Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday ripped President Joe Biden and the media over the chaotic scenes at the airport in Maui, Hawaii. He maintained that they largely ignored the tragic fire that burned a historic Hawaiian town to the ground.
DeSantis made the remarks during a press conference on Sunday while talking about his state’s recovery efforts from Hurricane Idalia.
“And really what the federal government’s role is, is just turning on programs that Congress has enacted over many, many years,” he said. “And so it’s basically serving as a checkbook to get people reimbursed for debris cleanup, to give people individual assistance. And so in that sense, I think that that has been turned on, I anticipate that that will go smoothly. But most of the nuts and bolts is done by our local communities, and by the state of Florida. And that’s really how it should be, disaster response is really bottom up.”
DeSantis said that things in Florida are so fine-tuned that the local governments in some respects play an even more important role than the state government when it comes to warning residents that their homes may be in the path of an incoming storm surge.
“And so you had that, you had the state managing and assisting and that’s really the bread and butter,” he said. “The checkbook from the feds is great and we’re going to – whatever resources are available as the governor, I’m going to pull those levers to be able to help Floridians. But we’re certainly not relying on the federal government to do the day to day heavy lifting.”
“We’re going to do that as Floridians, as people in the counties and municipalities and of course at the state level,” he concluded.
The chaos at the Maui airport is likely to add to the pressure on the Biden administration to address the problems at the TSA. With the summer travel season approaching, the administration will need to find a way to ensure that travelers have a safe and efficient experience.
DeSantis Rips Biden And The Media Over ‘Total Catastrophe’ In Maui https://t.co/DQ2d5Czknu pic.twitter.com/SzRn2uMUju
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) September 4, 2023
