As Hurricane Milton hits: How will 'storm of the century' impact US presidential race?

The Debate

Here in France, the flood waters rising as the remnants of tropical storm Kirk dump biblical amounts of rain. But that is just a drop in the bucket compared with what the southeastern United States faces: Hurricane Milton forcing the evacuation of five and-a-half million Florida residents with president Biden warning this could become the storm of the century.

Even more dramatic is that Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and beyond are still reeling from the US’ deadliest storm since 2005, what with Hurricane Helene killing 230, causing billions in destruction. Now’s not the time for partisan politics, or is it? Democrats accuse Republicans of a mass disinformation campaign about the rescue and cleanup effort from Helene while Donald Trump doubles down on accusations that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris funneled money to charities that help migrants.

Just how much will Mother Nature be on the ballot November 5th? More broadly, there is a populist backlash on both sides of the Atlantic against carbon cutting policies, policies that Hungary’s Viktor Orban, France’s Marine Le Pen and Germany’s right all say punishes the pocketbooks of the middle classes while taking away individual freedoms.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Annarosa Zampaglione.