Speaker 1: Hurricane Ian is bearing down on the state of Florida after ravaging Cuba.
We've talked about it to some degree.
As of this moment, two and a half million Floridians are without power.
And we are told that fatalities are in the hundreds.
The federal government should do what it can to help Florida.
That is my position.
It has been the case with hurricanes in other states and tornadoes and whatever else.
I am consistent on that issue.
But many Republicans are not.
We've seen so many Republicans vote against federal funding for disasters in other states,
but then go and beg the federal government for help when the disaster is in their state.
That gets us to Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Ron DeSantis, who has been one of the wildest critics of President Joe Biden, is now all
of a sudden being very nice because he needs Joe Biden's help.
He needs the federal government's help.
What happened to Florida being a big boy, patriotic, self-sufficient state who doesn't
need anybody's help and they have all the freedom in the world?
Well, all of a sudden they're issuing mandatory evacuation orders, which I agree with, but
they're not exactly the freedom that Ron DeSantis has touted.
All of a sudden, DeSantis wants federal cash for disaster relief, even though DeSantis
in 2013 voted no for Superstorm Sandy relief funding for New York and New Jersey.
Is he a hypocrite?
Of course he is.
But it's been really funny watching him try to equip a equivocate when being interviewed
by Sean HANNITY on Fox News, which we're going to get you in a moment.
Newsweek article DeSantis Praises Biden as Florida Governor Changes Tone Before Hurricane
Ian.
What a surprise.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has expressed gratitude towards President Joe Biden for
his cooperation as Hurricane Ian is due to hit the state.
Let's take a look at the video clip, which you will find is the Santos singing a very
different tone about Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about you had a conversation with the president today earlier in the day.
There had been talk that the president spoke with mayors, but not you.
But apparently the president reached out to you tonight.
Can you tell us about that conversation?
And in the aftermath of this storm, what support Floridians can expect from the federal government?
Well, Sean, you know, what I said today is, you know, my phone lines open when people's
lives and their property are at risk like this.
You know, we all need to work together, right?
Speaker 1: When people's lives are at risk, we need to work together.
Otherwise, I'm going to tell horrible, corrosive lies.
Speaker 2: Are those the party lines?
The Biden administration has approved our request for a pre landfall declaration and
did that very quickly.
So so we're thankful for that.
Know obviously as this the impacts are known you know there's going to be more requests,
particularly for individual assistance for Floridians that may have been displaced.
You know, and it's my sense that the administration wants to help.
I think they realize that this is a really significant storm.
And there's a lot of people that, you know, we're working with the locals.
We work very well with them, of course, at the state level.
But we really need everyone working together to make sure people have their needs tended
to.
Speaker 1: This is about a bunch of different things, so let's see if we can go through
it.
First of all, is DeSantis a hypocrite on this issue of federal funding?
Of course he is, and so many Republicans are.
You had members, elected officials from the Midwest who were begging for money for tornado
recovery, who had voted against money for New York and New Jersey, for Superstorm Sandy
recovery back in 2013.
And I could go on the list is so long and the earthquakes the Rand Paul, Kentucky all
these different they're all hypocrites.
Okay.
So that's one layer.
And DeSantis is, of course, a hypocrite.
Second thing.
When DeSantis talks about this is not the time for pettiness, this is not the time for
political division, etc..
He's agreeing that much of what he does is simply petty and when it's inconvenient.
Or whether he believes that people's lives are actually on the line.
He didn't seem to believe it with COVID, but now with the hurricane, he seems to.
All of a sudden he goes, Now, this isn't the time for any of that.
Now we're just going to behave like normal people and we're actually going to work together
because we actually need something here.
So that's the second thing is he's essentially admitting a lot of his his nonsense is completely
petty and merely political.
But then there's a third aspect, which is that Ron DeSantis is on the gubernatorial
ballot in, what is it, five weeks, five and a half weeks or something like that.
He will either be reelected the governor of Florida, potentially bullying him into running
for president in 2024 or he will lose to Charlie Crist.
Now, the polling looks fine for DeSantis right now, for the most part, save one recent poll.
But DeSantis is also acting this way out of self-preservation because he realizes, much
like Trump's COVID response destroyed Trump's reelection and much like bad disaster responses
in other states have dramatically impacted the approval ratings of those leaders.
Think Greg Abbott in Texas.
Although Abbott has now recovered, it's been long enough he'll probably still win reelection
to governor against Beto in Texas.
DeSantis realizes that the timing of this hurricane, if there were to be a bad response,
would be really bad for his reelection.
So that's what's happening.
Oh, and then there's a fourth aspect to this as well, the Trump narcissistic style.
Is extraordinarily transactional.
And so to some degree, this is also DeSantis thinking to himself.
If I'm nicer to Biden on TV, the federal government might give us more money.
And of course, Biden knows that this is what the Santos is doing.
But to praise Biden, quite frankly, Biden doesn't care.
Biden realizes that it's his job to say yes when Americans need something.
Americans in Florida need something right now, so Biden's going to get them the money.
Biden's not perfect.
There's no doubt about it.
But on this, there is a really sharp contrast between Biden and Trump.
Trump, even in situations of disaster relief, is extraordinarily petty and narcissistic
and political.
Biden's just going to send the money.
Biden doesn't really care whether Ron DeSantis is being nice to him on TV or not.
So there's DeSantis all of a sudden saying No.
I mean, things are going fine with Biden and we know all the reasons why.
Four different layers as to why this is what's
going on.