From Staff Reports 

A number of local, state and national officials —including just-elected N.C. Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat —  attended events during the Jan. 24 visit by newly elected President Donald J. Trump, a Republian, to the Asheville area to view Tropical Storm Helene recovery efforts, to listen to the experiences of victims and to provide encouragement them, but none of the top elected officials for Buncombe County or Asheville — all Democrats — showed up.

Afterward. the Daily Planet received telephone calls — and otherwise heard —  from, a number of readers and others, asking why Buncombe and Asheville officials were absent during Trump’s visit here.

In response, the Daily Planet on Jan. 30 sought — via email — statements explaining their absences during Trump’s visit from long-time Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer and Amanda Edwards, the newly elected chairwoman of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners.

In its separate emails to Manheimer and Edwards, the Daily Planet stated that their absences were “in vivid contrast to Trump’s later-in-the-day visit to wildfire-devastated L.A., where Gov. Gavin Newsom, a prominent Democrat, even met Trump and his wife on the tarmac at the airport. And even later, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass met with Trump in a separate meeting.”

The newspaper’s emails to Manheimer and Edwards added that the presumption by those with whom it has spoken “is that top Asheville and Buncombe officials are hyper-partisan and despise everything about Trump, so they would rather damage the area’s hopes for more federal support than to do the right (and courteous) thing.”

In her Jan. 31 response to the Daily Planet’s inquiry about her absence from Trump’s Jan. 24 visit to the Asheville area, Manheimer wrote the following:

“Just to be quite frank with you, I was not invited to greet the president. 

“I reached out and would have been pleased to greet the president and thank him for his continued support of Asheville and WNC’s recovery from the storm.  

“I have been working tirelessly, across party lines, to secure the funding needed for the tremendous rebuilding effort we’re undertaking.

“Please let me know if you have any other questions.”

Meanwhile, Edwards responded to the Daily Planet’s inquiry on Feb. 1 as follows:

“Our Board is thankful that the president’s visit refocused national attention on Buncombe County’s storm recovery needs. 

“Winter has been especially hard on survivors of Helene and we need the federal government to quickly deliver additional funding for recovery throughout WNC. 

“Though the White House did not coordinate logistics with our staff for this recent visit, we all continue to work with our legislators in Washington, including Ted Budd, Chuck Edwards, and Thom Tillis, on the purpose of the visit: to raise awareness of the needs of Helene survivors and to persuade the federal government to take quick action to provide additional funding.”