As bombing intensifies around Beirut, only a tiny fraction of the 86,000 Americans and green card holders who reside in Lebanon have been evacuated with U.S. help.

The State Department says it’s made some 5,000 seats available on both commercial and chartered flights for U.S. citizens, but there’s a catch: they have to get to the airport amid regular bombings on their own, and many may have to leave family behind. 

That’s what’s led to only around a quarter of those seats being filled by 1,100 U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents and family members flying out across 10 U.S.-organized flights, according to advocates.  

Since July, the U.S. has had a level 4 “do not travel” advisory for Lebanon encouraging citizens to get out. 

On Sept. 27, the State Department said it would not be evacuating Americans, prompting airlines to charge exorbitant prices – between $5,000 and $8,000 per seat. The department then back peddled and said it would help organize flights at reasonable rates. 

Some 8,500 U.S. citizens have reached out to the U.S. embassy in Beirut for information and assistance in evacuating. 

“We’re going to continue the flights for the time being because we do assess that there is demand,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “We believe we have a duty to do everything we can to help American citizens get out of the country.” 

1 YEAR AFTER HEZBOLLAH STRIKES, ISRAEL REINFORCES TROOPS AND QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER ‘LIMITED’ OPERATION

But human rights attorney Maria Kari says those efforts are futile without a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) to bring in U.S. forces to get Americans out. 

“The writing was on the wall several months ago that the situation in Lebanon was going to start disintegrating,” she told Fox News Digital. 

Kari said many of the U.S. citizens and green card holders in Lebanon she works with have family members who do not hold U.S. passports and refuse to leave the region without a parent or a child. 

“The Beirut embassy has made it very clear they’re not processing any new visa applications,” she said. 

Kari said the U.S. needs to extend the same protections it did to Israeli Americans who were looking to escape the region after Oct. 7 – allow immediate family members of U.S. citizens to get visas.

To the State Department, she said: “You’re not talking about how you’re contributing to the problem of why these flights are not filling up. You’re not talking about how it’s not safe to get to the airport, key sites around the airport, including the road and the residential building by the airport, were bombed in the last few days, right?”

The only international airport in Beirut is less than three miles from where Hezbollah is headquartered. 

When citizens contact the embassy, they get a response similar to the one shared with Fox News Digital: “We are only assisting U.S. citizens currently in Lebanon and their immediate family members who have a valid U.S. or Schengen visa at this time. A valid visa is required to enter the United States. Lebanese passport holders can travel to Türkiye without a visa.”

“It’s absolutely absurd that the U.S. thinks it’s OK to take out Americans and their non-American relatives and drop them off in Turkey – a foreign government not responsible for Americans or Lebanese citizens,” she said. “Just another example of this administration’s failure to protect Americans, first in Gaza and now in Lebanon.”

BIDEN AND NETANYAHU SPEAK AFTER REPORT US PRESIDENT CALLED ISRAELI COUNTERPART A ‘BAD F—ING GUY’

On Oct. 19, 2023, the U.S. government created a Visa Waiver Program for family members of Israeli Americans who looked to flee with their loved ones as war broke out. 

“We did the right thing there. We have failed consistently to do the right thing for another class of American citizens and their relatives,” said Kari.

The security situation in Lebanon is rapidly deteriorating amid Israel’s ground incursion to the home of Hezbollah, but the Biden administration has not yet determined it necessary to declare a noncombatant evacuation to bring in U.S. forces to get Americans out. 

It calls to mind Israel’s 2006 incursion into Lebanon, when the U.S. brought in service members to secure safe passage out of Lebanon for some 15,000 U.S. citizens. That time, the IDF bombed Beirut’s international airport and its roadways.

“The airport is open, but it’s not open indefinitely. Israel did strike directly at the airport last time. I’m sure that they’re under pressure not to this time, but the pressure is no longer really working for the White House right now,” said Zev Faintuch, head of research and intelligence at international security firm Global Guardian.

Some 2,000 have been killed in Israeli attacks on the country, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It’s not clear how many of those were Hezbollah militants, but the figure includes 127 children and 261 women.

The fighting has sent some 1.2 million – roughly a quarter of the country’s population – fleeing. 

The Israeli military said it hit about 185 Hezbollah targets on Tuesday, as Lebanon reported dozens of people killed in Israeli airstrikes.

On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck southern suburbs in Beirut to target a “weapons productions facility and a Hezbollah intelligence headquarters.”

Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and now his successor, too, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Alaska, Colorado and Massachusetts began absentee voting Friday, joining the vast majority of U.S. states where the 2024 election is underway.

With the trio of states included, 44 states and Washington, D.C., now offer some form of early voting.

Here is everything you need to know to cast your ballot.

There are three competitive House districts across the states that begin voting today:

This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Alaska.

