The White House called out Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a Monday afternoon press briefing in response to reports that the Republican has refused to answer phone calls from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris about hurricane relief efforts.
“It’s up to him if he wants to respond to us or not,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters with a shrug on Monday, confirming the reports.
“We invited the governor, right, to come and survey the damage areas with the president. Obviously, we were in Florida, we invited the governor of Florida to come. It was his decision not ― to not attend or not be there with the president,” Jean-Pierre said. “The president has reached out around Hurricane Helene. He reached out. It is up to the governor. It is really up to the governor.”
Jean-Pierre noted that federal officials, including Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have nevertheless connected with state and local officials to help with storm recovery.
“We’re going to do the work,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’re going to continue to talk to local and state officials, that’s important as well, we’re going to pre-position as Hurricane Milton is coming towards Florida.”
DeSantis reportedly refused to talk to the vice president about hurricane relief in his state less than a week after Hurricane Helene pummelled the area and while another powerful storm, Hurricane Milton, will likely make landfall later this week.
“Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” a DeSantis aide told NBC News of the Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. The aide added that the Republican governor was screening the calls because they “seemed political.”
When Biden visited Florida last week, DeSantis also decided not to meet with him. The source told NBC they didn’t think the two had talked on the phone despite Biden’s efforts to call DeSantis last week.
The development comes as Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has spread baseless conspiracy theories and lies accusing the federal government of failing to provide adequate storm relief. Last week, Trump claimed Biden hadn’t spoken with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (Republican) after Hurricane Helene. Both Biden and Kemp said that wasn’t true.