Christie bashes DeSantis for asking for aid after voting against Hurricane Sandy relief funds
Jack Birle
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Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie bashed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for asking for federal aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia after he voted against a relief package for Hurricane Sandy in 2013 while serving as a member of Congress.
Christie also criticized DeSantis for not meeting with President Joe Biden when the commander in chief visited the Sunshine State in the aftermath of the hurricane last week.
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“Look, we shouldn’t be playing politics with this stuff, but Gov. DeSantis has always played politics with this,” Christie said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Tuesday.
“He voted against Sandy aid in 2012 as a member of the House, and now he wants aid. You know, this is the hypocrisy that everybody sees in politics and why they’re looking for someone who will just tell them the truth,” he added.
Christie also defended his actions in the aftermath of Sandy, including embracing then-President Barack Obama’s arrival in New Jersey days before the 2012 election.
DeSantis voted against a $9.7 billion flood insurance relief bill for victims of Sandy at the beginning of his tenure in the House of Representatives in 2013 but said at the time the reason for his vote had to do with the way the bill was set up fiscally.
In an interview with the Florida Times-Union in 2013, DeSantis criticized the bill for only allocating 30% of its funds for the first two years and appropriating funds as far down the line as 2021.
“If a hurricane came here, I would want any relief plan to be fiscally responsible,” DeSantis said at the time. “[I] would not want to add extra things and say that because this is a vehicle that’s moving, let’s try to Christmas tree it out.”
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The Florida governor opted not to meet with Biden over the weekend, but the president and DeSantis did work closely prior to and in the aftermath of the storm to coordinate relief efforts.
Christie is in sixth place in the national RealClearPolitics polling average for the Republican presidential primary, with 2.8%, while DeSantis is in second place behind former President Donald Trump, with 14.8%.