Ron DeSantis Snubs Joe Biden's Florida Visit

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday appeared to snub President Joe Biden on his tour of the state in the wake of Hurricane Idalia, even as Senator Rick Scott praised the president for his response to the storm.

Idalia made landfall across Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing sustained winds of roughly 125 miles per hour and severe storm surges that were deemed unsurvivable in some areas. At least two deaths have been attributed to the storm and around 278,000 residents are estimated to have lost power.

On Saturday, Biden visited parts of Florida to survey the damage left in the wake of the hurricane. The conversation around the visit was briefly derailed, however, after it was reported that DeSantis would not be meeting with the president, despite the Biden administration claiming that a meeting between the two leaders had been planned.

"I don't know," Biden said when pressed by reporters about not meeting with DeSantis. "He's not going to be there."

In a statement to USA Today, a spokesman for the governor said that such a visit would pull too many resources away from recovery efforts in heavily impacted areas, an explanation similar to the one given for the president's delayed visit to Maui after the recent wildfires in Hawaii.

"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," spokesman Jeremy Redfern said in the statement.

The White House, meanwhile, claimed that this issue had already been accounted for in planning the meeting.

"This was a mutually agreed upon area because of the limited impact," Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said, according to USA Today. "They're well on their way to the road to recovery."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also added that there had been "just no indication that [DeSantis] was not going to be there" when the two leaders spoke on Thursday.

"Of course, he's welcome to be with the president today," she added. "That is something for him to answer. We can't speak to that."

Newsweek reached out to DeSantis's office via email for comment.

DeSantis is currently among the packed field of candidates seeking the 2024 Republican nomination for president, which would see him challenge Biden's reelection efforts in the general election, though he has consistently polled well behind former President Donald Trump. Despite Trump leading the GOP pack, DeSantis has notably focused more of his criticism on the campaign trails on Biden and his policies.

As the governor was seemingly snubbing the president during his visit to Florida, Scott, a former governor of the Sunshine State himself and a Republican, praised Biden's response to Idalia during a meeting with him on Saturday.

"First off, the president did a great job with the early [emergency] declaration before the storm hit the coast," Scott said. "That was a big deal, helped all these first responders. And then how fast you approved through FEMA the individual assistance, the public assistance...it's a real big deal to every one of these communities."