Politico has seemingly politicized Hurricane Ian as it closed in on Florida. A few short hours after the post was published, a reporter at Gov. DeSantis' press conference last night decided to politicize it again. The journalist says concern raises over Florida's supposedly "lax" hurricane response, which DeSantis immediately shuts down. "Stop politicizing it," he demands from the journalist.
DeSantis War Room posted the footage last night, saying that "the media can't help themselves- everything must be politicized." Additionally, they say "no opportunity to smear opponents is too low."
The media can't help themselves - everything must be politicized. No opportunity to smear opponents is too low. This reporter misrepresented FEMA Director's words@RonDeSantisFL won't accept it. He'll always stand up for Florida & our world class emergency response professionals pic.twitter.com/Uemzm5vcPH
— DeSantis War Room ? (@DeSantisWarRoom) September 27, 2022
"The media can't help themselves - everything must be politicized. No opportunity to smear opponents is too low. This reporter misrepresented FEMA Director's words @RonDeSantisFL won't accept it. He'll always stand up for Florida & our world class emergency response professionals," stated the DeSantis war room.
In the footage itself, the journalist says "FEMA Administrator Criswell acknowledged concerns that Florida's, as we've said, lax response to this storm so far..." DeSantis immediately strikes back. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa, give me a break."
"That is nonsense," he counters, "stop politicizing, okay? Stop it." DeSantis then elaborates on how "we declared a state of emergency when this thing wasn't even formed. We've had people in here, we've had counties doing... they've done a lot of hard work."
DeSantis acknowledges the reporter would attack him, but he is also, by proxy, attacking the emergency responders and local officials coordinating the response. "And honestly, you're trying to attack me, I get. But like you're attacking these other people who work very hard. And so that's just totally false, I don't think we've ever, since I've been governor, declared a state of emergency this early, we've made sure that we were very inclusive with it, we've said there was a lot of uncertainty and we've worked to make sure the preparations that have been done, and all this stuff. You talk to the people at the counties, when they've needed something, stuff gets there very quickly because of what Kevin and his team have done."
And here we were thinking Ian was going to hit hard.
