Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn't like reporters, except if they're from Fox News: He appears more often than some regular contributors on the network where he built much of his promising public profile.
Last Wednesday, the day Hurricane
Ian
made landfall in the southwestern part of the peninsula with category four and winds of 250 kilometers per hour, connected live with Tucker Carlson, star presenter of conservative television: "As you say, Tucker, we live in a very politicized time," admitted DeSantis .
"But, you know, when people are fighting for their lives, when other things are at stake, when you've lost everything, it's bad if you can't put politics aside."
The Republican president, the only one who today could aspire to overshadow Donald Trump in a presidential primaries of his party in 2024, was confident that he would receive from the enemy, Joe Biden, a help that was granted:
Major (maximum) disaster declaration and full government funding for the first 60 days of FEMA relief efforts.
"Amen," Carlson said, "That's the spirit."
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The lethal trip of 'Ian' through the State of Florida
This Wednesday, just a week after
Ian
began his devastating journey through large areas of southwest, central and northeast Florida, Biden travels to the area with the death toll, already above 109 victims, still not closed .
On Monday he visited Puerto Rico: the island is still convalescing from the last hurricane,
Fiona
, which arrived without giving the population time to recover from the previous one,
María
.
The US president will meet with DeSantis for a briefing, but it is not clear whether the two will walk together through the scenes of the greatest devastation, in the city of Fort Myers, as Biden did last winter, for example, after the tornado that devastated towns in far western Kentucky.
His governor, Democrat Andy Beshear, did guide the president through the scenes of destruction.
The harmony of the last week between Biden and DeSantis, who have spoken several times on the phone and have praised their mutual predisposition to collaborate in the tragedy, is unprecedented, but both seem convinced to bury the hatchet in these complicated moments.
In DeSantis's case, the exercise is accompanied by symptoms of selective amnesia: When he was a young congressional senator back in 2013, he opposed the approval of a federal bailout for the New York region after Hurricane
Sandy.
He viewed it as irresponsible waste, a symbol of “that charge-it-all-credit-card mentality” that, as an elected official, he was determined to oppose from his responsibility in Washington.
Ron DeSantis offered a press conference in Cape Coral on Tuesday to update the information on Hurricane 'Ian'.JOE RAEDLE (AFP)
The truce between governor and president comes shortly after the last notorious disagreement.
The two have gotten entangled many times in the past, but perhaps not as much as when DeSantis paid three weeks ago with public money from Florida to send two planes with 48 Venezuelan immigrants, who were deceived from San Antonio to the island of Martha's Vineyard, Democratic stronghold and vacation spot for Presidents Kennedy, Clinton and Obama.
It was DeSantis's way of denouncing the failed policy of the Biden Administration on the matter and the migratory pressure of the States that share a border with Mexico.
The governors of two of them, Arizona and Texas, have been sending buses with irregular immigrants to cities like Chicago, New York or Washington for six months (some, to the door of Vice President Kamala Harris's house), but DeSantis' coup, that a Fox News writing team could have written, had a far greater effect.
Biden called the move "simply wrong," "un-American" and "reckless."
“There will be plenty of time to discuss the differences between the president and the governor.
But now is not the time,” Karine Jean-Pierre, a White House spokeswoman, responded Tuesday in her daily appearance to questions from the press about the chief's imminent visit to Florida.
“[Biden] is only concerned now that those people have what they need.
After Hurricane
Ian
, we are one.
And as one we are working”.
On whether the two will take the photo together or not, beyond that “briefing”, Jean-Pierre replied: “We know that the governor has a busy schedule as he is dealing with the aftermath of a catastrophic storm.
So I can't talk specifically about where he's going to be at any point in time on Wednesday."
In bell
It is true that DeSantis has not stopped: he has distributed waffles in Punta Gorda and hamburgers in Port Charlotte, he has ridden in an airboat to visit the residents of the flooded areas in the center of the peninsula and has flown over the damage in the region since a helicopter.
He has also made it clear to Orlando drivers who cares about them during tough times.
Since last week, the huge signs that cross the six-lane highways from side to side carry lights that say: "Free toll by order of the governor."
We must not forget that he is campaigning for re-election in November, a campaign with few incentives in which he faces Charlie Christ (who was a Republican governor between 2007 and 2011 and aspires to be the first Democrat to hold the reins of the State since 1994).
The polls give DeSantis a clear victory.
And
Ian
has been an opportunity to show himself close to his own, something that he does not always achieve (those who know him say that he shares with Richard Nixon, allergic to personal relationships, something more than conservative ideals).
Also, to prop up, by way of moderation, his presidential profile.
Few things could, however, upset his fans more than seeing him walk through the rubble of Lee County (where Trump won in 2020 with 60% of the vote) hand in hand with the Democratic leader and the first lady, Jill Biden, who also travels to Florida.
In St. Augustine, the last place in the state where
Ian
vented his fury, one of the houses in the flooded area received a visit from the governor this week with a giant sign that read: "Let's Go Brandon" (go ahead, Brandon) , coded message for “Fuck Joe Biden” (fuck Joe Biden).
The phrase has transcended the joke to become the watchword of the American right that is most dissatisfied with the performance of the president.
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