Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, dealing with the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Idalia, said at a press conference Sunday that people using the storm to advance their agenda are misguided and trying to take advantage of the misfortune of others. He also pointed out that while some try to claim that weather events like this are somehow novel, in fact, they've been occurring for centuries:
DeSantis cited an 1896 storm that reportedly had 125 mph winds and Florida's Labor Day hurricane in 1935, saying during a Sunday press conference that those storms resulted in massive destruction and deaths.
"So, I think the notion that somehow hurricanes are something new, that’s just false. And we’ve got to stop politicizing the weather and stop politicizing natural disasters," DeSantis said. "We know from history there’s been times when it’s very busy in Florida, late '40s, early '50s, you had a lot of hits of significant hurricanes."
DeSantis, who declined to meet with President Joe Biden on Saturday, also ripped leftist politicians and activists who imply that if only we lower our emissions, big storms will go away:
"So, I think sometimes people need to take a breath and get a little bit of perspective here," he said. "But the notion that somehow if we just adopt, you know, very left-wing policies at the federal level that somehow we will not have hurricanes, that is a lie. And that is people trying to take what happened with different types of storms and use that as a pretext to advance their agenda on the backs of people that are suffering. And that’s wrong, and we’re not going to do that in the state of Florida."
Watch:
Ron DeSantis hammers corporate media and the Left for trying to use natural disasters to “advance their agenda on the backs of people that are suffering.”
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) September 3, 2023
“There was a storm that went on this almost exact track in 1896. It had 125 mph winds just like [Hurricane Idalia]...The… pic.twitter.com/qUOspAocmZ
“There was a storm that went on this almost exact track in 1896. It had 125 mph winds just like [Hurricane Idalia]...The notion that somehow if we just adopt very left-wing policies at the federal level, that somehow we will NOT have hurricanes is a LIE.”
The governor’s remarks are a clear rebuke of the Biden administration. Biden was quick to blame these natural disasters on climate change, but his statements and actions regarding the Maui fires have been heavily criticized because he was slow to respond. When he finally did, he seemed cold and incoherent. Meanwhile, the president's briefings about Hurricane Idalia have also been filled with strange jokes and stories about himself.
DeSantis said that effective disaster response is handled at the community level:
"I think that the state of Florida, we prepare for this stuff. We were prepared. We responded," he said. "And really what the federal government's role is just turning on programs Congress has enacted over many, many years. So, it's basically serving as a checkbook to get people reimbursed for debris clean up, to give people individual assistance. And so, in that sense, I think that has been turned on, I anticipate that that will go smoothly, but most of the nuts and bolts is done by our local communities and by the state of Florida. And that's really how it should be. Disaster response is really bottom up."
One thing is for sure—Ron DeSantis does not blindly parrot the progressive agenda.
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