Hosts of MSNBC’s flagship weekend show mocked MAGA voters in red states affected by a spate of recent storms as President Donald Trump floated the possibility of scrapping federal support for states altogether.
Visiting North Carolina on Friday, where local communities were ravaged by Hurricane Helene last September, the Republican president said, “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] go away,” suggesting he’d prefer to see the agency’s responsibilities taken over by individual states.
Trump has repeatedly attacked FEMA, suggesting the Democratic Party was weaponizing the agency to withhold disaster relief from red states claiming that its funding had somehow been diverted to support undocumented migrants.
Reacting to Trump’s comments on Friday, MSNBC’s The Weekend hosts Michael Steele and Symone Sanders Townsend noted that many of the states along the so-called ‘Tornado Alley’ are traditionally Republican. They added that the very core of Trump’s support base could be affected by pulling federal support.
Steele said, “You know, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, all those states…”
“Florida,” Sanders Townsend chipped in.
Steele then went on, “All of those states. Then we get into tornado alley. Those states: Ohio, Iowa… Ya’ll going to be prepared to just have the federal government just go away in terms of its response and leave it to you? I just want to know how they’re going to pay for it…”
Sanders added, “How are they going to pay for it? Well, you know, Michael, you know, they say this is what they voted for.”
They both then repeated in turn, “This is what they voted for.”
