Tech billionaire Elon Musk took to X on Friday afternoon to claim the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is "actively blocking" volunteers who try to help the struggling citizens of western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene. MORE: https://t.co/2vlPW9siME pic.twitter.com/iaTIwz1ij5

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 5, 2024

What Newsmax didn’t report is that Republican North Carolina state Senator Kevin Corbin on Thursday posted “Friends can I ask a small favor? Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in [Western North Carolina]. Example: FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on. PLEASE help stop this junk. It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job. Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known. It is the largest crisis event in the history of NC. The state is working non-stop. DOT has deployed workers from all over the state. Duke power has 10,000 workers on this. FEMA is here. The National Guard is here in large numbers. My Senate district is 8 counties and it takes 3 hours to drive across it in good weather… And this disaster is 25 counties in NC. This is going to take MONTHS if not years to overcome. Government will play a role in this cleanup. We are going to make sure the state chips in some massive money,” and so on.

How do we know Newsmax didn’t report on the message? Because a Google search of “state senator kevin corbin site:newsmax.com” returns just one June 20, 2023 article where he’s mentioned: “NC Legislature Pushes Limits on Trans Youth Rights Near Session’s End,” quoting Corbin as saying that the bill to restrict gender-transition health care and trans participation in sports “is not against anybody.” So that’s probably why they ignored Corbin. He’s on Team MAGA with other shit, but this week he was actually trying to make it easier for his constituents to get help.