Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about storm restoration simply over per week after Hurricane Helene hammered elements of his state.
A supply aware of the scenario mentioned he was dodging the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls as a result of they “appeared political,” in accordance with a DeSantis aide.
“Kamala was making an attempt to succeed in out, and we didn’t reply,” the DeSantis aide instructed NBC News.
The similar particular person mentioned “to not my data” when requested if DeSantis had spoken to President Joe Biden.
Last week, DeSantis mentioned Biden had referred to as him, however he was flying on the time so couldn’t take the decision. Biden was in north Florida final week to survey storm injury, however DeSantis was holding a information press convention that had already been scheduled in one other a part of the state so they didn’t meet. A supply aware of the planning mentioned that the Biden crew had invited DeSantis to the occasion in north Florida.
DeSantis has been in direct contact with Federal Emergency Management Director Deanne Criswell.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was requested about NBC News’ report on Monday afternoon and whether or not politics was seeping into the hurricane response.
“That’s actually for the governor to talk to, proper?” she replied, saying that the White House invited DeSantis to survey the storm injury with Biden.
“It was his choice…to not attend or not be there with the president. … It is as much as him,” she added. “We are doing our half, within the Biden-Harris administration, working — clearly FEMA is figure — is on the bottom, all palms on deck, complete of presidency. Robust strategy right here. And so, once more, that is for Gov. DeSantis to talk to.”
Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend area on Sept. 27, devastating among the state’s rural north Florida counties and swamping cities alongside the Gulf Coast with storm surge. Many of these cities, together with the closely populated Tampa area, are nonetheless coping with important flood injury and particles elimination.
After landfall, remnants of Helene continued to chop a path by the Southeast, leaving greater than 200 useless and swamping the area, together with historic flooding in western North Carolina.
In Helene’s quick aftermath, DeSantis mentioned that “we’ve got it dealt with” in reference to storm cleanup and that the federal authorities ought to deal with North Carolina.
Other governors have supplied extra reward for the federal response, with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp saying he had spoken to Biden and thanked him for the help, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, additionally a Republican, saying it had been “excellent.”
In what he dubbed Operation Blue Ridge, DeSantis additionally despatched Florida assets to North Carolina, together with members of the Florida National Guard and officers from a number of state companies.
Over the weekend, DeSantis mentioned these property are actually returning to Florida because the state expects a midweek landfall of Hurricane Milton, a significant storm that’s anticipated to have an effect on big swaths of the state, together with coastal cities flooded by Hurricane Helene.
That storm is anticipated to make landfall within the central portion of Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday.
Two different officers with DeSantis’ workplace mentioned that to this point, there was no effort by Biden to succeed in out to the governor on Hurricane Milton.
Former President Donald Trump has talked about Hurricane Helene at size, and at instances in overt political phrases — together with pushing false data. At one level he claimed on social media {that a} photograph Harris had posted on social media getting a storm briefing was “FAKE and STAGED.”
Trump visited Georgia within the days after the storm and appeared at an occasion with Kemp. He additionally launched a GoFundMe to assist organizations doing reduction work within the area.
Gabe Gutierrez contributed.