Source: BRYAN R. SMITH / Getty
During a news conference about Hurricane Milton on Wednesday, President Joe Biden complimented Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him “gracious” following a conversation the two men had as the Category 5 storm began its path of devastation across Florida.
But a source told NBC News that when Biden was singing DeSantis’ praises, he was unaware that the governor was playing with people’s lives by engaging in vulgar, petty politics. He’d steadfastly refused to speak with Vice President Kamala Harris when she, in her current official role, attempted to contact him several times to help coordinate a federal response that would serve the people of his state.
The failed presidential candidate resorted to a predictable Trumpian rationale: he said he believed she was only reaching out in an attempt to “politicize the storm”– as if his decision to refuse her call wasn’t absolutely political. Plus, what would he have said if the vice president of the United States–who is also the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate–hadn’t called?
One can speculate all one wants to about her motivation, but the fact remains she was doing her job. He was not.
From NBC:
On Wednesday, Biden delivered a widely televised address warning the public about the potentially catastrophic impact of Hurricane Milton, which began ravaging Florida’s coastline Wednesday night.
A reporter then asked Biden whether DeSantis should be taking Harris’ phone calls. He praised DeSantis and dodged answering the question directly.
“All I can tell you is I’ve talked to Gov. DeSantis. He’s been very gracious,” Biden said. “He’s thanked me for all we’ve done. He knows what we’re doing. And I think that’s important.”
“He wasn’t tracking a specific back-and-forth,” the source told NBC, adding that Biden was “focused on the response itself.”
OK, fair enough. Perhaps Biden was too busy being the president during a natural disaster that came on the heels of a similar natural disaster, Hurricane Helene. Maybe Biden was so focused on what was important that he–and his advisors–completely missed every single headline about DeSantis taking time out of what should have been a busy day for him to go on Fox News and take arbitrary shots at Harris just for making a phone call.
“I’ve had storms under both President Trump and President Biden, and I’ve worked well with both of them,” he said. “She’s the first one who’s trying to politicize the storm, and she’s doing that just because of her campaign. I don’t have time for political games.”
Why is DeSantis out here pretending he’s not playing “political games?” He refused to take Harris’ call, so he actually had no way of knowing what her motives were. Maybe DeSantis realized that Harris is currently leading Trump in most polls, meaning she’s dangerously close to being elected into the White House, and the last thing he wants to do is allow her to be painted in an authoritative light.
Last year, DeSantis arrogantly claimed Biden would never be impeached, not because of the reality that Republicans haven’t come remotely close to finding an impeachable offense, but because
“no one wants Kamala” as president. But sure, there’s no validity to the notion that DeSantis is playing politics now that he’s seen how poorly that remark aged.
“Playing political games at this moment…It’s utterly irresponsible…selfish and… about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do,” Harris told reporters in response to DeSantis’ unproven and unprovable claims.
Harris comforts hurricane survivors in Atlanta. Source: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Getty
As we previously reported, DeSantis has denied that characterization, emphasizing that he is already working with the president and that the vice president has little power to do anything. And while it’s true that the
vice president doesn’t have the power to make any executive decisions not delegated by the president, this charge is rich coming from any Republican. Trump, JD Vance, pundits across right-wing media, and every MAGA-fied member of the GOP has been working overtime to directly tie Harris to every decision made by the Biden administration as a way to present their warped doom and gloom portrait of what her presidency would look like.
Meanwhile, Trump has responded to Hurricanes Helene and Milton by playing the dirtiest of dirty politics by engaging in his favorite activity:
spreading absurd misinformation on a daily basis. Trump has been telling anyone who will listen that Biden and Harris are giving FEMA funds to immigrants and that the federal government has purposely been neglecting areas populated by Republican voters. Not only is Trump lying as usual, but it appears he’s also projecting.
“Trump is actually accusing the Biden administration of an act very similar to something he did as president. In 2019, Trump’s administration
moved $155 million meant for FEMA disaster relief to support immigration enforcement,”
CNN recently reported.
And yet, it’s a safe bet that if Trump reached out to DeSantis, he’d take the call.
