Politics and views in the United States.

President Biden denounces disinformation about federal disaster response. Experts address concerns about how hurricanes impact voting, and activists left and right question VP Harris' stance on meat.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

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.

President Joe Biden is denouncing disinformation about federal hurricane response.

Former President Donald Trump said money is being diverted to illegal migrants to pay them to vote, which Biden calls part of a reckless and irresponsible onslaught of lies.

Hurricane Milton's intensity declined to Category 3 just as it made landfall late Wednesday, but it is still expected to rampage across the middle part of the Florida peninsula.

Some are watching the impact of the storms on the toss-up election.

Florida Republican Carlos A. Jimenez says Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene should have her head examined for saying the government controlled the weather to send Hurricane Helene into conservative areas.

David Becker with the Center for Election Innovation says judging from previous storms, election officials know what to do, but they have their hands full.

What we see is oftentimes polling sites, facilities are damaged or unusable, maybe because they're flooded or because they've lost power.

And oftentimes election officials have to find alternate locations for voting.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the League of Women Voters and the NAACP are suing to reopen Florida's voter registration period, which just ended.

Larry Hannon with State Voices Florida says not doing so would in effect disenfranchise state citizens.

This is an issue of fairness and I think it impacts all voters of Florida.

This is not a liberal or a conservative issue.

People coming into Florida or people turning 18 can be liberal or conservative.

At a Nevada rally, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz highlighted the Biden-Harris administration's economic record, noting the nearly 300,000 new jobs created there.

He's critical of former President Trump's and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance's plan to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act. $500 million in Senator Vance's Ohio, and he called it like it's chump change or table scraps.

Those are thousands of jobs.

Those are making America energy independent.

Those are bringing down our costs.

Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign announced it has raised an unprecedented $1 billion despite entering the race late.

Though Harris has sponsored animal welfare legislation, activists say her record on factory farming isn't good.

Andrew DeCoriolis with FarmForward says presidents can impact the nation's food and agricultural policies.

If a Congress knows that a president's priority is to work on a climate bill that includes certain values around climate-smart agriculture, for example, or the prioritization of more climate-friendly diets and a shift towards plant-based eating, that's much more likely to get pushed through.

At the same time, some conservatives have promoted a conspiracy theory that Harris wants to ban beef and pork, even though she's never supported any legislation to ban any kind of meat.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.