DeSantis denies ghosting Harris on hurricane aid: 'I didn't know she called'

TALLAHASSEE—Gov. Ron DeSantis denied a Monday report claiming he dodged Vice President Kamala Harris's phone calls about storm recovery soon after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it's "up to him" if Florida wants to accept hurricane assistance.

Gov. DeSantis told reporters at a Tallahassee press briefing that while he was aware of the story, broken by NBC News hours earlier, he "didn't know" that Vice President Harris had called him, and believed that some of the report's characterizations were adlibbed by the media organization.

"No, I didn’t know she called me. I saw that [story], but I was not aware of that," DeSantis said. He explained that while he's "thankful" that President Joe Biden approved all of Florida's requests for aid amid two back-to-back major hurricanes, he won't hesitate to "get on the horn" should the need arise.

"I'm not sure who [NBC] called—they didn't call me," he continued when pressed further. "Their characterization of it was something that they did—it wasn't anything that anybody in my office did in terms of saying that it was political."

On Monday afternoon, NBC wrote that a DeSantis aide said the Florida Governor was ignoring Harris' calls because they "seemed political."

"Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn't answer," the aide said.

Soon after NBC's story, ABC wrote that a "source close to the governor" confirmed to them that he refused to take the call because it was "politically motivated." It is unclear if the two organizations' sources are the same person.

When asked about the alleged ghosting of the Vice President, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "If you have the president and you have the vice president reaching out to offer up assistance...that's where...it is up to him if he wants to respond to us or not."

Despite this, Jean-Pierre said the Biden-Harris administration is still working with Florida officials to provide assistance ahead of Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph. As of Monday evening, it's the most intense Atlantic hurricane since 2007.

Just over 700 miles southwest of Tampa and lingering above the Yucatan Peninsula, the monstrous Milton is predicted to follow a similar path to Hurricane Helene, which slammed into the Big Bend less than two weeks ago, ushering in massive flooding in its wake.

The difference?

While Helene, a Category 4 storm, severely damaged the Tampa Bay area, its landfall point was hundreds of miles north in Taylor County. Milton, a far stronger storm, is predicted to barrel directly into the Tampa-Clearwater area at some point between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. If Milton makes landfall on Thursday, it will be exactly two weeks since Helene hit the Sunshine State, claiming over 230 lives across six states.

As a result, 51 counties are under a declared state of emergency, 12 of which have some sort of evacuation order in place.