JD Vance condemns FEMA’s response to Helene devastation in 1st trip as vice president

Vice President JD Vance on Monday traveled to Damascus, Virginia, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September. The visit was Vance’s second to Damascus and his first as vice president.

"Government is as fallible as the people who run it. But we can do a heck of a lot better than we have over the last few years." Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.

"The local government's working, the state government is working as hard as it can, the local communities and the nonprofits and the churches are working at breakneck speed, and yet you have the federal government out there — the biggest institution with the most money — that's not doing its job. It just drives home how much better we can do," Vance told Fox News Digital when asked about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) response to hurricane-damaged areas across the Southeast.

Vance met Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, State Sen. Todd Pillion, Damascus Mayor Katie Lamb, as well as local law enforcement officers and firefighters for a private round table discussion upon arrival at the Damascus Fire Department just before 1 p.m. Youngkin and Lamb described blown-up photos showing streets in downtown Damascus that were flooded over after Helene swept through the area on Sept. 27, causing a creek that runs through town to overflow.