The president had initially planned to travel to Germany and Angola starting Thursday but postponed his trip earlier this week to coordinate the federal response to Hurricane Milton as it approached. He addressed the devastation both before and after Milton made landfall, pledging full federal support for state search and rescue and cleanup operations, similar to the administration’s response following Hurricane Helene the week before.
The lead-up to Milton sparked controversy involving Biden, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), and Vice President Kamala Harris. DeSantis refused to take multiple calls from Harris after Hurricane Helene and just before Milton’s landfall. The DeSantis team claimed that the vice president was trying to politicize the situation, while she described the governor’s actions as “selfish” and “irresponsible.”
“For Kamala Harris to try to say that my sole focus on the people of Florida is somehow selfish is delusional,” DeSantis said during a Monday night interview on Fox News. “She has no role in this. In fact, she’s been vice president for 3 1/2 years. I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts, and so what I think is selfish is her trying to blunder into this.”
Biden and DeSantis have reportedly maintained constant communication throughout the week. According to White House officials, DeSantis acknowledged that the Biden administration had fulfilled the state’s assistance requests ahead of the storm. DeSantis’s office did not confirm whether he would accompany Biden on Sunday during his trip to survey the storm damage. He had previously joined Biden in 2022 when the president visited Florida to assess damage from Hurricane Ian.
On Friday, Biden indicated he would meet with DeSantis if he was available that weekend. “If he’s available, yeah,” Biden told reporters. “He’s been very cooperative. We got on very, very well.”
While Biden and DeSantis have presented a united front regarding storm response, the president has criticized former President Donald Trump for spreading an “outpouring of lies” about the hurricane response. “Mr. President Trump,” Biden said Thursday. “Former President Trump. Get a life, man. Help these people.”
Trump and his allies continue to make claims about the Biden administration’s hurricane response that have been repeatedly debunked by media outlets. These include allegations that the Federal Emergency Management Agency diverted disaster relief funds to house illegal immigrants, refused to use helicopters to airlift stranded hurricane victims from flood zones, and capped federal relief for victims at $750.
