WASHINGTON — President Biden said Tuesday that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been “cooperative” with him as Hurricane Milton nears the Sunshine State — one day after Vice President Kamala Harris complained that DeSantis didn’t take her call.
“The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday,” Biden said at the White House before heading to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to campaign for Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.).
“I literally gave him my personal phone number to call,” Biden added of DeSantis. “So I don’t know — there was a rough start in some places, but every governor, every governor from Florida to North Carolina, has been fully cooperative and supportive and acknowledged what this team is doing.”
Biden warned that Milton “could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century” — as the Category 4 hurricane traverses the Gulf of Mexico and is on track for landfall near Tampa Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
Harris, 59, attacked DeSantis on Monday, accusing him of being “utterly irresponsible” and “selfish” in not taking her call last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida Sept. 26.
“Moments of crisis, if nothing else, should really be the moment that anyone who calls themselves a leader says they’re going to put politics aside and put the people first,” Harris said of DeSantis.
“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games with this moment in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — is utterly irresponsible and it is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”
DeSantis returned fire — saying he believed Harris only tried to call him to inject herself into the crisis less than a month before Election Day.
“My focus has not been dealing with Kamala Harris,” DeSantis told “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning.
“I saw the news report — I didn’t know she tried to contact me. But I’d also say, ‘It’s not about you, Kamala, it’s about the people of Florida.’ My focus is exactly where it should be,” DeSantis said.
“I’ve worked on these hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She has never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now.
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“Why all of the sudden is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics, we know it’s because of her campaign. I have zero time to entertain these political games. We’re going to continue to do what we need to do to prepare and respond to what may be one of the most damaging storms in the history of the United States,” DeSantis went on.
“Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this. The idea that I should be, like, worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is just quite frankly absurd.”
DeSantis added that federal officials thus far have provided all support needed ahead of the storm — after widespread criticism of the lack of initial preparedness for Helene’s damage to western North Carolina.
“All of our requests have been answered,” the governor said. “We have marshaled all state resources that are available to us. It’s going to be a very robust response, but it’s going to be a lot of damage and we’re bracing for that.”
