Ron DeSantis, President Joe Biden.Photo: Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty
PresidentJoe Bidenand first ladyJill Bidenare heading to Florida Wednesday, days after the Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall and causedcatastrophic damage in parts of the state.
The president is slated to deliver remarks on his recovery plans following those meetings.
Bidenappeared at FEMA headquartersfollowing the storm last week and said Ian “could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history.”
“The numbers we have are still unclear, but we’re hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life,” he said.
“We know many families are hurting,” Biden added. “Many, many, are hurting today.”
While the focus of the trip is on the storm, all eyes will be on Biden as he meets with DeSantis, a Republican widely rumored to beconsidering a 2024 runfor the White House.
DeSantis has called Hurricane Ian a “500-year flooding event,” telling reporters during a press conference during the storm: “We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude. The amount of water that’s been rising, and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flooding event.”
CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In recent months, DeSantis has frequently drawn attention to his political differences with Biden, such as in September when he took credit forsending a plane of migrants to Martha’s Vineyardin what many described as a political stunt.
The White House, in response, slammed Republican governors for transporting migrants across state lines as a means of publicizing a political issue.
“It’s really just disrespectful to humanity. It is — it doesn’t afford them any dignity, what they’re doing, when you’re abandoning families and children in a place where they were told they were going to get housing, in a place where they were told they were going to get jobs,” White House press secretaryKarine Jean-Pierretold reporters in September. “It is just cruel.”
In a briefing held earlier this week, Jean-Pierre continued to criticize the stunt, but said the president and DeSantis would not be focusing on that during Wednesday’s meeting.
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source: people.com
