Kamala Harris has been desperately trying to exploit Hurricanes Helene and Milton to boost her politically, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t letting her get away with that in Florida.
Earlier this week, NBC News reported that he refused to take her calls. DeSantis has disputed the report, saying that if Harris had reached out to him, he would have taken the call. But Kamala, still trying to appear as the adult in the room, accused DeSantis of “playing political games” and being “utterly irresponsible” and “selfish.”
During a Thursday morning interview on CNBC, DeSantis was pressed to clarify the details of his recent clash with Kamala Harris, and he wasted no time in calling her out for trying to politicize the ongoing hurricane response in Florida. As he made clear, his focus is squarely on protecting his people, not playing political games.
“I am working with the president of the United States. I'm working with the director of FEMA. I'm marshaling all my state assets,” DeSantis said upfront. “We've been doing this now nonstop for over two weeks between Helene and this. And so if there's anything I can leverage to benefit my people, I'm gonna do it. The fact of the matter is they put out a story saying I didn't take—I didn't even know she was trying to reach me—but she has no role in this process.”
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“And I've been dealing with these storms in Florida under both Trump and Biden,” DeSantis continued. “Neither of them ever politicized it.”
Kamala Harris, however, changed all that.
“And in fact, all the storms I've dealt with under this administration—although I've worked well with the president—she has never called on in Florida. She has never offered any support. So what she's doing is she's trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign.”
DeSantis continued:
So, as the governor here who's leading this, I don't have time for those games. I don't care about her campaign. Obviously, I'm not a supporter of hers, but she's not—she has no role in this process. And so I'm working with the people I need to be working with. We're leveraging the resources I need to be leveraging. And for her to try to say that my focus should be on catering to her rather than worrying about my own people, just so she doesn't understand what it means to respond to these natural disasters.
It's really sad that Kamala Harris is more concerned with appearing as if she's in command of the hurricane response when she's never been in charge. Of course, it's for her campaign. She's literally been posting videos of blatantly staged phone calls with local officials to create the appearance of her being in charge. DeSantis sees right through what Kamala is trying to achieve. She is aiming for a moment similar to the one Barack Obama shared with then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. That bipartisan show of unity helped Obama appear presidential during a national crisis and gave a boost to his re-election campaign.
"[Harris] has no role in this process," says @GovRonDeSantis. "All the storms I've dealt with under this administration, she has never called in Florida or offered any support. She's trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign." pic.twitter.com/V9q4rh9uW9
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) October 10, 2024
What’s also troubling is how the mainstream media isn’t calling her out for it. Instead of scrutinizing the obvious political motives behind her actions, they’re happy to play along, turning a blind eye to her attempts to score points in the middle of a disaster.
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