Joe Biden will inspect Hurricane Idalia damage in Florida, but will not meet with Ron DeSantis

Washington— President Joe Biden He will fly to Florida in the next few hours to inspect the damage caused by Hurricane Idalia, but will not have a meeting with the governor and candidate for the Republican presidential candidacy. Ron DeSantiswho suggested that the meeting could harm disaster response efforts.

“We have no plans for the governor to meet with the president,” DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said in a statement. “In these rural towns, so soon after the impact, the security preparations that such an encounter would require would paralyze recovery work.”

Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning in the Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane, causing flooding and severe damage before moving north to inundate Georgia and the Carolinas. But Biden visit to inspect damage could lead to political clashes since DeSantis statementhours after the president said Friday that he would meet with the governor.

White House spokeswoman Emilie Simons said that “President Biden and the first lady (Jill Biden) look forward to meeting with members of the population impacted by Hurricane Idalia and surveying the impacts of the storm.”

“The visit to Florida has been planned in close coordination” with personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), “as well as state and local leaders to ensure it does not impact operations,” Simons said in a statement. release.

After landing at the Gainesville airport, Biden will conduct an aerial inspection tour to Live Oak, where he will receive briefings on relief and recovery efforts and meet with officials and first responders. He will then see first-hand the impact of the storm on the population and will make statements.