Did Gov. Ron DeSantis snub Joe Biden because he feared the president might hug him?
That’s not the likely reason, but his actual excuse for the discourtesy makes even less sense, and it reveals much about the governor and the president.
A bit of history: Then-Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican, introduced the new Democratic president, Barack Obama, in Fort Myers in 2009. Crist asked the crowd to give the president “a warm Florida welcome,” and instead of a handshake, Obama offered a brief hug. That “killed my Republican career,” Crist recalled.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Barack Obama and Charlie Crist hug on stage in Fort Myers in 2009.Hard-line Republicans never forgave or forgot. Crist had to run for the Senate as an independent and lost. He was elected to the U.S. House as a Democrat and lost to DeSantis last November.
The spiteful political punishment over a friendly gesture demonstrated how corrosively partisan American politics had become. It gets seriously in the way of doing good for the people.
That corrosion was evident again when DeSantis refused to meet Biden during the president’s brief visit last Saturday to see Hurricane Idalia’s devastation across North Florida.
Yesterday as Biden visited Live Oak, Florida to see the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, he was asked about Governor Ron DeSantis not showing up to tour the area with him.
He had every opportunity to attack DeSantis, to make things political, and to likely harm DeSantis…
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) September 3, 2023
No objections raised
Biden won’t hold that against the people of Florida. He will say yes, of course, rather than no the next time DeSantis asks for a federal disaster declaration.
Biden did more than sign the last one. He paid DeSantis the courtesy of phoning him to say he had done it and that he would be visiting the scene two days later. He did that knowing how fervently DeSantis craves his job.
According to the White House, DeSantis did not object to the visit. Biden apparently expected they would meet. So did nearly everyone.
Then, DeSantis said they would not. He even appeared to criticize Biden for coming.
“It would be very disruptive,” DeSantis said, “to have this whole kind of security apparatus” interfering with hurricane recovery.
Really? DeSantis made no such objections and in fact met with Biden during the president’s earlier visits after Hurricane Ian last year and the Surfside condominium collapse in 2021. That was before he became an announced candidate for president.
The White House said last Saturday’s visit was coordinated with FEMA and state and local leaders “to ensure there is no impact on response operations.” Biden saw the damage to Live Oak from a helicopter and met with people and the media once, at Gainesville.
It was petty and churlish for DeSantis to not be there.
Makes no political sense
It was also senseless politically, costing him an opportunity to show the nation that he can put politics aside for the sake of his people.
Up to that point, he and his administration had been coping very well with the aftermath of Idalia. Downed trees were cleared speedily from all major highways and power restoration proceeded quickly. While the bigger obstacles are ahead, when insurance payments and repairs come slowly or not at all, DeSantis had been performing just as capably as Floridians have come to expect of our governors when disaster strikes.
Sen. Rick Scott, no slouch at partisanship himself, set politics aside to meet Biden at Gainesville. That was to his credit, and it put DeSantis to shame.
Presidential visits and the necessary security measures can, as DeSantis said, interfere with recovery work. That is why they’re usually delayed, as Biden did this time, until the immediate crisis is over.
But the public expects them. President George W. Bush’s popularity plummeted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina after he allowed himself to be pictured aboard Air Force One, looking down at the devastation in New Orleans, which he didn’t visit. It made him seem aloof and uncaring.
At such times, whether a natural disaster or a human-induced tragedy like a mass shooting, the people want to know that their presidents and governors do care. It is reassuring, and the best way to do that is to be with people on the ground.
While it’s true that showing concern is good politics, the presidential visit also dramatizes the federal government’s indispensable role in helping states and communities recover from disasters that would be difficult if not impossible for them to master on their own.
But that mission, and a public show of cooperation, is inconsistent with the modern impulse of some politicians to demonize the government and politicize everything. Seeking federal aid doesn’t mix with all that anti-government propaganda.
The aisle becomes a chasm
Politicians in Florida and Washington used to seek friendships across the aisle. Even Ronald Reagan had a cordial personal relationship with the Democratic House Speaker, Tip O’Neill.
Now, most are afraid to be seen making nice.
Not Biden.
On hearing last week of a second incident in which Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, was momentarily unable to answer questions, the president said he would call him.
“Mitch is a friend, you know,” Biden said, adding quickly, “not a joke.”
It is sad that he thought he had to say that.
Biden built his career on friendship despite politics. DeSantis would be a better politician, and a better governor, by following that example.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at .
