As Hurricane Milton draws closer to the Florida coastline, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been doing what leaders do by making sure his state is well-equipped to handle what is expected to be a devastating hit from the storm, the second in two weeks and the third in two months to target the Sunshine State.
Incredibly, in the midst of everything he has going on – which includes giving periodic public briefings, both the media and Vice President Kamala Harris have chosen to launch attacks on him over a thinly sourced hit piece that claimed without evidence that DeSantis refused to take Harris’ call after Hurricane Helene hit.
“… playing political games with this moment in these crisis situations, these are the height of emergency situations, it’s just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish,” Harris said when asked about the NBC News story.
DeSantis, of course, wasn’t having it, nuking a reporter for injecting politics into a hurricane briefing and then later, Harris for being the one politicizing things amid a crisis situation and one of which in reality she plays no role whatsoever in helping resolve.
READ MORE: Don’t Bring a Catfight to a Cat5: DeSantis Suggests Harris ‘Look in the Mirror’ Over Hurricane Critique
The topic of the alleged Harris call and DeSantis supposedly rejecting it was brought up on CNN Monday night, where Republican strategist/political analyst Scott Jennings dropped facts about why this attack could (and should) backfire on Harris going down the homestretch, not DeSantis:
JENNINGS: I mean, she’s attacking the governor of a state that’s about to get lashed with one of the most historic hurricanes we’ve ever seen. Is she crazy? He did not ignore her call.
PHILLIP: I think she was talking — just to be clear, she was talking broadly about the politicization of the storms.
JENNINGS: I think she was talking about Ron DeSantis. He did not ignore her call. And in fact, according to what I’ve read tonight, he actually spoke to the President of the United States.
PHILLIP: He did speak with President Biden.
JENNINGS: And he has — he has said time and again that he and the federal government are working well together. So, who here is politicizing this?
MICHAELSON: Yes, I hate to agree with Scott on anything but I agree — I agree in this case. I don’t think, you know, I’m from Florida. I grew up in Tampa. Tampa’s right — right in the track right now. A lot of friends of mine have been evacuated. Others are kind of hunkering down. And I’m no fan of Ron DeSantis but he is doing what a governor should do.
Jennings then talked more broadly about the overall response from the feds after Helene and how it, too, has made Biden and Harris look bad:
JENNINGS: I actually think the facts are bad enough. When the storm came ashore, Biden was at the beach and Harris was raising money. And that was on September 26th.
On September 27th, we had devastation in North Carolina. It wasn’t until October the 2nd that the president mobilized the military. And it wasn’t until the 5th that they mobilized 500 search and rescue out of the military.
So, I think — I think there’s two things going on. The immediate impacted people and what they need and what they can get. People need to consult their local officials and governors about that. But there is a conversation to be had here about spending priorities, yes.
Watch:
It’s legitimately crazy that Harris attacked Governor DeSantis, who is prepping for a historically bad storm. She’s politicizing when she and Biden were SLOW on their decisions. Discussed tonight on @cnn (h/t to my friend @EWErickson on the timeline) https://t.co/KUbKYj0JGK pic.twitter.com/MTKqJ72fps
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 8, 2024
It’s just a factual statement at this point to say that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have not covered themselves in glory in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and ahead of Hurricane Milton, with the optics of the beach trip and campaign fundraisers and then the slow response to the western North Carolina devastation after Helene being front and center on the minds of many who are still wondering where do we go from here.
If Kamala Harris thought attacking DeSantis in the middle of hurricane prep for a potentially catastrophic storm was a wise idea, she was wrong. Then again, being wrong on the issues is par for the course for Kamala Harris, which is exactly why she’s unfit for the office she seeks to hold.
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