Alaska began absentee voting on Friday. Residents do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. State officials must receive a ballot request by Oct. 26, and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5.

TRUMP ADVISER UNPACKS WHY FORMER PRESIDENT IS HOLDING RALLY IN DEEP-BLUE STATE WEEKS FROM ELECTION

Alaska offers early in-person voting beginning Oct. 21 and running through Nov. 4.

Alaska residents can register to vote in person on Election Day. The deadline for online or mail registration was Oct. 6.

This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Colorado.

Absentee voting is now open in Colorado. Residents do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. The state proactively mails ballots to eligible voters between Oct. 11 and Oct. 18. Those ballots must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5.

TRUMP ADVISER UNPACKS WHY FORMER PRESIDENT IS HOLDING RALLY IN DEEP-BLUE STATE WEEKS FROM ELECTION

Colorado offers early in-person voting beginning Oct. 21 and running through Nov. 4.

Colorado residents can register to vote in person, by mail or online at any point, including on Election Day. Oct. 28 is the last day to register to vote and receive a mail ballot.

This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Massachusetts.

FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: HARRIS TICKS UP AND SENATE REPUBLICANS TAKE CHARGE

Massachusetts began absentee voting Friday. Residents do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. State officials must receive a ballot request by Oct. 29, and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5.

Massachusetts offers early in-person voting beginning Oct. 19 and running through Nov. 1.

Massachusetts residents must register to vote online by mail or in person by Oct. 26.

MARIETTA, Ga. — While 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. may sit within the boundaries of Washington, D.C., the key to unlocking its front door could lie in the suburbs outside Atlanta, local officials say.

“It’s not just the state, it’s federal,” Cobb County Democratic Party Chair Essence Johnson told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Cobb County is the epicenter. It’s the bellwether of Georgia, but also on the federal level. … That’s why Cobb County is so vital.”

Salleigh Grubbs, chair of the Cobb County GOP, told Fox News Digital her area would be “very key in this election.”

“I think Cobb County is key,” she said. “I battle with people all the time about whether Cobb is blue or red and that kind of thing. And the reality is is that we do have some of the largest number of Republican voters in the state for our population.”

GEORGIA GOP CHAIR SHARES 2-PRONGED ELECTION STRATEGY AS TRUMP WORKS TO WIN BACK PEACH STATE

Georgia’s traditionally Republican status flipped when then-Democrat candidate Joe Biden won the state in 2020. Its status as a battleground state was solidified in the 2022 midterms with the victory of Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

Statewide, Biden beat then-President Trump by less than 1%. In Cobb County, which encompasses parts of the Atlanta suburbs and is anchored by the city of Marietta, Biden’s margin of victory was nearly 15%.

Asked how the Democrats’ ground game in Cobb County has changed now that they’re seeking to hold onto Georgia rather than flip it, Johnson said the key was being “intentional” in outreach and meeting “people where they are.”

She also signaled that abortion is a top issue for Democrats in this election cycle but noted that it may still be an uphill battle to get certain groups – like Black men and White women – out to the ballot box for Harris.

GEORGIA DEMS CHAIR REVEALS MESSAGE TO UNDECIDED GOP VOTERS AS HARRIS WORKS TO BUILD BROAD BASE

“We have seen some areas of weakness as far as voters and also reaching those communities to really understand the reason why they feel that they are not being heard,” Johnson said.

“They don’t feel that certain policies have reached them. And even though I say there is no specific policy for anybody, reproductive rights impact my son, right? He has a responsibility to reproductive rights because that could be his girlfriend, his partner, his best friend.”

She also said suburban White women were “sometimes the weakest link when it comes to voters” but noted that reproductive rights impacted them as well.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has been seeking to court minority men disenchanted with the Democratic Party, with Trump allies believing the strategy pivotal to winning battlegrounds like Georgia.

Grubbs would not say which demographics she believes are key to winning back Cobb County, but she noted the GOP’s road to victory includes focusing on local issues and election integrity.

“I don’t tend to look at things like that,” Grubbs said. 

“The way I view it more is, particularly on the local level, is what’s going on in your community and what are your values and what is your quality of life, and just translating the quality-of-life issue from the county level all the way to the national level.”

She cited the recent port workers strike, supply chain issues and “school quality” as issues with both local and national implications for people.

TRUMP VS HARRIS ROUND 2? VOTERS IN KEY GA COUNTY REVEAL IF THEY WANT SECOND DEBATE

Grubbs said she also had a focus on Americans feeling confident in the elections: “In this election, everybody needs to get out and vote. Everybody needs to have their voice heard. Everybody needs to be concerned about election integrity.”

“They need to know that when they cast a ballot, their vote counts,” Grubbs said.

Georgia’s early in-person voting period begins on Oct. 15 and runs through Nov. 1.

