Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fired back at Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, denying her claims of "political gamesmanship" and accusations he has avoided her calls about hurricanes Helene and Milton.
NBC News reported Monday that DeSantis declined to answer calls from Harris about recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene, which struck the state early last week, and preparations for Hurricane Milton, which is set to hit the Sunshine State this week. The news network cited an unnamed source said to be an aide to DeSantis, who claimed the governor was avoiding the calls because they "seemed political."
Harris told reporters at a news conference later Monday, according to Politico: "Playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations – these are the height of emergency situations – is just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship."
DeSantis responded to Harris' comments in an interview with Fox News on Monday night, saying he was "leveraging all resources available, including from the federal government" ahead of Hurricane Milton's arrival, adding he has been in contact with President Joe Biden and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"And so for Kamala Harris to try to say that my sole focus on the people of Florida is somehow selfish, is delusional," said DeSantis, who is backing Harris' rival, former President Donald Trump in November's election. "She has no role in this. In fact, she's been vice president for three and a half years. I've dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts, and so what I think is selfish is her trying to blunder into this."
DeSantis added: "I've had storms under both President Trump and President Biden, and I've worked well with both of them. She's the first one who's trying to politicize the storm, and she's doing that just because of her campaign. She's trying to get some type of an edge. She knows she's doing poorly until she's playing these political games."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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