Axelrod: 'Upscale,' 'liberal' NC citizens hit by Helene will 'figure out a way to vote.' Trump-backers in area? Not so much.



Former Obama chief strategist David Axelrod predicted that "upscale," "liberal" North Carolina residents hit hard by Hurricane Helene are "probably going to figure out a way to vote" in the presidential election next month — but suggested that those in the same area who would cast ballots for former President Donald Trump likely won't be as resourceful.

Axelrod — a dyed-in-the-wool leftist — made the eye-popping declaration last week on an episode of his "Hacks on Tap" podcast when speaking about swing states like North Carolina and the devastation Helene left behind.

'I’m not sure a bunch of these folks who’ve had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere in Western North Carolina — in the mountains there — are gonna be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign.'

He called the city of Asheville a "blue dot" in Western North Carolina and said that despite the large-scale displacement in the surrounding area due to Helene, voters in Asheville have the smarts to get their votes in for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

"Those voters in Asheville are — they’re, you know, the kind of voters who will figure out a way to vote," Axelrod said. "You know, they’re upscale, kind of liberal voters, and they’re probably going to figure out a way to vote."

But as for Trump-backers in the area hit hard by Helene? Not so much, apparently.

"I’m not sure a bunch of these folks who’ve had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere in western North Carolina — in the mountains there — are gonna be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign," Axelrod said.

He added, "I don’t know how that’s all going to play out, but it’s an unpredictable element in North Carolina that has made it maybe a little more interesting" in the run-up to the election.

Axelrod also said that "northern-tier battleground states other than Wisconsin are scary" for Democrats and that "you can't count on them." He added that Harris "needs to find an insurance policy" and a "second act" as the campaign races to the finish line.

How are observers reacting to Axelrod's words?

Fox News pointed out some prominent X users who took issue with Axelrod’s statements:

  • OutKick.com founder Clay Travis wrote, "On his podcast @davidaxelrod says Democrat voters in Asheville, North Carolina are smarter, wealthier and will still show up to vote for Kamala while he thinks Trump voters won’t. This is why Kamala and Biden aren’t helping, they benefit from the disaster."
  • Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of the Federalist, added, "I fear that Axelrod's point is why Harris and Biden are letting these people drown."
  • Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce wondered, "Did ya know that famous Democrat operative David Axelrod figures city Democrats are smarter and more resourceful and will figure out how to vote whereas the dumb Trump deplorables up in the mountains of NC who just lost everything, won't. Was he on the verge of a Kamala cackle?"

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EXCLUSIVE: Emergency responders share harrowing accounts of Hurricane Helene’s devastation: 'Never seen anything like it'



Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas joined Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) in North Carolina this week to assess the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and distribute supplies to those in need in small communities outside Asheville.

Aerial footage showed destroyed buildings, fallen trees, washed-out roads, and severe flooding in some areas.

'These people have taken a serious hit.'

On the ground, Blaze News spoke with individuals at Broad River Fire & Rescue.

“Probably about two inches of water in here,” one individual on the fire rescue team told Rosas, referring to inside the fire station. “And in two minutes, it was to my knees. And I looked outside, and it was chest-deep.”

The man explained that as the water rose, he retreated up the stairs to the second floor of the fire station. “The doors buckled, and the water came through,” he explained.

The rush of water moved a pickup parked at the front of the department halfway down the building, the emergency responder explained. He stated that one of the fire trucks was totaled by the flood.

“It was unbelievable,” he continued. “I’ve been here my whole life, and I’ve never seen anything like it. My grandmother talked about the 1916 flood, and from what she told me, this is on the order of that.”

Another individual on the fire rescue team stated that there was nearly six feet of water in the fire department bay.

“You can see the water mark on the wall,” he remarked.

When asked what he would like Americans to know about what is going on in the area, he told Rosas, “Just communities planning together, helping each other. Families helping families.”

“These smaller communities, a lot of the families will band together. They share their food, their water,” he added.

Another volunteer, Mike Cannon, who has 40 years of rescue experience, told Rosas that he arrived on Sunday morning.

“Words can’t describe it,” he stated. “This is the worst one I’ve been to. We’ve been to Harvey and Hurricane Florence, Tropical Storm Irene in Vermont. And those are our benchmarks, but I’ve never seen devastation like there is here in North Carolina.”

“They’ve got a lot of resources both in state and out of state and federal,” Cannon said. “But I guess my thought process on this is that there are lots of areas that are completely cut off that are gonna take a long time for help to get into them. And the power grid does not look good around here. I would imagine that that’s going to take some time to repair and these people are going to need a lot of help.”

“I know they’re probably resilient, like a lot of people are, but these people have taken a serious hit here in their personal lives and their property,” he added.

He noted that the landslides in the area were like none he had ever seen before.

“Just a recon flight in this one fire district that we’re in, I counted over 125 landslides yesterday and I stopped counting,” Cannon said.

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‘A war zone’: The Robertsons get trapped by Hurricane Helene, and it’s way worse than you know



Americans throughout the Southeast have been stranded by Hurricane Helene without power, water, or cell service — and many have lost their homes and even lives. The devastation is unimaginable, and the Robertson family has witnessed it all firsthand.

Al and Lisa Robertson were staying in Black Mountain, which he explains was hit with 20-plus inches of rain in two days — before Hurricane Helene reached them.

“There was just the perfect storm, and I say that in a negative way,” Al says. “This one had some bite to it.”

“First you’re just praying, you know, spare us, and then you start praying about the people down lower ‘cause you think of down the mountain, this isn’t going to be good. Lisa and I were staying at a little house, kind of pretty much close to the top. I’m praying because I was worried about a mudslide,” he continues.

When the morning came around, Al recalls that “it was like a war zone.” And after trying to get out of the mountains, they realized they were landlocked.

“We make it about half a mile on I-40 and mudslide,” he explains. “Trees on the road, all this stuff, can’t go this way. So then we’re trying to find is there another way around? Nope. Everything over there’s shut down.”

“So then you start thinking, what if we go south? Nope. Closed. There’s a river across the interstate,” he continues. “So we take off north, planning to get high enough up, maybe above the worst damage to cut across and then go east. We get to Tennessee, we’ve been driving a couple hours, and the interstate is collapsed.”

“We’re trapped, we cannot leave,” he adds. “We have no phones, we have no electricity at this point, we don’t even have a place to stay, but we do have family. And I’m thinking, I mean, there’s a helplessness that comes over you at that moment, because I got half a tank of gas and there’s no gas stations.”

As other people from out of town were waiting for places to open up, Al recalls realizing that those in electric cars were “doomed.”

“There’s no electricity for you to power your vehicle with,” he explains.

However, Al and Lisa did see signs of hope in the “rednecks” who were prepared and used that to help others.

“They helped other people. They would go to their neighbors' [houses], and we saw a whole truckload of people just going from place to place, helping,” Lisa says.

Tragically, there are still around a thousand people missing and over a hundred people have been confirmed dead.

“It’s going to wind up being devastating numbers for sure,” Al says, sadly.


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