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On Thursday evening, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted: “Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous when someone lies and says it can’t be done.”

This is entirely unsurprising to Greene, the right-wing rabble-rouser and conspirator who once mused about the possibility that Jews could pilot space lasers with the aim of starting forest fires. The more surprising aspect is that it reflects the approach the Republican Party at large is taking toward Hurricane Helene: instead of doing their job and providing concrete aid to people suffering from the devastation, Republican lawmakers are falling into conspiracy theories and, like everything else, in fear mongering. about undocumented immigrants.

If Inside Washington Discussed Thursday, some Republicans, such as Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, have been working with President Joe Biden in response to Helene. Even Senator Lindsey Graham even put his feud with Biden on hold and greeted his former friend this week.

Similarly, a bipartisan cabal of senators sent a letter to Senate Majority Leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee, calling for an additional relief package for Helene. That group included Scott and his colleague Marco Rubio from Florida; Graham and his compatriot Tim Scott; Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock; and Democratic Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner of Virginia.

Blackburn and Scott are up for re-election and know they can’t leave anything to chance. And despite his conservatism, Tillis has also focused on getting results.

But these Republicans are in the minority. On the contrary, earlier this week during a speech at the New York Stock Exchange, House Speaker Mike Johnson all but said Congress would not act.

“Congress has previously provided FEMA with the resources it needs to respond, so we will ensure those resources are allocated appropriately,” he said. In other words, don’t expect anything extra, even if you need it

Biden responded to the Speaker’s sentiments with a clear message: “We can’t wait… People need help now.” The president also rightly emphasized that much of the money in previous disaster relief bills has gone to more Republican-leaning areas than to Democratic-leaning areas. In other words, he did not ask for money for “his” voters. He only thought about the suffering of the Americans.

But the fact that the areas most affected by Helene are quite Republican-leaning could delay aid. Johnson is trying to defend his slim Republican majority, and that includes endangered incumbents in places like California, New York and New Jersey, about as far away from the storm damage as you can imagine. Many of the areas affected by Helene are already Republican and are not at risk of losing because of gerrymandering even if Congress bungles the response.

To put it bluntly, it might not help Democrats trying to maintain their one-seat majority either if everyone had to come back and vote on additional aid. Reconvening the Senate would throw off Montana’s Jon Tester, the most threatened incumbent. And worse, it might even make Rick Scott look good and help him win re-election.

During his speech, Johnson said that “amid the uncertainty and confusion that these tragedies bring, one thing is certain: in the aftermath of disasters like this, we truly see the best of America.”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t talking about his own conference or even the presidential candidate he supports. Donald Trump falsely claimed this week that Federal Emergency Management Agency money intended for disaster relief had gone to housing undocumented immigrants.

“They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants who they want to vote for in this election,” he said in Saginaw, Michigan.

Trump’s claim is not only completely untrue, but is also the height of hypocrisy, as he himself diverted money from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund into immigration detention space for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2019.

But this is what the Republican Party has become. Just as Senator JD Vance always went back to immigration during the vice presidential debate, demonizing immigrants is the only solution they seem to have to win this election.