President Joe Biden traveled to Florida on Saturday to survey the destruction from Hurricane Idalia and comfort victims of the storm, but he did not meet Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential presidential rival, who opted not to come.
Biden, who praised DeSantis during the visit, said he was not disappointed by the governor's absence and said DeSantis had helped plan the trip.
But politics hung over his trip. The president, who has spoken to DeSantis multiple times this week, had said on Friday they would meet in person. The decision by the governor caught the White House off guard."No, I'm not disappointed. He may have had other reasons. … But he did help us plan this. He sat with FEMA and decided where we should go, where would be the least disruption," Biden told reporters, while standing in front of a damaged house.
Responding to an earlier question on Saturday on what had happened to the meeting, Biden had told reporters: "I don't know. He's not going to be there." When Biden visited Florida after Hurricane Ian, a photo of DeSantis standing awkwardly to the side as Biden talked animatedly with a local couple went viral, highlighting the difference between the two politicians' styles of public interaction.
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