DeSantis and Biden Won’t Meet in Florida During Tour of Hurricane Damage

President Joe Biden said on Friday that he would meet with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Saturday during a visit to tour the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, the Category 3 storm that hit the state’s Gulf Coast and swept across the Southeast this week.

But DeSantis’ office said Friday that the governor had no such plans.

The unusual miscue between the two chief executives — and potential 2024 rivals — came after Biden said during a visit to FEMA headquarters in Washington on Thursday that he would head south to see the damage.

“I’m going to Florida Saturday morning,” Biden said.

While Biden did not provide details about the trip, on Friday morning he responded to a reporter’s question about whether he planned to see DeSantis in Florida, saying simply, “Yes.”

DeSantis’ office said otherwise.

“We don’t have any plans for the governor to meet with the president tomorrow,” Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary, said later Friday. “In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts.”

Asked about the statement from the governor’s office, a White House official said: “The president informed the governor yesterday before his visit to FEMA. The governor did not express concerns at that time. The visit was closely coordinated with FEMA, state and local officials to ensure there is no impact to ongoing response operations.”

As Hurricane Idalia approached and then swept through Florida this week, DeSantis had four phone calls with Biden, which both sides described as productive — a stark change from how DeSantis talks about the president in seeking the Republican nomination to run against Biden in 2024. Both Biden and the governor have said they are putting politics aside in the aftermath of the storm.

“We have to deal with supporting the needs of the people who are in harm’s way or have difficulties,” DeSantis said earlier this week. “And that has got to triumph over any type of short-term political calculation or any type of positioning.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/us/politics/biden-desantis-florida-hurricane-idalia.html">The New York Times</a>.