SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Examining storm damage in North Carolina, former president Donald Trump on Monday blasted federal emergency responders whose work was hampered by it armed harassment and a flood of Misinformationbut he said he was not worried about the consequences Hurricane Helene would impact election results in the battleground state.

Trump was asked whether it was helpful to criticize hurricane relief workers after the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently halted its work in the region because of reports they could be attacked by militias. He responded by attacking the agency again and repeating the falsehood that the response was hampered because FEMA spent its budget supporting people crossing the border illegally. This claim was exposed weeks ago by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., who stood behind Trump during his speech.

“Well, I think you have to let people know how they’re doing,” Trump told reporters in Swannanoa, outside Asheville. “If they’ve done a great job, I think we should say so because I think they should be rewarded. … If they do a bad job, shouldn’t we say so?”

Trump’s campaign and that of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, are ramping up their activities in North Carolina after the storm. Trump had three stops in the state on Monday. After the Asheville area, he held a statewide rally in Greenville and was later scheduled to speak at a faith leaders event in Concord, outside Charlotte.

Harris on Monday focused their campaign efforts on the “blue wall.”“Traveling to the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. She conducted a series of interviews Republican Liz Cheney Moderated by GOP strategist Sarah Longwell, editor of Bulwark, a commentary site for anti-Trump conservatives, and conservative radio host Charlie Sykes. Trump won those three states in 2016 and lost them in 2020, and Harris could all but end the presidency if she defeated them.

Cheney, a former congresswoman from Wyoming who lost her seat after speaking out against Trump following the January 6, 2021 insurrection, offered advice to her fellow Republicans who are dissatisfied with Trump but don’t feel comfortable giving their support for a Democrat to spread.

“You can vote your conscience and never have to say a word to anyone,” Cheney said.

Hurricane Helene displaced thousands of voters

Many counties in North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene have moved their voting precincts or changed early voting locations. Thousands of voters remained displaced or without power or water as early voting began. Both parties are making efforts to check their voter turnout.

“We’re working on all kinds of channels, you know,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, a North Carolinian. “We’ll talk on the phone. We will do direct mail. We’ll send out emails and digital messages – basically anything we can do to tell people where to go.”

Despite significant damage in western North Carolina, Trump said he saw no reason for the storm to cast doubt on North Carolina’s election results.

“No, I think in some ways the opposite is true,” Trump said. “I mean, we’re so impressed and I think they have a pretty good system here.”

Republican Renee Kyro, who lives just a short drive away the destroyed mountain town of Chimney Rocksaid she knows “many Trump supporters who have lost everything” and others who are staying in their homes but do not have reliable internet or phone connections and may not know their polling place.

“I go door to door when I have to,” she said.

State Sen. Natalie Murdock, who doubles as political director for the state’s coordinated Democratic campaign, said the party has the resources to reach its target audience in the disaster zone. Field workers in some of the Democrats’ more than two dozen offices across the state have been involved in recovery efforts, distributing water and other supplies to residents.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, urged Trump to “not spread lies or misinformation” about the storm’s recovery.

Many survivors of the storm have lost everything and they want help and truth, Cooper said at a briefing in Asheville on Monday.

“We should work together to achieve both,” the governor said. “Storm recovery cannot be partial.”

Edwards, who represents Asheville and surrounding areas in Congress, issued a lengthy statement last month debunking “outrageous rumors” that FEMA was blocking trucks from delivering supplies and abandoning rescue efforts in favor of bulldozers Chimney Rockslack of money and more. He did not defend FEMA against Trump’s criticism on Monday.

Instead, Edwards, who owns the McDonald’s franchises, presented Trump with a so-called “French fry certification pin” in a nod to the former president’s photo op on Sunday at one of the fast food restaurants.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Trump’s FEMA comments “dangerous” and said this was the case exposed across party lines. She said there were 5,500 federal employees in North Carolina and Florida following Helene and Hurricane Milton, noting that $2 billion in federal aid was provided to those affected in North Carolina.

“They are dangerous,” Jean-Pierre said of Trump’s comments. “They are not helpful. That’s not what leadership looks like.”

The Democrats are running for both Helene and Mark Robinson

Even before Helene, North Carolina was all the more convincing because of its history of split voting. It is one of the few states where gubernatorial contests run parallel to the presidential election.

Since 1992, Democrats have won the presidential election only once – in Barack Obama’s narrow victory in 2008. Republicans have won only one governor’s race during the same period. Four years ago, Cooper won re-election by 4.5 points, even as Trump overtook Biden. Term limits laws prevent him from running again.

Democrats hope Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson’s recent struggles, centered on CNN’s revelations that the state’s first black lieutenant governor once called himself a “black Nazi” and posted lascivious statements on a porn website, will draw thousands Cooper-Trump voters will turn into supporters of Harris and Harris and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein. Robinson has denied the allegations and sued CNN called his report defamatory.

Trump demurred Monday when asked whether voters should support Robinson, whom Trump has endorsed and called “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

“I don’t know the current status of the race,” he said. “I didn’t see it.”

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Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, Colleen Long in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.