VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump on Monday repeatedly spread falsehoods about the federal response to Hurricane Helene, despite claiming he would not politicize the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.

The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “asleep” and unresponsive to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said “called the president and couldn’t get a hold of him.” He repeated the claim at an event with reporters after he was told Kemp said he had spoken to Biden.

“He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said Monday.

The White House previously announced that Biden spoke by phone Sunday evening with Kemp and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, as well as with Scott Matheson, mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, and John Louk, Florida’s Emergency Management director. Kemp confirmed Monday morning that he had spoken with Biden the night before.

“The president called me yesterday afternoon and I missed him and called him right back and he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we have what we need, we’ll go through the federal process,” Kemp said. “He offered to call him directly if there are other things we need, which I appreciate.”

Natural disasters are not only humanitarian crises but can also pose a political test for elected officials, especially in the final weeks of a presidential campaign in which North Carolina and Georgia, two battleground states, were among the hardest-hit states. Trump has in recent days used the damage caused by Helene to attack Harris, the Democratic nominee, and suggest that she and Biden are playing politics with the storm – something he was accused of when chairman.

Biden is defiant about spending time at his beach house

While the White House highlighted Biden’s call to Kemp and others, the president faced questions about his decision to spend the weekend at his Delaware beach house, rather than the White House, to monitor the storm.

“I was in command,” Biden told reporters after delivering remarks at the White House about the federal government’s response. “I spent at least two hours on the phone yesterday and the day before. I ordered it. It’s called a telephone.”

Biden received regular updates on the storm, the White House said, as did Harris aboard Air Force Two as she made a campaign swing on the West Coast. The vice president cut short her campaign trip Monday to return to Washington for a Federal Emergency Management Agency briefing.

Trump also claimed on his social media platform Monday without evidence that the federal government and North Carolina’s Democratic governor “went out of their way not to help people in Republican areas.” Asheville, which was devastated by the storm, is solidly Democratic, as is much of Buncombe County, which surrounds it.

The death toll from Helene has exceeded 100, with some of the worst flooding damage in inland North Carolina.

Biden said he will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to see the devastation firsthand, but will limit his footprint so as not to distract from ongoing recovery efforts.

During remarks Monday at FEMA headquarters, Harris said she has received regular briefings on emergency response, including from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, and has spoken with Kemp and Cooper over the past 24 hours.

“I shared with them that we will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” she said. “And I have shared with them that I intend to get to the scene as quickly as possible without disrupting emergency response operations.”

When asked if her visit was politicizing the storm, she frowned and shook her head but did not answer.

Trump partnered with a Christian charity to bring supplies

The Trump campaign worked with the Christian humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse to bring trucks of fuel, food, water and other essential supplies to Georgia, said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary.

Leavitt did not immediately respond to questions about how much was donated and from which entity.

“Our hearts are with you and we will be with you for as long as you need us,” Trump said, flanked by a group of elected officials and Republican supporters.

Trump said he wanted to stop in North Carolina, but postponed because access and communication in hard-hit communities are limited.

When asked by The Associated Press on Monday whether he was concerned that his visit to Georgia would take away law enforcement resources that could be used for disaster relief, Trump said: “No.” He said his campaign instead “generated a lot of wagons of resources.”

Katie Watson, who with her husband owns the home design store that Trump visited, said she was told the former president picked that location because he saw images of the business destroyed by the rubble and said, “Find that spot and find those people.”

‘He didn’t come here for me. He came here to acknowledge that this city has been destroyed. It is a big setback,” she says.

“He recognizes that we are hurting and he wants us to know that,” she added. “It was a lifetime opportunity to meet the president. This isn’t exactly the way I wanted to do it.”

Trump campaign officials have taken a long time to do so pointed out his visit to East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic rail derailment, as a turning point in the early days of the presidential race as he struggled to establish his position as a candidate. They believed his warm welcome by residents frustrated by the federal government’s response reminded voters why they were drawn to him years earlier.

Trump battled with Puerto Rico and meteorologists during his presidency

During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster areas, including the aftermath of hurricanes, tornadoes and shootings. But the trips sometimes sparked controversy, such as when he threw paper towels at cheering Puerto Rico residents in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

It also took weeks before the 2020 presidential election for Trump’s administration to release $13 billion in aid to the area. A federal government watchdog found officials obstructed an investigation into aid delays.

In another incident from 2019, Trump administration officials said admonished Some meteorologists have tweeted that Alabama was not threatened by Hurricane Dorian, which the then-president contradicted. Trump famously showed a map altered with a black Sharpie pen to indicate that Alabama could be in the storm’s path.

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Fernando reported from Chicago and Amy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Chris Megerian and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Will Weissert in Las Vegas contributed to this report.