Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t taking any stuff from reporters trying to “politicize” the response to Hurricane Ian.
DeSantis gave a proper tongue lashing to a reporter who said. “FEMA Administrator [Deanne] Criswell said today that she acknowledged concerns that … Florida, as was said, lacks response to the storm so far and that —”
The governor cut them off and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Give me a break! That is nonsense! Stop politicizing, okay? Stop it,” the governor challenged. “We declared a state of emergency when this thing wasn’t even formed. We’ve had people in here, you’ve had counties doing … a lot of hard work, and honestly, you’re trying to attack me, I get, but like you’re attacking these other people who’ve worked very hard. And so that’s just totally false. I don’t think we’ve ever, certainly since I’ve been governor, declared a state of emergency this early. We made sure that we were very inclusive with it. We said that there was a lot of uncertainty, and then we’ve worked to make sure the preparations that have been done … you talk to the people at the counties, when they’ve needed something, stuff gets there very quickly …”
This came on the heels of some controversy from the White House, they dodged questions about why the president hadn’t called DeSantis yet.
DeSantis made his position clear by saying, “we don’t have time for pettiness.”
He went on to note, “So I have not personally spoken with the president, but FEMA has approved our pre-landfall request. We feel like we have a good relationship with FEMA.”
“You know, I’m happy to brief the president if he’s interested in hearing what we’re doing in Florida, you know, my view on all this is like you got people’s lives at stake, you got their property at stake, and we don’t have time for pettiness. We got to work together to make sure we’re doing the best job for them,” DeSantis said.
He ended the interview by saying that his phone line was open.
Watch:
The media can't help themselves – everything must be politicized. No opportunity to smear opponents is too low. This reporter misrepresented FEMA Director's words@RonDeSantisFL won't accept it. He'll always stand up for Florida & our world class emergency response professionals pic.twitter.com/Uemzm5vcPH
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 #FloridaStrong (@DeSantisWarRoom) September 27, 2022