Authorities in Florida encountered a boat full of illegal immigrants arriving in the Sunshine State on Wednesday night, just as the state was preparing for Hurricane Milton to make landfall.

Border Patrol announced that agents and law enforcement partners responded to a migrant landing in Boynton Beach on Wednesday night.

The boat was carrying 11 migrants. Six from Haiti, two from Guyana, one from the Dominican Republic and two from the Bahamas.

FEDS STOP MASSIVE NUMBER OF HAITIAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LANDING BY BOAT IN THIS RED STATE 

Interim Miami Chief Patrol Agent Andrew Scharnweber noted in an X post the dangers of such voyages, particularly as a historic hurricane was looming.

“Illegal maritime migration voyages are extremely dangerous, especially in severe weather,” he said.

Florida regularly deals with boats full of migrants, particularly from Haiti, attempting to reach the United States. In June, 305 migrants were stopped by the Coast Guard as part of an operation that intercepted nearly 12,000 migrants in fiscal 2023.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in March the deployment of soldiers and officers as well as aircraft and boats to “protect” the state from vessels carrying illegal immigrants.

“Given the circumstances in Haiti, I have directed the Division of Emergency Management, the Florida State Guard and state law enforcement agencies to deploy over 250 additional officers and soldiers and over a dozen air and seacraft to the southern coast of Florida to protect our state,” he said.

LIVE BLOG: HURRICANE MILTON CARVES DEADLY PATH THROUGH FLORIDA, MILLIONS WITHOUT POWER

The Department of Homeland Security warned this year that those entering illegally would be returned.

“U.S. policy is to return non-citizens who do not have a fear of persecution or torture or a legal basis to enter the United States. Those interdicted at sea are subject to immediate repatriation pursuant to our longstanding policy and procedures,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital in March. “The United States returns or repatriates migrants interdicted at sea to The Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

Migration from Haiti has been a fiery political issue, with former President Trump pointing to the alleged negative effects of mass numbers of migrants on small towns across the U.S.

Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, late Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm with winds of 120 mph. It had left more than 3 million people without power by Thursday morning as the storm devastated Florida’s coast.

More than 10 inches of rain has fallen so far in some parts of Florida and an additional eight to 12 inches of rain is possible in many areas.

The 2024 presidential election has been touted as the “most important” election in U.S. history by both campaigns, as former President Trump works to reclaim the Oval Office and Vice President Harris pitches herself to voters as the next leader of the U.S. 

As the high-stakes election comes down to its final weeks, Fox News Digital compiled the top political and legal tactics that critics, most notably on the right, have slammed as efforts by the Democratic Party to undermine democracy in the run-up to the big day on Nov. 5.

Before the Republican Party officially nominated Trump as its presidential nominee, Democrats in states such as Colorado, California, Illinois and others attempted to remove Trump’s name from primary ballots.

Last year, a group of Colorado voters brought a lawsuit arguing Trump should be deemed ineligible from holding political office under a Civil War-era insurrection clause and that his name should thus be barred from appearing on the 2024 ballot. The group said Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when some of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol, violated a clause in the 14th Amendment that prevents officers of the United States, members of Congress or state legislatures who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding political office.

The Colorado case ultimately made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously sided with Trump that he should remain on the state’s ballot. The ruling affected all states across the nation that worked to remove Trump’s name, requiring them to include him on primary ballots as well. 

SUPREME COURT RULES UNANIMOUSLY FOR TRUMP IN COLORADO BALLOT DISQUALIFICATION DISPUTE

The tactic was slammed by Republicans and conservatives as a “constitutional violation,” while even former Obama adviser David Axelrod warned on CNN that removing Trump’s name would be seen as “a subversion” of democracy. 

Fox News Digital spoke to Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray when the SCOTUS decision was released, who called the Democrat tactic “lunacy.” Gray had been battling Democrats’ argument that Trump was ineligible to appear on the primary ballots over Jan. 6 for months ahead of the Supreme Court decision. 

“I think one of the lessons of this is … the way the radical left despises the American people and our process, and what happens then is lunacy. And that’s what their whole argumentation and what they were trying to do was. It was pure lunacy,” Gray told Fox Digital in March. 

“We’re going to continue to monitor the processes across our nation and be vigilant. Any time the people are able to choose for themselves, that’s a win for our republic, and that’s what our elections are about. And I’m going to continue to unapologetically fight for the people of Wyoming and the people across our country to choose who to elect for themselves,” Gray added at the time. 

FAILED EFFORT TO BOOT TRUMP FROM BALLOT EXPOSES ‘RADICAL’ LEFT’S ‘PURE LUNACY’: STATE ELECTION CHIEF

The Biden-Harris administration in July rolled out a slate of policies to overhaul the Supreme Court. The proposal includes calls for term limits for Supreme Court justices, an enforceable ethics code for justices and an amendment to the Constitution to overturn the high court’s ruling that former presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office. 

