Joe Biden visits Florida in Hurricane Idalia’s wake, but Ron DeSantis won’t meet him
- The governor and Republican presidential hopeful suggested that a meeting could hinder disaster response efforts
- DeSantis may not want to be photographed with Biden overlooking storm damage now as the Republican presidential primary race intensifies
US President Joe Biden got a look Saturday from the sky at Hurricane Idalia’s impact across a swathe of Florida before setting out on a walking tour of a city recovering from the storm. Notably absent from his schedule was any time with Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican president candidate who suggested a meeting could hinder disaster response efforts.
“Our teams worked collectively to find this area. This was a mutually agreed upon area because of the limited impact,” Deanne Criswell, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), told reporters as the president flew from Washington. She said her teams “have heard no concerns over any impact to the communities that we’re going to visit today”.
Air Force One landed at the airport in Gainesville, where the president and first lady Jill Biden boarded Marine One for a helicopter flight to Live Oak, about 130km (80 miles) east of Tallahassee, the capital. He awaited a briefing on response and recovery efforts and a session with federal and local officials and first responders before his walk.
On Friday, hours after Biden said he would be meeting DeSantis, the governor’s office issued a statement saying there were no plans for such a get-together. “In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts,” DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said in a statement.
Criswell said aboard the flight that power is being restored and the road are all open in the area where Biden was going. “Access is not being hindered,” she said, adding that her team had been in “close coordination” with the governor’s staff.
