Vice President Kamala Harris chastised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for “playing political games,” following reports that DeSantis did not take the vice president’s calls regarding hurricane relief.
“You know, moments of crisis, if nothing else, should really be the moment that anyone who calls themselves a leader says they’re gonna put politics aside and put the people first,” Harris told reporters gathered at Joint Base Andrew in Maryland as she departed for New York Monday.
“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — is just utterly irresponsible,” Harris continued. “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.”
Harris did not dispute NBC News‘ reporting Monday that DeSantis had dodged her calls about storm recovery just over a week after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of Florida. CNN, citing a White House official, also reported that Harris had reached out to the governor multiple times since the hurricane made landfall, but that her team has yet to receive a response from DeSantis.
Last week, during President Joe Biden’s visit to Florida to survey storm damage on the ground, DeSantis declined an invitation to join the president, and opted instead to hold a press conference scheduled elsewhere in the state.
“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,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Monday’s press briefing. “The president has reached out around Hurricane Helene. He reached out. It is up to the governor.”
Despite Donald Trump’s baseless lies regarding the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, Republicans governors have praised the the president’s efforts in the face of the climate tragedy including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.