Critics slammed the proposal as an attempt to pack the court, including attorney Mark Paoletta, who worked for the Trump administration. He argued that, including the term limit proposal, Biden and Harris’ plan outlined a system in which the president appoints a new Supreme Court justice “every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the Supreme Court.”

“Even though Joe Biden caved to radicals and recently endorsed court packing, Harris is even further to the left of him on this thoroughly discredited idea,” Paoletta said in a statement to Fox News Digital in August. 

Conservative activist Leonard Leo also argued to Fox Digital that the proposal would likely serve as a prelude to court packing if Harris is elected next month. 

LEONARD LEO WARNS BIDEN-HARRIS EFFORTS TO RADICALLY OVERHAUL SUPREME COURT COULD ‘BACKFIRE’

“If Kamala Harris is elected president, and if the Senate is in Democrat hands, I think that there is some risk of court packing. I think that there is some risk of continued, scurrilous attacks on the integrity of the court, all based on a disagreement over the outcomes of various decisions that Democrats don’t like,” he said. “And that would really be most unfortunate.”

Democrats have pushed to broaden the court in an effort to switch it from a conservative majority. Biden, however, had previously called court packing a “bonehead idea” in 1983 while serving as a U.S. senator from Delaware, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it “anti-democratic” in 2021.

MSNBC PANEL BLASTS BIDEN FROM THE LEFT FOR NOT PACKING THE SUPREME COURT: ‘HISTORIC POLITICAL MISCALCULATION’

Harris called for the end of the filibuster last month in an effort to pass a law restoring abortion access nationwide, which was slammed by lawmakers and conservatives as an attack on democracy. 

“Shame on her,” independent Sen. Joe Manchin said at the Capitol last month. “She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the house on steroids.”

HARRIS CALLS FOR ELIMINATING FILIBUSTER TO PASS ‘ROE’ ABORTION BILL INTO FEDERAL LAW

The filibuster is a Senate rule that allows a minority to block legislation pending a supermajority vote, so ending it would make it easier to pass laws related to abortion rights.

Harris said late last month she would like to end the filibuster to pass a law protecting access to abortion. 

“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris said during a WPR interview. “And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.”

Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema also panned the proposal, calling it a “terrible, shortsighted idea.” 

“To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide,” Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, wrote on X. “What an absolutely terrible, shortsighted idea.”

KAMALA HARRIS ISN’T ALONE: VULNERABLE DEMS WANT CURRENT FILIBUSTER GONE

Illegal immigration via the nation’s southern border grew to crisis levels under the Biden administration, with at least 7 million migrants coming into the nation in the last three and a half years. 

Illegal immigrants are not able to vote in federal elections, but conservative lawmakers and pundits have warned that upcoming elections could be affected by the flux of migrants. 

SENATE PASSES FUNDING BILL WITHOUT SAVE ACT, AVOIDING POTENTIAL SHUTDOWN

“If you have a small percentage of the millions and billions (sic) of illegals who came over the border in the last four years under border czar Kamala Harris’ policies, they can throw an election, they can throw the majority of the House,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said last month. 

Republicans in Congress introduced legislation this year, the SAVE Act, that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Lawmakers who promoted the legislation cited that it would “preserve our democracy.”

“There’s nothing more sacred and more profound than the right to vote and especially to preserve our self-governing constitutional republic and to preserve our democracy. And the Democrats can keep talking about democracy, but nothing undermines the values of the right of each individual to have their vote cast and allowing non-citizens to vote,” New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney, the chair of the House Election Integrity Caucus, told Fox News Digital in July.

‘TERRIBLE MESSAGE’: GOP LAWMAKER FUMES AFTER ONLY 5 HOUSE DEMS SUPPORT BILL REQUIRING CITIZENSHIP TO VOTE

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital this year that illegal immigration “distorts the mechanics of democratic government” and may significantly impact states’ representation in the House of Representatives and Electoral College.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, advocated for the end of the Electoral College during a campaign event this week – a call conservatives have previously panned.

“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” he said, according to a pool report at the event, Bloomberg reported. “We need a national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in.”

The campaign subsequently walked Walz’s comment back shortly after.

TIM WALZ CALLS FOR ELIMINATION OF ELECTORAL COLLEGE AT CALIFORNIA FUNDRAISER, SAYS ‘IT NEEDS TO GO’

“Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket,” a Harris campaign spokesperson told USA Today. “He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”

Liberals have increasingly called for the end of the Electoral College, which is the formal process of electing the president and vice president, in favor of the popular vote. The Electoral College consists of a certain number of electors from each state who cast votes for the president and vice president, then whichever candidate receives the most ballots is awarded the electoral votes for that state. 

