Governor "avoids", Biden inspects Florida disaster area
US President Joseph Biden inspected the areas affected by Hurricane Idalia in Florida on the 2nd, but Florida Governor Ron de Santis chose not to meet with him. Multiple media outlets have reported that Biden's trip is full of "political color".
Currently, Democratic Biden has announced his candidacy for re-election as president, while Republican De Santis has also announced his candidacy for president, and his Republican campaign is only behind former Republican President Donald Trump. Multiple media outlets have reported that Biden and De Santis are potential opponents.
Regarding the Florida disaster, Biden and De Santis have had multiple communications over the past week, and the White House has said that the two will meet face-to-face. However, the Florida Governor's Office stated on September 1st that De Santis had no plans to meet with Biden, citing that "security preparations made solely to arrange such a meeting would bring ongoing recovery work to a halt.".
On the 2nd day, Biden conducted an aerial inspection of the disaster area by plane and went to the severely affected city of Lefrock to receive briefings from local officials and emergency personnel. When asked by media reporters if he was disappointed that De Santis did not come, Biden replied, "No, I am not disappointed. He may have other reasons..."
According to Biden, De Santis "helped arrange" this trip and, together with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, decided "where we should go and where there should be minimal interference.".
Despite Biden's efforts to downplay the impact of not meeting with De Santis, according to media reports such as Reuters, De Santis' decision to avoid Biden caught the White House off guard. According to the public schedule, on the day of Biden's inspection, De Santis inspected some small communities along the Gulf Coast of Florida.
According to Reuters, as the competition for presidential candidates within the Republican Party intensifies, there is undoubtedly a political risk for De Santis to be photographed standing next to Biden inspecting the disaster area. After Hurricane Ian in October last year, a photo of Biden and DeSantis during his inspection in Florida caught public attention. In the photo, Biden is talking to a local couple, while De Santis standing next to Biden is considered too awkward.
Although Biden did not see De Santis, he met former Florida Governor and Republican Congressman Rick Scott in Lefrock, and the two had a face-to-face conversation. However, the details widely noticed by the media are that Scott wore a hat with the number "45" printed on the back. Trump is the 45th President of the United States, and Scott has repeatedly expressed support for him. However, he later explained that the "45" on his hat referred to himself as the 45th Governor of Florida.
Dean Criswell, Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told media reporters that the absence of a meeting between Biden and De Santis will not have any impact on the reconstruction work in the disaster area. According to her statement, the search and rescue work in the disaster area has been completed, and the current focus is to restore power supply to the affected areas as soon as possible.
Idalia made landfall in Florida on August 30th as a Category 3 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. After nearly 36 hours, it was downgraded to a post tropical cyclone and left the east coast of the United States. Idaria has caused heavy rainfall in multiple states of the United States, resulting in at least three deaths from hurricane related events and hundreds of thousands of users experiencing power outages.