A spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that there are no plans for the Republican to meet with President Joe Biden when he travels to Florida on Saturday, contradicting comments Biden made earlier in the day indicating they would.
“We don’t have any plans for the Governor to meet with the President tomorrow,” DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern told CNN Friday. “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.”
Biden had told CNN earlier Friday that “yes,” he did plan to meet with the Florida governor while surveying damage from Hurricane Idalia in the state over the weekend.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Biden had told CNN earlier Friday that “yes,” he did plan to meet with the Florida governor while surveying damage from Hurricane Idalia in the state over the weekend.
Biden and DeSantis had largely worked in harmony multiple times in the last couple years to respond to the condo collapse in Surfside in 2021 and Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Presidential trips to disaster zones are usually tightly coordinated with local and state leaders so as to not interrupt the response and recovery, making the contretemps between the White House and governor’s mansion all the more notable.
On Thursday, Biden’s homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall told reporters during a White House press briefing that the trip was still being planned, but that “every time I’ve been to Florida with the president, he has met – of course – with Gov.
In a statement Friday, White House spokesperson Emilie Simons told CNN Biden’s visit was being planned to disrupt the recovery efforts from the storm as little as possible.
DeSantis told reporters earlier in the day that he had spoke with Biden over the phone and raised concerns about pulling resources away from the recovery efforts to provide security for the visit, especially since it will take place in a part of the state where access was already limited before Idalia arrived.
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