DeSantis Slams ‘Crap Online’ Being Spread About Hurricane, Clears Up Anti-FEMA Claim

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) took questions during a presser on Wednesday ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall in the state and was asked to address the pernicious disinformation being spread online.

“So obviously, this storm is very dangerous. And you have been pushing for evacuations alone. But there’s also misinformation out there that I believe that I think even a member of your team is trying to dispel online. I know the FEMA administrator brought up other reports of misinformation. I just want to know your thoughts?” asked an off-camera reporter.

DeSantis replied, “What specific misinformation are you talking about?”

“There is one. I don’t want to — there was one tweet that was telling people not to evacuate because there was some collusion between FEMA and a security team that wouldn’t let people back into their homes. That was obviously,” added the reporter as DeSantis jumped in.

“Guys, listen. Listen, I think most people are wise to this. You know, we live in an era where if you put out crap online, you can get a lot of people to share it and you can monetize that. That’s just the way it is,” replied the governor of the misinformation being spread primarily to criticize FEMA and the Biden administration.

“But if you’re hearing things, something that’s just outrageous, just know in the state of Florida, none of that stuff, whatever fly. So you don’t have to worry about that. FEMA is not leading this this show. We are leading the show here in the state of Florida. We’re marshaling whatever assets are available to us. We’re leveraging that. But certainly with people evacuating and my executive order I put in on Saturday that the default is you have a right to immediately return to your home following the storm,” DeSantis insisted, adding:

Now, there may be some circumstances that are not usual, but I mean, if a bridge is about to collapse, if there’s real massive hazards, if there’s active rescues going on. But the default is you get back. You can’t just say, we’re just going to keep people off for for 48 hours because we think it’ll be easier to clean up debris. No, no, no, no. This is your private property. This is your home. You have a right to go back. So that’s in our executive order.

That will be something that we did that we worked towards to make sure that that’s the case. It’s important that people are able to get back. And I’d also note, you know, we talk about the debris. Got all this debris. Right. These contractors, some of them, we’re doing a lousy job. Others weren’t. And we decided to take it on ourselves to go really search people and supplement that. But by keeping the landfills open 24/7, there’s a lot of private citizens doing clean-up.

Christina Pushaw, a DeSantis aide, has been smacking down false claims on X – including the one DeSantis was asked about. Pushaw also clarified that Floridians all have access to free shelter after Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr’s fiancée, claimed online that FEMA isn’t paying for hotels for evacuees, but is for migrants.

Many on the right, including former President Donald Trump , have been pushing false claims that both Democratic leaders and FEMA are intentionally not helping Republicans impacted by Hurricane Helene — also wrongly claiming that FEMA funds were going to migrants instead of hurricane victims.

Watch the clip above via CNN.