Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis engaged in verbal combat with a legacy media reporter after he was asked if he thought President-elect Donald Trump was “politicizing” the vastly destructive wildfires near Los Angeles by blaming the situation on Democratic leaders like Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
“Is it appropriate for a president-elect or a president to be criticizing…” a reporter could be heard asking DeSantis, who cut off her question.
Is it appropriate for people in your industry to try to create division and to try to create narratives anytime these things happen?” DeSantis, who, along with dozens of other GOP governors, met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, shot back. “Now, you’re not as interested in doing that because Newsom is a D. If Newsom was a Republican, you guys would go try to, you would have him nailed to the wall for what they’re doing over there.
“And I know we’ve dealt with it. We just assume in Florida, anytime something happens, it’s going to be politicized by the media. So you guys sitting in judgment of Donald Trump, I mean, excuse me, I think your track record of politicizing these things is very, very bad,” he continued.
“But Trump said Newsom should resign and that the wildfires are all his fault. So do you agree with those comments?” the reporter pushed.
I’ve had — I remember when we had the Surfside Tower collapse. I had people from the Washington Post trying to blame me for it immediately without having any facts or anything. Oh, he didn’t declare a state of emergency. First of all, state of emergency doesn’t mean you can’t respond,” DeSantis said. “It’s all that.”
“Biden didn’t,” the report claimed.
“Well, but what I’m telling you is you guys are trying to make an issue of it. When I have watched from this seat, in fact, when I got elected governor, I was meeting with some of the other Republican governors and what they would say is, ‘Hey, if you have a natural disaster, just know media’s coming at you,’” the Florida governor continued.