Florida Governor Ron DeSantis President Biden briefed on damage caused by Hurricane Milton during hammer blow Thursday morning Vice President Kamala Harris She once again hit out at him for not picking up her calls earlier this week.
The Sunshine State governor rebuked that Harris “does not understand what it means to respond to these natural disasters,” and again accused her of politicizing the crisis.
“He has no role in this process. And I’ve been dealing with these hurricanes in Florida under both (former President Donald) Trump and (President) Biden. “None of them ever politicized it,” DeSantis told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Hours after Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.
The Republican asserted, “Literally (during) all the storms that I faced under this administration, even though I worked well with the President, he never called… He never offered any support. “Didn’t.” “She’s trying to get herself into this because of her political campaign.”
Earlier this week, Multiple reports emerged that DeSantis’ staff Harris’s efforts to reach her last month following Hurricane Helene on Sept. 26 were rebuffed.
When pressed about those reports on Monday, Harris, 59, attacked DeSantis, 46, without using his name.
“People are in desperate need of support at this time and playing political games in this crisis situation – this is the height of emergency situations – is completely irresponsible and selfish,” he told reporters.
DeSantis has insisted that he had no knowledge of the Veep’s initial attempts to reach out to him.
“I don’t have time for those games,” he said Thursday. “I don’t care about his campaign, obviously I’m not a supporter of his.
“For her to say that my focus should be on taking care of my people instead of worrying about them shows that she doesn’t understand what it means to respond to these natural disasters.”
More than 3.4 million Floridians are without power as of Thursday afternoon PowerOutage.us,
While DeSantis has taken a dig at Harris, Biden has praised the governor for doing a “great” job preparing for Milton. DeSantis has publicly credited his state for giving him everything he has asked for so far.
During his phone call Thursday morning, DeSantis reported that state officials were still assessing the extent of the damage caused by Milton, and Biden vowed to continue to greenlight federal support, according to a readout from the White House. Have eaten.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Dean Criswell was also on the call.
“All I can tell you is that I have spoken to Governor DeSantis,” Biden, 81, told reporters on Wednesday. “He has been very kind. He thanked me for everything we did. He knows what we’re doing and I think that’s important.”
Last week, Biden visited Florida damaged by Helen but did not meet with DeSantis, who was holding a press conference about 300 miles away at the time.
Harris took leave from campaigning on Wednesday Sit in on FEMA briefing Milton, but only managed to frown to look distracted on the call, then apparently blurted out to a member of her staff, “This is a live broadcast”.
(Tags to translate)Politics(T)US News(T)2024 Presidential Election(T)Hurricane Milton(T)Joe Biden(T)Kamala Harris(T)Ron DeSantis