(The Hill) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Monday that it was “delusional” for Vice President Kamala Harris to accuse him of “political gamesmanship” after reports emerged that he did not take the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls as his state braces for Hurricane Milton.
DeSantis said in a Fox News interview Monday evening that he is “leveraging all resources available, including from the federal government” to prepare for Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall Wednesday evening, adding that he has been in touch with both President Joe Biden and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in preparation.
“And so for Kamala Harris to try to say that my sole focus on the people of Florida is somehow selfish, is delusional,” DeSantis said.
“She has no role in this. In fact, she’s been vice president for three and a half 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,” he continued.
Harris had been asked earlier Monday about reporting that DeSantis was not taking her calls on hurricanes and providing resources.
“People are in desperate need of support right now, and playing political games at this moment, in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — it’s utterly irreconcilable, and it is selfish, and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first,” Harris told reporters in a clip Fox anchor Sean Hannity played in his Monday night broadcast.
DeSantis responded to the clip by accusing Harris of politicizing the storm, noting he has managed several storms during his time as governor and spoke highly of his working relationship with both Biden and former President Donald Trump.
“I will say this: I’ve had storms under both President Trump and President Biden, and I’ve worked well with both of them. She’s the first one who’s trying to politicize the storm, and she’s doing that just because of her campaign. She’s trying to get some type of an edge. She knows she’s doing poorly until she’s playing these political games,” he said.
“I don’t have time for political games. I’ve got peoples whose lives are on the line. I’ve got peoples whose homes and their possessions are on the line, and we are focused 100 percent on that mission. I’m not worried about playing her political games. And so she is being selfish by trying to blunder into this, when we’re working just fine,” he continued.
The Hill has reached out to the Harris campaign for a response.
Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall Wednesday evening in Tampa, Fla., which has not been directly hit by a hurricane in more than a century. Evacuation orders are underway for much of the area, and officials are urging the public not to delay in heeding their officials’ advice.
DeSantis said Monday he has suspended tolls in order to facilitate an easier evacuation process.