Vice president Kamala Harris is speaking out about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refusing to take her call and claiming that she’s only getting involved in storm responses for political gain.
“She has no role in this,” DeSantis said on Monday. “In fact, she’s been vice president for three-and-a-half years. I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts, and so what I think is selfish is trying to blunder into this.” ABC News stated that DeSantis refused to accept a call from Harris in the past few days, although he later claimed he was not aware of the attempt to contact him.
“I have called and talked within the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, Democrat and Republican governors — called, taken the call, answered the call, had a conversation,” Harris said on The View Tuesday. “So, obviously this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders but maybe is for others.”
Harris then addressed Hurricane Milton, urging Floridians who were watching the show to follow evacuation orders. The storm is projected to make landfall on Wednesday evening and could be classified as a Category 4 hurricane.
“This one is going to be different, and that’s why I called the governor about what Florida has received in terms of impact,” she said.
After receiving a briefing on Hurricane Milton on Tuesday, President Biden was asked whether Harris had been instrumental in the preparations for the storm. He nodded in agreement and replied, “yes.”
Biden also condemned individuals who were spreading false information about FEMA following Hurricane Helene, describing their actions as “un-American.”
“It puts people in certain things where they panic. Where they really, really, really worry,” Biden said. “They think we’re not being taken care of. And it really is — that’s going to sound, I’m gonna use an old phrase, it’s un-American. It really is. People are scared to death.”