| Good morning. I hope you are safe following Hurricane Ian. Last time I sent out this newsletter, it was just making landfall. Since then, much of the storm's devastation has come into view, including a death toll that appears to include roughly 100 people so far, with at least 1,700 people still in shelters. Tampa Bay Times reporters have been working hard traveling to the hardest-hit areas to tell the stories of the people who live there. Just a small sample of those stories include a family's scramble to find their grandfather on Pine Island after its only bridge partially collapsed; shrimpers from Fort Myers Beach who rode out the storm on their boats but now worry for their livelihood; and this man, once Aerosmith's photographer, who was ready to die during the storm — but is now happy to be alive. — Emily L. Mahoney, emahoney@tampabay.com |
| Gov. DeSantis and President Biden stand together in Fort Myers |
| The Rundown: It was an extraordinary image. Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Joe Biden — political rivals who not long ago were trading barbs in the press over DeSantis' migrant flights — took turns yesterday at the lectern in Fort Myers and thanked each other for their work tackling hurricane recovery. "I think we've worked as well across state, local and federal (governments) of any disaster that I've seen," DeSantis said. "We are cutting through the bureaucracy. We are cutting through the red tape and that's from local government, state government, all the way up to the president. So we appreciate the team effort." "We're here today with Gov. DeSantis and Sen. (Marco) Rubio and Sen. (Rick) Scott, Congressman (Byron) Donalds — you know, today we have one job and only one job. And that's to make sure the people of Florida get everything that they need to fully, thoroughly recover," Biden said. "This is about America coming together." There was one slightly awkward moment when DeSantis, during his remarks, stated: "I was in Sanibel today — you can go over it in a helicopter and you see damage, but it does not do it justice until you are actually on the ground and you see concrete utility poles sawed off, right in half." Biden, who had just finished an aerial tour of the damage by helicopter, smiled while standing behind him. "I'm sure it's much worse on the ground, but you can see a whole hell of a lot of the damage from the air," Biden then said shortly after starting his speech. But when asked by reporters how the governor has performed in his response, Biden responded: “I think he’s done a good job," according to the White House pool report. "We worked hand in glove. We have very different political philosophies ... on things related to dealing with this crisis, we’ve been completely lockstep. There’s been no difference." Biden also told reporters that DeSantis has recognized the reality of climate change: "The biggest thing that the governor’s done, and so many others have done, they’ve recognized this thing called global warming. The world is changing," he said. It was an interesting comment because DeSantis has not publicly talked much about global warming, though a priority of his administration has been focused on dealing with its effects, including sea level rise. “What I’ve found is, people when they start talking about things like global warming, they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want to do anyways," DeSantis said at an event last year, according to the Florida Phoenix. After the joint news conference ended, the two men shook hands and had a conversation away from the microphones, alongside their wives, for several minutes, which was shown on the C-SPAN video feed. Read more about Biden's visit to Florida here. Meanwhile, there are also signs that Florida's midterm politics, which hit pause during the storm, have already come roaring back. |
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