Since 1992, Democrats have won seven of the eight popular votes, including failed 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton and failed 2000 candidate Al Gore, who lost the Electoral College despite winning the popular vote. 

Conservatives have slammed efforts and calls to end the Electoral College, including the Heritage Foundation’s Hans Von Spakovsky, who argued that getting rid of the process would not produce a more democratic election.

“The U.S. should maintain the Electoral College, which has successfully elected Presidents throughout this nation’s history in a way that best represents the diverse and various interests of America,” Von Spakovsky wrote in a piece after the 2020 election. 

“In an age of perceived political dysfunction, effective policies that are already in place – especially successful policies established by this nation’s Founders, such as the Electoral College – should be preserved.“

In 2012, Trump also panned the electoral system, calling it “a disaster for a democracy.” In 2018, he again voiced support for the idea because a popular vote would be “much easier to win.”

However, more recently, the Trump campaign has since slammed Walz for his comments calling for the abolition of the Electoral College, with spokesperson Karoline Leavitt saying this week that the process is “a critical component of our Constitution.” 

Harris ascended to the top of the Democrat ticket without facing a primary after President Biden dropped out of the race this past summer as concerns mounted over his mental acuity and age. 

Biden endorsed Harris for the Oval Office shortly after dropping out of race via a social media post on X, with the Democratic Party subsequently quickly coalescing around the VP. She won enough delegate support to secure the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August. 

HARRIS SAID CANDIDATES MUST ‘EARN’ VOTER SUPPORT DESPITE SKIPPING PRIMARIES BEFORE BECOMING DEM NOMINEE

Harris also ran for the White House during the 2020 election season, but dropped out of the race before primary elections kicked off. 

Conservatives and liberals alike have slammed the Democratic Party for championing Harris as their candidate despite the VP not earning the position directly from voters.

SEAN HANNITY: KAMALA HARRIS WAS CORONATED AFTER WINNING ZERO PRIMARY VOTES

“A 24-hour process of talking to party bosses is not democratic, nor is it a process Democrats should be proud of,” left-wing organization Black Lives Matter said in a press release in July.

“We do not live in a dictatorship. Delegates are not oligarchs. Installing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee and an unknown vice president without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites,” the group added. 

Ryan Walker, executive director at Heritage Action For America, a conservative political advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, said that votes for Biden in this election cycle were “thrown away.” 

“The votes of 14 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden were thrown away as Harris was installed as the Democrats’ nominee for president, a job for which she has never received a single vote,” Walker said when reacting to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently saying that the primary process was “open” and Harris “won it.”

“Saying she won an open primary is a joke,” Walker said.

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson, Andrew Mark Miller, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Jaime Joseph contributed to this report.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.    

One day after Hurricane Milton tore a path of destruction across Florida, the death toll is rising and millions remain without power or running water.

As recovery efforts in Florida reach a fever pitch, there’s no letup in the war of words between President Biden and former President Trump over the federal government’s response to Milton and Hurricane Helene, which smashed into the southeast two weeks ago.

With Trump continuing to charge that Biden and Vice President Harris have been slow and ineffective in steering the government’s storm efforts, the president once again fired back.

“Vice President Harris and I have been in constant contact with the state and local officials. We’re offering everything they need,” Biden emphasized on Thursday.

HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON’S AFTERMATH

With less than four weeks to go until Election Day, Harris and Trump are locked in a narrow margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election, the politics of federal disaster relief are again front and center on the campaign trail.

CHECK OUT FOX WEATHER FOR THE LATEST NEWS AND FORECASTS

For nearly two weeks, Trump has been turning up the volume.

“THE WORST RESPONSE TO A STORM OR HURRICANE DISASTER IN U.S. HISTORY,” Trump claimed in a social media post on Tuesday.

“The worst hurricane response since Katrina,” the former president charged on Wednesday as he pointed to the much-maligned initial federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was heavily criticized for being slow and ineffective.

On Thursday at a campaign event in Michigan, Trump kept up the attacks. He praised southern Republican governors for doing a “fantastic job” reacting to the storms and argued that “the federal government, on the other hand, has not done what you’re supposed to be doing, in particular, with respect to North Carolina. They’ve let those people suffer unjustly, unjustly.”

The former president has also repeatedly made false claims that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) diverted money intended for disaster relief and spent it on undocumented migrants in the U.S. as he turned up the volume on his inflammatory rhetoric over the combustible issue of illegal immigration.

“You know where they gave the money to: illegal immigrants coming,” Trump said at Wednesday’s rally as the crowd of MAGA supporters loudly booed.

DESANTIS AND HARRIS TRADE FIRE OVER HURRICANE CALL

Hours later, Biden pushed back, accusing the Republican presidential nominee of leading an “onslaught of lies.”

