Chris Christie knocks DeSantis for not meeting with Biden during Florida visit
Mabinty Quarshie
Video Embed
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized 2024 rival and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for skipping a meeting with President Joe Biden over the weekend as he toured parts of DeSantis’s state in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia.
“He was playing politics with it, but that’s his choice. I’m not the least bit surprised that that’s what he chose to do,” Christie said Tuesday on The Brian Kilmeade Show. “You’re the governor of the state. President of the United States comes, and you’re asking the president of the United States or the Congress for significant aid, which Ron DeSantis is doing, and especially if you voted against it 10 years ago for Sandy aid, you should have been there with the president to welcome it.”
HALEY USES RAMASWAMY AS 2024 FOIL IN FOREIGN POLICY FEUD
Christie then pivoted to lauding Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who did appear with Biden on Saturday when the president landed in Live Oak, Florida.
“Fortunately, Rick Scott, the United States senator and a former governor, two-term governor who knows what it means to be governor, showed up and made sure that the president saw the things that he needed to see,” Christie continued. “Your job as governor is to be the tour guide for the president. It’s to make sure the president sees your people, sees the damage, sees the suffering, what’s going on, and what’s going to need to be done to rebuild it. You’re doing your job, and unfortunately, he put politics ahead of his job. That was his choice.”
Biden said he was “disappointed” DeSantis did not appear with him after the governor’s spokesman claimed that the disruption his visit would cause was a reason for the no-show from DeSantis. “We don’t have any plans for the Governor to meet with the President tomorrow,” Jeremy Redfern said in a statement on 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.”
Idalia, which left at least three people dead, landed as a Category 3 hurricane last Wednesday with 125-miles-per-hour winds.
Christie has his own experience with disaster recovery. In response to Hurricane Sandy, which heavily damaged New Jersey, Christie met with then-President Barack Obama in October 2012, just before the November election, a move that infuriated Republicans. Christie, though, remains unrepentant about his actions.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I wouldn’t do a thing differently because my obligation is to the people who elected me, and the people who elected me were all the people of the state of New Jersey, and guess what? We were able to rebuild our state in record time, be able to bring it back to where it needed to be,” he said.
“Remember, Sandy happened Oct. 29, and by the next summer, tourism was back at the Jersey Shore because of the way we worked with the federal government to get the aid we needed and to get things done,” he continued. “I think people should want someone who wants to do their job first and foremost while they’re auditioning for another job, not put the audition for the other job and the politics ahead of doing things for the people of Florida.”