Now his own state needs cash, DeSantis is singing a different tune

He voted against federal funds being used for hurricane recovery efforts in New Jersey but now he needs them for Florida, writes Holly Baxter

Florida governor Ron DeSantis was left on his own to coordinate a response he clearly wasn’t equipped for, and now he’s taking the flak (AP)

Days after Hurricane Ian hit south Florida, Ron DeSantis is making the news all over again. Yes, that’s the same Ron DeSantis who sent planeloads of migrants to blue states and cities a couple of weeks ago, in a coordinated stunt with Texas governor Greg Abbott. Yes, that’s the same Ron DeSantis who kept Florida lockdown-free while its ageing population died of Covid. And yes, that’s the same Ron DeSantis who voted against federal funds being used for hurricane recovery efforts in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy hit the Democratic state in 2012.

Now that his own state needs the cash, however, DeSantis is singing a different tune. And Joe Biden has been pretty magnanimous about all of that, promising to support the governor and his state financially and planning a visit to Florida later this week. DeSantis is now of the opinion that the federal government should pick up 100 per cent of the bill for hurricane relief efforts, some of which have been complicated by the fact that evacuation orders were delayed for a lot of severely hit areas. In 2013, he expressed sympathy for Sandy’s victims but said that the government couldn’t afford to pay out a large amount of aid.