Biden charged that the rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans was “beyond ridiculous” and that “it’s got to stop.”

On Thursday, as he updated federal hurricane response efforts, Biden told reporters that Trump needed to “get a life, man, help these people.”

And he argued that “the public will hold him [Trump] accountable” for making false claims regarding the capabilities of FEMA to assist storm victims.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, responding to the criticism, said in a statement to Fox News on Thursday that Trump has been “working hard every day to save this country from the mess Biden and Kamala got us into.”

And Trump’s son, Eric, in a social media post, highlighted that the family has opened up one of its Florida hotels to house over 200 linemen who are helping in the storm’s aftermath.

Trump last week also launched a GoFundMe campaign for victims of Hurricane Helene in Georgia, which has raised more than $7 million so far.

But his criticism of the federal response has also been chided by Harris.

“This is not a time for us to just point fingers at each other as Americans,” the vice president said in a Wednesday interview on the Weather Channel. “Anybody who considers themselves to be a leader should really be in the business right now of giving people a sense of confidence that we’re all working together and that we have the resources and the ability to work together on their behalf.”

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who spoke with Biden on Thursday morning after the storm hit, seemed to compliment the administration’s storm efforts.

“I spoke with the president this morning,” DeSantis said during one of his round-the-clock briefings. “He said he wants to be helpful. And so if we have a request, he said, send them his way, and he wants to help us get the job done. So I appreciate being able to collaborate across the federal, state and local governments and work together to put the people first.”

Fox News’ Kirill Clark and Matteo Cina contributed to this report.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Trump’s announcement he would not accept any further presidential debate offers, and praised local Native American communities during a campaign rally in Chandler, Ariz.

Harris returned to the Grand Canyon State on Thursday, about two months after she and running mate Minnesota Gov. Timothy Walz held their first joint rally on the other side of the Phoenix metro area in Glendale.

Harris told the raucous crowd that Trump had announced on Wednesday he would not debate her again, after their first meeting in front of ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis in September.

“Now, I think it’s a disservice to the voters. I also think it’s a pretty weak move,” Harris said.

OBAMA CALLS OUT ‘BROTHERS’ APPREHENSIVE TO VOTE FOR HARRIS

“But even if he will not debate, the contrast in this election is already clear. This election is about two very different visions, two very different visions for our nation. One is focused on the past, the other hours focused on the future, including being focused on the issues that matter most to working families across America, like bringing down the cost of living and investing in small businesses and entrepreneurs.”

In an all-caps message on Truth Social, Trump said he won the prior two debates – versus Harris and Biden – and added he accepted a Fox News Channel offer to debate Harris in September, but it was the vice president that time who declined to appear.

“JD Vance easily won his debate with Tampon Tim Walz, who called himself a knucklehead [in the debate]. I am also leading in the polls…”

“There will be no rematch,” Trump went on. “Besides, Kamala stated clearly [Tuesday] that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate.”

Harris also offered a public response to the wrath of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on the gulf side near Tampa Bay and wreaked havoc across the state to the Atlantic Coast, where several fatalities were reported near Port St. Lucie.

“I know as you do that our heart goes out to everyone who has been impacted by these storms. Our administration has mobilized thousands of federal personnel across the region to work hand in hand with local and state officials to give folks the help they need,” she said.

“I have spoken with state local officials, both Republican and Democrat, to let them know we will be with you every step of the way as you recover and rebuild.”

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Harris was, however, rebuffed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who reportedly declined to take her phone calls amid the crisis. DeSantis told CNBC he and President Biden had been in regular contact but that the vice president has “no role” in disaster recovery, and that up until this particular cyclone she had not reached out.

“She’s trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign,” DeSantis said.

At the rally, Harris also said she was the first vice president to visit the nearby Gila River Indian Community and offered her support for former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez in his congressional contest against incumbent Republican Rep. Elijah Crane.

“I strongly believe that the relationship between tribal nations and the United States is sacred. And, that we must and that we must honor tribal sovereignty, embrace our trust and treaty obligations and ensure tribal self-determination. And it is my promise as president of the United States – I will defend those principles always.”

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Harris also co-identified Trump’s campaign plan with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a connection the former president has long disputed.

“I continue to say I can’t believe they put that in writing. You know, they published it, they found it, and they handed it out. They’re out of their mind. And it is a detailed, dangerous blueprint for what he will do if he is elected president again,” Harris claimed.

Responding earlier this year to Harris’ claims about Project 2025, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said the characterizations were “fact-checked” by third-parties, including some “so blatant that even corporate media outlets like CNN are calling out her lies.”

“She has no policy record to run on, except her shambolic tenure as border czar,” Roberts told Fox News Digital at the time.

