WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis′ workplace mentioned Friday that he has “no plans” to fulfill with President Joe Biden when the Democrat flies to Florida this weekend to survey harm from Hurricane Idalia, suggesting that doing so may hinder catastrophe response.
“In these rural communities, and so quickly after influence, the safety preparations alone that may go into organising such a gathering would shut down ongoing restoration efforts,” DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern mentioned in an announcement.
Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning alongside Florida’s Large Bend area as a Class 3 storm, inflicting widespread flooding and harm earlier than shifting north to drench Georgia and the Carolinas. Biden is ready to fly to Florida on Saturday to tour the harm personally.
DeSantis preemptively heading off a gathering contradicts Biden himself, who, when requested after an occasion on the White Home earlier Friday whether or not he would meet with DeSantis throughout his journey to Florida, replied, “Sure.”
It’s additionally a break from the latest previous, since Biden and DeSantis met when the president toured Florida after Hurricane Ian hit the state final 12 months, and following the Surfside condominium collapse in Miami Seaside in summer time 2021. However DeSantis is now operating for president, and he solely left the Republican main path final week with Idalia barreling towards his state.
White Home spokeswoman Emilie Simons responded, “President Biden and the primary girl stay up for assembly members of the neighborhood impacted by Hurricane Idalia and surveying impacts of the storm.”
“Their go to to Florida has been deliberate in shut coordination” with the Federal Emergency Administration Company “in addition to state and native leaders to make sure there is no such thing as a influence on response operations,” Simons mentioned in her personal assertion.
The politics of placing apart rivalries following pure disasters can certainly be tough.
One other 2024 presidential candidate, former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, was broadly criticized in GOP circles for embracing then-President Barack Obama throughout a tour of injury 2012′s Hurricane Sandy did to his state. Christie was even requested in regards to the incident final month, throughout the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee.
Each Biden and DeSantis at first mentioned serving to storm victims would outweigh politics, however DeSantis started suggesting that logistical issues may complicate a presidential go to because the week wore on.
“There’s a time and a spot to have political season,” the governor mentioned earlier than Idalia made landfall. “However then there’s a time and a spot to say that that is one thing that’s life threatening, that is one thing that would doubtlessly price any individual their life, it may price them their livelihood.”
By Friday, the governor was telling reporters of Biden, “one factor I did point out to him on the telephone” was “it will be very disruptive to have the entire safety equipment that goes” with the president “as a result of there are solely so some ways to get into” lots of the hardest hit areas.
“What we need to do is be sure that the ability restoration continues and the reduction efforts proceed and we don’t have any interruption in that,” DeSantis mentioned. The assertion about not planning to fulfill got here later, and Redfern pointed to the governor’s earlier feedback when requested how Idalia’s aftermath may differ from that of Ian or the Surfside collapse when DeSantis and Biden met.
DeSantis has constructed his White Home bid round dismantling what he calls Democrats’ “woke” insurance policies. DeSantis additionally ceaselessly attracts applause at GOP rallies by declaring that it’s time to ship “Joe Biden again to his basement,” a reference to the Democrat’s Delaware dwelling, the place he spent a lot of his time throughout the early lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.
Nonetheless, Biden recommended earlier within the week that he and DeSantis have been cooperating simply. Whereas delivering pizzas to staff at FEMA’s Washington headquarters, the president mentioned he’d spoken to DeSantis so ceaselessly about Idalia that “there must be a direct dial” between the pair.
Homeland Safety adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall pointed to the experiences after Ian and Surfside when telling reporters on the White Home this week that Biden and DeSantis “are very collegial when we’ve got the work to do collectively of serving to People in want, residents of Florida in want.”
AP Photograph/Rebecca Blackwell
And but, the post-Idalia politics might be sophisticated for each side.
The president introduced his bid for reelection in April however has principally shunned campaigning, preferring as an alternative to guide by governing. The White Home is now in search of an extra $4 billion to handle pure disasters as a part of its supplemental funding request to Congress — bringing the entire to $16 billion and illustrating that wildfires, flooding and hurricanes which have intensified throughout a interval of local weather change are imposing ever increased prices on U.S. taxpayers.
DeSantis, in the meantime, is going through questions on whether or not his marketing campaign can survive for the lengthy haul. 4 months earlier than the primary ballots are to be solid in Iowa’s caucuses, DeSantis nonetheless lags far behind former President Donald Trump, the Republican main’s dominant early front-runner. And he has cycled by way of repeated marketing campaign management shakeups and reboots of his picture in an try and refocus his message.
The tremendous PAC supporting DeSantis’ candidacy has halted its door-knocking operations in Nevada, which votes third on the Republican presidential main calendar, and several other states holding Tremendous Tuesday primaries in March — an additional signal of bother.
Related Press author Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report.