As the state of Florida deals with the harrowing reality of Hurricane Milton which has a Wednesday forecast, Vice President Kamala Harris said during a Tuesday appearance on “The View” that the state’s governor Ron DeSantis had seemingly ignored her calls for help.
Harris had no problem taking him to task over his behavior during the interview. “I called the governor about what Florida has received in terms of impact,” Harris explained to the hosts.
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“We have to have an agreement that, at some point, we all need to work together to combine resources, especially federal, state, and local resources, around these kinds of disasters,” she said. “I think it’s a shame that that hasn’t happened.”
Interestingly enough, a DeSantis representative told NBC News that “Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer.” However, DeSantis insisted that he didn’t know Harris was calling to begin with.
“I didn’t know that she had called,” DeSantis stated during a Tallahassee press conference in preparation of Category 5 Milton. “I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me.”
DeSantis did state that he touched base with President Joe Biden at that same briefing. “We want to use whatever resources are available to be able to help Floridians prepare and respond to this storm,” he remarked.
“But everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he has approved, and we do think we’ll get more approvals for some of the individual assistance and the debris removal after landfall.”
The White House did confirm that DeSantis spoke with Biden regarding the impending disaster, yet ignored his claims about Harris. Senior assistant White House press secretary Emilie Simons addressed the situation with a Monday post on X.
“Tonight, @POTUS spoke with @GovRonDeSantis and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to get a report on recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton,” Simons wrote.
“He asked both to call him directly if anything can be done to further support response and recovery efforts,” Simons continued.
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