In Arizona, Harris continued her focus on Trump, calling him an “unserious man” and saying his return to the White House would result in “brutally serious” consequences.

During a pre-campaign-rally stop in Pittsburgh on Thursday, former President Barack Obama appeared to admonish Black Americans who have not been as fervent in their support for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid as they were for his in 2008 and 2012.

Obama stopped at a campaign office in the Steel City before taking the stage with Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa., later in the afternoon.

The prominent Democrat said he has noticed a difference in the excitement surrounding the current Democratic nominee, particularly among African-Americans.

“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,” Obama began.

“Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So if you don’t mind — just for a second, I’ve got to speak to y’all and say that when you have a choice that is this clean: When on the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, went to college with you understands the struggles [and the] pain and joy that comes from those experiences…”

PENNSYLVANIA LEADERS IN BOTH PARTIES TALK GROUND GAME AS GOP SEEKS TO UNDO DEM GAINS

According to several reports, Obama then went on to contrast that vision – presumably of Harris – to that of former President Trump.

Appearing to continue to address Black Americans, Obama said the real estate mogul-turned-politician is someone who “has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person – And you are thinking about sitting out?”

The 44th president went on to say many people apprehensive of Harris are coming up with “all kinds of reasons and excuses” to either sit home or support another candidate.

“[P]art of it makes me think, and I’m speaking to men directly… that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

Reacting to the comments on Fox News Channel, “Jesse Watters Primetime” host Jesse Watters said Obama’s remarks are evidence Obama believes Harris “has officially plateaued” in popularity.

“He was just caught saying this moments ago in Pittsburgh,” Watters said, before playing a clip of Obama.

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In addition, former DeKalb County, Georgia Executive Vernon Jones – a longtime Democrat who joined the GOP in 2021 – reacted on X by saying Obama was being dispatched by “White liberals” to “Blackman-splain” why fellow African-Americans should vote for Harris.

“No thanks, BO – Blacks had enough of you and Kamala Harris,” Jones said in part.

Conservative commentator Benny Arthur Johnson called the comments “sickening.”

“Obama descend[ed] into end-stage race hatred politics,” he said.

For his part, President Biden also made waves when he similarly admonished Black Americans who were waffling ahead of the 2020 election.

During a May 2020 interview from his Greenville, Del. home studio with the New York City radio program “The Breakfast Club,” Biden remarked that his wife Jill soon needed to use the same studio.

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“You’ve got more questions?” he responded to host Charlamagne Tha God on the matter. “Well I tell you what – If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”

After the exchange went viral, Biden said he “shouldn’t have been such a wise guy” at the time.

In response to Obama’s Pittsburgh visit writ large, Pennsylvania Team Trump spokesman Kush Desai said things can’t be going well for Democrats if they have to “fly in Barack Obama from his $12 million Martha’s Vineyard estate…”

“While it’ll probably be a slightly less unhinged affair than what other Kamala surrogates are doing to move the needle, an Obama visit isn’t going to convince Pennsylvanians to vote for another four years of open borders, rising prices, and disaster at home and abroad.”

In a statement following publication of Obama’s remarks, Desai said Obama should “stick with proselytizing America through his … Netflix grift instead of condescending Pennsylvanians to their faces.”

PITTSBURGH, PA – On the campaign trail for the first time for Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama repeatedly took aim at former President Trump on Thursday at a large rally in arguably the most important battleground state in the 2024 election.

Pointing to the margin-of-error race between Harris and Trump with less than four weeks to go until Election Day and early voting already underway across much of the country, Obama acknowledged that “this election’s going to be tight, because there are a lot of Americans who are still struggling out there.”

“What I cannot understand is how anyone would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that’s good for you Pennsylvania,” the former president emphasized, to cheers from the crowd.

Obama, referring to polls that indicate many Americans think the economy was better during Trump’s four years in the White House than under the current administration, claimed that “the reason some people think” times were better was “because it was my economy. We had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him. It wasn’t something that he did.”

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“Just in case everybody has a hazy memory… he didn’t do nothing except those big tax cuts,” which Obama argued only benefited wealthy Americans and big businesses.

Obama, who remains extremely popular with Democrats eight years after leaving the White House, argued that “there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself.”

And he reiterated that “Donald Trump is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”

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Obama jabbed at Trump for his constant attempts to “sell you stuff. Who does that? Selling you gold sneakers and a $100,000 watch and most recently a Trump bible…. you could not make this stuff up. If you saw it on Saturday Night Live, you’d say ‘well that’s going too far.’ Well, he’s doing that. It’s crazy.”

And Obama stressed that “we don’t need a president who will make problems worse to just to make his own political circumstances better. We need a president who actually cares about solving problems and making your life better and that’s what Kamala Harris will do.”

During the rally, Obama also discussed manhood and had a message for male voters who may be attracted to Trump’s perceived strength. 

