LIVE OAK, Fla.—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.
President Biden, who praised Mr. DeSantis during the visit, said he was not disappointed by the governor’s absence and said Mr. DeSantis had helped plan the trip.
Mr. DeSantis’s spokesperson said on Friday the governor had no plans to meet President Biden, saying “the security preparations alone that would go in to setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts.”
President Biden took an aerial tour and received a briefing from local officials and first responders in Live Oak, a town that was hit hard by the storm.
But politics hung over his trip. The president, who has spoken to Mr. 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.
Asked if he was disappointed Mr. DeSantis did not come, President Biden said no.
“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,” President Biden told reporters, while standing in front of a damaged house.
President Biden said he was pleased that Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a Republican former governor of Florida, had come despite their disagreements on many issues. Mr. Scott, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, wore a hat that said “Navy” on the front and “45” on the back. President Trump was the 45th U.S. president.
Mr. DeSantis, 44, spent the day about 50 miles south, touring small communities along Florida’s Gulf Coast, according to his official schedule.
Responding to an earlier question on Saturday on what had happened to the meeting, President Biden had told reporters: “I don’t know. He’s not going to be there.”
Mr. DeSantis is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to oust President Biden from the White House, but trails President Trump in opinion polls. President Biden, 80, is running for reelection.
President Biden and Mr. DeSantis have spoken regularly this week about the storm, which pummeled Florida’s Big Bend region with Category 3 winds of nearly 125 mph. On Wednesday, the president said politics had not crept into their conversations.
