In a heated exchange on Sunday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused a CNN reporter of questioning Lee County’s evacuation schedule ahead of Hurricane Ian.
The debate took place as the Sunshine State struggled to recover from last week’s catastrophic hurricane, which claimed scores of lives, left millions without electricity, and completely destroyed neighborhoods along the Gulf Coast. According to the Lee County Sheriff, at least 35 individuals have been officially pronounced dead in Lee County, where the city of Fort Myers was essentially destroyed.
“Do you support Lee County’s choice to delay the mandatory evacuation until the day before the storm?” Nadia Romero of CNN questioned the Republican governor.
DeSantis defended the county’s preparedness, pointing out authorities carefully watched the hurricane’s path while making sure shelters were ready. He said that the county had excellent grounds to assume it would avoid a direct strike in the days before the storm made landfall.
They had to base their judgments, according to DeSantis, “on the weather track, which they were tracking. But, you know, after 72 hours, they still weren’t even within the cone; after 48 hours, they were just outside it. Therefore, you must make the best choices you can with the data you have available at the time. I’ll say that they spread the word to people, they opened shelters, and everyone had enough time to at least get to one in the county.”
DeSantis claimed that many locals remained indoors because they believed Tampa would be affected most along the storm’s northern path.
He stated, “I think it’s easy to second-guess them, but they were prepared the entire time and made the call when there was a good reason to do so.”
Before Tuesday, Romero pointed out that several of the adjacent counties had evacuation orders in effect.
“Well, right,” DeSantis said before going on to explain that early predictions had the hurricane striking a different region of the state and that it had just been discovered by officials a few hours prior to the storm’s arrival where it would make landfall.
The tape was shared on Twitter by the DeSantis War Room account for his reelection campaign, which accused the reporter of spreading false information.
“Today: CNN reporter interrogates Governor DeSantis in an effort to advance a false narrative on the evacuation of Lee County. He shuts him down quickly. He responds in a professional, straightforward, and sympathetic manner with zero tolerance for deceit.”
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This still insist on engaging in a battle of wits UNARMED!!
Please restate your opinion clearly because gibberish is unacceptable. Thank you if you comply.
Truly Pettine,what u just stated is ,well gibberish sometimes something’s r better left unsaid u feel me?
Way to go Gov Ron, they’re not give up the trying to get under your skin, these people don’t have a clue how or ware these hurricanes comes from or going, they are only knows what their meterlogists tells them which is by the way useless because it’s usually wrong. Because they came from a woke colleges
De Santis is a great guy with the right values for ourn country, some stupid reporter trying to make a name for hers elves just got her what she desirves.
Isn’t it weird how reporters suddenly become experts after the fact. Did they even bother to check with what local weather authorities were saying before they approached the governor? Of course not. NOBODY handles such things better than the people in Florida. Who has more experience?
This cunt would have never asked the Governor of NY why recovery from lightweight storm Sandy was badly stalled one year later?
Like most liberal reporters (a better term would be a disruptor for ambiguity’s sake} who try to outsmart DeSantis get duly and promptly educated to the truth by the governor.
TO HELL WITH CNN ( COMMUNIST NEWS NETWORK ) ANYTHING YOU SAY THEY WILL TRY AND TURN AGAINST YOU UNLESS YOU’RE A LEFTY LIBERAL .
Isn’t “CNN Reporter” an oxymoron?
Wouldnt give a CNN reporter the sweat off my nuts
Wow! It’s good to see there are still smart people out there! CNN is the f****** worst!