President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are traveling to Florida’s Big Bend region early Saturday to survey damage from Hurricane Idalia, but the president won’t be seeing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
A spokesperson for Mr. DeSantis, Florida Republican and 2024 presidential hopeful, said in a statement that setting up such a meeting could disrupt recovery efforts.
“We don’t have any plans for the governor to meet with the president,” said Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for Mr. DeSantis. “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.”
Mr. Biden announced that he would be meeting with Mr. DeSantis hours before the governor opted to nix the summit. The pair previously met when Hurricane Ian ravaged the state last year.
A spokesperson for the White House emphasized after the meeting’s cancellation that the Bidens’ visit would not impact local recovery efforts.
“Their visit to Florida has been planned in close coordination with FEMA as well as state and local leaders to ensure there is no impact on response operations,” said Emilie Simons, a White House spokesperson.
Instead, Mr. Biden will meet with Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, Suwannee County Chair Franklin White, and Live Oak Mayor Frank Davis.
The president and first lady are expected to take an aerial tour of areas impacted by Idalia on the way to Live Oak. From there, Mr. Biden will receive a briefing on response and recovery efforts, and then will tour a community impacted by the storm.
The president authorized a major disaster declaration after the storm made landfall, which opened up federal assets to be sent to the area. That flow of federal aid includes 1,500 federal personnel on the ground, 540 urban search and rescue personnel operating in the area, three disaster survivor assistance teams to help residents impacted by Idalia, and millions of meals and liters of water for states impacted by the hurricane that request assistance.
– This story includes wire reports.
