies, of course). Because these aren't just politics-as-usual sorts of lies. These lies are dangerous. They need to be disproven loudly and prominently. Because (for now, at least) America doesn't have a president in the White House who checks party affiliation before he orders FEMA to act. That's the truth of the matter, and more people need to clearly hear that right now.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant