Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis briefed President Biden on the fallout from Hurricane Milton Thursday morning while hammering Vice President Kamala Harris once again over her swipe at him for not taking her call earlier this week.
The Sunshine State governor chided that Harris “doesn’t understand what it means to respond to these natural disasters,” and again accused her of politicizing the crisis.
“She has no role in this process. And I’ve been dealing with these storms in Florida under both [Donald] Trump and [President] Biden. Neither of them ever politicized it,” DeSantis told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” hours after Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.
“In fact [during] all of the storms I dealt with under this administration, although I worked well with the president, she has never called … She has never offered any support,” the Republican emphasized. “She’s trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign.”
Earlier this week, multiple reports emerged that DeSantis’ staff had turned down an attempt by Harris to reach him late last month in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene making landfall Sept. 26.
When pressed about those reports on Monday, Harris, 59, attacked DeSantis, 46, without using his name.
“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — is utterly irresponsible and it is selfish,” she told reporters.
DeSantis has insisted he had no knowledge of the veep’s initial attempts to reach him.
“I don’t have time for those games,” he said Thursday. “I don’t care about her campaign, obviously I’m not a supporter of hers.
“For her to say that my focus should be on catering to her rather than worrying about my own people just shows she doesn’t understand what it means to respond to these natural disasters.”
More than 3.4 million Floridians have lost electricity as of Thursday afternoon, per PowerOutage.us.
While DeSantis has sniped at Harris, Biden has commended the governor for doing a “great” job in preparing for Milton. DeSantis has returned the favor by publicly crediting Biden for giving his state everything it has asked for thus far.
During their phone call Thursday morning, DeSantis explained that state officials are still assessing the extent of the damage done by Milton and Biden vowed to continue green-lighting federal support, per a readout from the White House.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Deanne Criswell was on the call as well.
“All I can tell you is I’ve talked to Governor DeSantis,” Biden, 81, told reporters Wednesday. “He’s been very gracious. He thanked me for all we’ve done. He knows what we’re doing, and I think that’s important.”
Last week, Biden toured damage from Helene in Florida but did not meet up with DeSantis, who was holding a press conference about 300 miles away at the time.
Harris took time off from the campaign trail Wednesday to sit in on a FEMA briefing on Milton, but only succeeding in raising eyebrows for looking distracted on the call, then blurting out: “It’s a live broadcast,” apparently to a member of her staff.