“Real strength is about helping people who need it, and standing up for those who can’t always stand up for themselves. That is what we should want for our daughters and sons.”

And he emphasized that “is what I want to see in a President of the United States of America.”

Asked for a response, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News “If anyone cared about what Obama says, Hillary Clinton would’ve been president.”

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The choice of Pittsburgh as Obama’s first stop was no surprise. It’s the largest city and Democratic stronghold in Pennsylvania, which is the biggest prize of the seven key battleground states whose razor-thin margins decided President Biden’s 2020 White House victory over Trump and will likely determine if Harris or Trump wins the 2024 election.

Obama isn’t the only former Democratic president to hit the campaign trail on behalf of the vice president.

The Harris campaign announced that former President Bill Clinton, a longtime Arkansas governor who later won election and re-election to the White House, will stop Sunday and Monday in parts of Georgia before heading on to North Carolina later in the week for a bus tour. 

It’s part of Clinton’s efforts to court rural voters in the two crucial southeastern battleground states.

Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, officially endorsed Harris for president in July, five days after President Biden ended his 2024 re-election in a blockbuster announcement. 

The former president made the case for Harris during a headlining address at the Democratic National Convention in August in his hometown of Chicago, saying she “is ready for the job.”

Harris and Obama’s friendship goes back 20 years to when they met on the campaign trail while he was running for Senate in Illinois. And Harris was an early supporter of his 2008 presidential campaign and even knocked doors for him in Iowa ahead of the caucus, the Harris campaign noted.

While Thursday’s rally was Obama’s first appearance on behalf on the presidential campaign trail, he’s helped raise $80 million for the Democratic nominee, including headlining a top-dollar fundraising last month in Los Angeles, according to Harris aides.

Obama aides and the Harris campaign say the Pittsburg rally is the first of numerous coordinated “get out the vote” stops by the former president across the country in the closing stretch of the 2024 White House campaign.

They add that Obama will also sign additional fundraising emails, record candidate-specific ads and robocalls for down-ballot races.

Hours before Obama arrived in Pennsylvania, Sen. Bob Casey became the latest Democrat in a key Senate race that could determine whether the party holds on to its razor-thin majority in the chamber to release a new ad featuring the former president.

Casey introduced the former president at the rally, and the former president repeatedly praised the senator.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and former Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan faced off in a debate on Thursday night ahead of the Senate election in Maryland. 

In a particularly notable response, Alsobrooks aligned with some of the more progressive lawmakers in the Democrat Party, telling the moderator that she would support packing the Supreme Court. 

“I agree with either increasing the number of justices or term limits, yes,” she said. 

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Hogan ridiculed this in his answer, criticizing both parties for “trying to change the rules so they can pack the court.”

“What I did was find the most qualified judges, regardless of what party they were,” he said. 

Striking a tone similar to that of outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., Hogan added, “if you can’t find one person to cross over and vote for a Democratic judge or a Republican judge, I’m not going to support them.”

Manchin had developed a reputation for bucking his party during his time as a Democrat. 

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Democrats are favored to win the Maryland Senate seat, but with Hogan’s popularity in the state and his distancing from GOP party leaders, the margins appear too close for comfort. 

Alsobrooks also backed scrapping the legislative filibuster to accomplish Democrat priorities such as mandating abortion access or loosening voting requirements. 

The county executive took several opportunities on Thursday to suggest Hogan’s election would give Republicans the Senate majority, regardless of whether he personally disagrees with them or would vote differently. However, top political handicappers favor Republicans to take the Senate majority, with expected wins in West Virginia and Montana, regardless of what happens in the Maryland race. 

She further questioned why Hogan would run as a Republican and not as an independent if he disagreed on so many key issues. 

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But Hogan pushed back, explaining that he thinks Washington, D.C., needs lawmakers who will challenge their own party. “I’ve stood up to my party. I’ll stand up to either party,” he said. “I think we need mavericks in Washington that aren’t going to just do exactly what the party bosses tell them to do.”

“I’m not a MAGA, Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell person,” Hogan stressed. 

While the former governor emphasized that he would support the right to abortion and policies like the negotiated border bill that Republicans opposed, Alsobrooks claimed that such bills likely wouldn’t get votes in a Republican-controlled Senate. 

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The majority leader of the Senate notably controls the agenda in the upper chamber.

In a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll late last month, Alsobrooks led Hogan 51% to 40% in the traditionally deep blue state. 

The survey was conducted between Sept. 19 and Sept. 23 and had a sample size of 1,012 registered voters. The margin of error is +/-3.5 percentage points.

The Fox News Power Rankings rated the Maryland Senate race “Leans Democrat” during the same time period. 

Top political handicapper the Cook Political Report considers Maryland’s open seat to be “Likely Democrat.” 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.