Governor Ron DeSantis was way ahead of the game regarding Hurricane Ian.
The storm was nowhere near Florida when he declared a state of emergency to get the ball rolling with FEMA.
Prior to the storm hitting, DeSantis had significant resources in place to respond to the expected emergencies.
When a reporter claimed there was a lack of response from state officials, DeSantis just about came over the top of the podium.
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!
The reporter stated, "FEMA Administrator [Deanne] Criswell said today that she acknowledged concerns that ... Florida, as was said, lacks response to the storm so far and that —"
DeSantis cut the reporter off and responded, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Give me a break! That is nonsense! Stop politicizing, okay? Stop it.
"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 ..."
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 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) September 27, 2022
Even though Biden claimed he talked to DeSantis a handful of times, that was far from the case before Tuesday night when Biden finally picked up the phone to talk to him.
Before that call, DeSantis stated, "So I have not personally spoken with the president, but FEMA has approved our pre-landfall request."
He continued, "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."
He then stated, "So, my phone — my phone line is open.
"But we are — we do appreciate the quick approval of the pre-landfall declaration."
As stated above, Biden eventually called DeSantis, but it seemed as though it was only because there was significant public pressure on him.
Even then, however, he blatantly lied about how many times he called DeSantis, making it sound as though the two were chatting almost every day.
If that is the case, produce the phone records.
Source: The Blaze
