Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has the right to reject phone calls from the nation’s top elected officials, but the federal government will continue to provide hurricane relief, according to the White House.
DeSantis, one of the nation’s highest-profile Republican governors, has avoided speaking with Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, according to NBC News.
“It’s up for to him if he wants to respond to us or not,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday at a press briefing. “But what we’re doing is, we’re working with state and local officials to make sure that we are pre-positioned, to make sure that we are ready to be there for the communities that are going to be impacted.”
DeSantis, who sought the GOP presidential nomination last year, is not taking calls from Harris about storm recovery efforts, and he has not spoken with Biden either, according to the report. He has contacted Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Deanne Criswell, however.
“Is politics starting to sink into this?” a reporter asked during Monday’s White House press briefing.
“That’s really for the governor to speak to,” Jean-Pierre said. “We invited the governor to come and survey the damage areas with the president. Obviously, we were in Florida. We invited the governor [of] Florida to come. It was his decision to not attend or not be there with the president.”
Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration is ready to support the people of the Sunshine State in response to Helene and amid preparations for Hurricane Milton, stressing again that whether DeSantis works with the administration is his decision.
Sources told NBC News that the DeSantis camp believed Harris’s calls were politically motivated as she seeks to win the 2024 presidential election in less than one month.
“We have made outreach,” Jean-Pierre said. “The good thing is the FEMA administrator was able to connect with the governor yesterday. I think that’s important. But look, we’re going to do the work.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to DeSantis’s team for comment.
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At a press conference Monday afternoon, DeSantis said the Biden-Harris administration has been responsive to requests.
“Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he has approved,” DeSantis said as Florida prepares for Milton to make landfall this week. “And we do think we’ll get more approvals for some of the individual assistance and the debris removal after landfall.”