Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about storm recovery just over a week after Hurricane Helene hammered parts of his state.
A source familiar with the situation said he was dodging the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls because they “seemed political,” according to a DeSantis aide.
“Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” the DeSantis aide told NBC News.
The same person said “not to my knowledge” when asked if DeSantis had spoken to President Joe Biden.
Last week, DeSantis said Biden had called him, but he was flying at the time so could not take the call. Biden was in north Florida last week to survey storm damage, but DeSantis was holding a news press conference that had already been scheduled in another part of the state so they did not meet. A source familiar with the planning said that the Biden team had invited DeSantis to the event in north Florida.
DeSantis has been in direct contact with Federal Emergency Management Director Deanne Criswell.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about NBC News’ report on Monday afternoon and whether politics was seeping into the hurricane response.
“That’s really for the governor to speak to, right?” she replied, saying that the White House invited DeSantis to survey the storm damage with Biden.
“It was his decision…to not attend or not be there with the president. … It is up to him,” she added. “We are doing our part, in the Biden-Harris administration, working — obviously FEMA is work — is on the ground, all hands on deck, whole of government. Robust approach here. And so, again, that’s for Gov. DeSantis to speak to.”
Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend region on Sept. 27, devastating some of the state’s rural north Florida counties and swamping cities along the Gulf Coast with storm surge. Many of those cities, including the heavily populated Tampa region, are still dealing with significant flood damage and debris removal.
After landfall, remnants of Helene continued to cut a path through the Southeast, leaving more than 200 dead and swamping the region, including historic flooding in western North Carolina.
In Helene’s immediate aftermath, DeSantis said that “we have it handled” in reference to storm cleanup and that the federal government should focus on North Carolina.
Other governors have offered more praise for the federal response, with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp saying he had spoken to Biden and thanked him for the assistance, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, also a Republican, saying it had been “superb.”
In what he dubbed Operation Blue Ridge, DeSantis also sent Florida resources to North Carolina, including members of the Florida National Guard and officials from several state agencies.
Over the weekend, DeSantis said those assets are now returning to Florida as the state expects a midweek landfall of Hurricane Milton, a major storm that is expected to affect huge swaths of the state, including coastal cities flooded by Hurricane Helene.
That storm is expected to make landfall in the central portion of Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday.
Two other officials with DeSantis’ office said that so far, there has been no effort by Biden to reach out to the governor on Hurricane Milton.
Former President Donald Trump has talked about Hurricane Helene at length, and at times in overt political terms — including pushing false information. At one point he claimed on social media that a photo Harris had posted on social media getting a storm briefing was “FAKE and STAGED.”
Trump visited Georgia in the days after the storm and appeared at an event with Kemp. He also launched a GoFundMe to help organizations doing relief work in the region.
Gabe Gutierrez contributed.
