After Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit parts of the country, the vice-president criticized Donald Trump's climate record by releasing a new campaign ad showing the widely criticized moment the former president altered a hurricane's path with a marker and targeting Trump's spread of climate misinformation and his history of withholding disaster aid. Harris has also raised concerns about Trump's plans to cut environmental regulations, yet she has not provided much detail on her plans to address the climate crisis. Instead, she promised not to ban gas-powered vehicles during a Michigan speech and highlighted "record energy production" from the oil and gas industries during her vice presidency on her website. The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator from Rhode Island, said that Harris had failed to build on her strongest moments during her TV debate with Trump when she mentioned the increasing costs of climate-related disasters and their impact on Americans' ability to get home insurance. Since then, he said, the campaign has been "underplaying the severity of the danger." "The American public needs to know there are serious challenges ahead," said Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate budget committee. "We will have to see how Harris and Walz move forward on policy if they are elected, but right now, most Americans are not fully aware of how serious this will become."