Ron DeSantis has proven that he is a very competent governor during this most recent hurricane, and he doesn’t need Joe Biden to show up to take pictures with him.

On Friday, Joe Biden announced that he would be going to Florida to tour the area that Hurricane Idalia damaged. Now, he and DeSantis have been in communication (apparently through phone calls) as you would assume the governor of a state and the president would be after a natural disaster. Let’s be honest, though – Biden needs an image boost. DeSantis, by all accounts, has done very well in preparing and responding to the damage that Idalia has done. The Biden team, on the other hand, knows that the Big Guy took a bad hit over his “no comment” on Maui – so bad, in fact, that they were STILL walking it back weeks after he said it, claiming that old Joe simply couldn’t hear the question. (Let’s not even go into how insane Joe was when he finally went to Maui and talked about that kitchen fire again.) And now, presented with a “do-over” attempt, Biden is going to Florida within three days of the hurricane touching down.

This sudden "look how focused I am on Maui" is everything to do with how DeSantis handled Florida. Just a completely deprived old man driven by the politics of optics and nothing else.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 31, 2023

This is always about optics, especially when Team Biden knows how badly he screwed up in Maui. Never mind that East Palestine is still waiting for THEIR promised presidential visit.

So naturally, Biden is looking to have a photo-op with DeSantis, and commented on Friday that he would be meeting with the governor.

Biden, a Democrat who is running for re-election next year, told reporters at the White House on Friday that he would see DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination to challenge Biden in 2024, during the trip.

Team DeSantis, however, does not need those optics.

The governor’s office, in a statement, said the visit will disrupt recovery efforts.

“We don’t have any plans for the Governor to meet with the President tomorrow,” said Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ spokesperson, in a statement. “In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts.”

The White House on Friday night said the president and first lady Jill Biden will still travel to Florida Saturday, along with Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It remains unclear where and what time they will be in Florida.

“Their visit to Florida has been planned in close coordination with FEMA as well as state and local leaders to ensure there is no impact on response operations,” the White House said in a statement.

It’s pretty clear that Biden wishes to be seen as responding in quick time to a disaster area, especially after the Maui debacle. It’s also clear that DeSantis wants no part of it, and plans on giving Biden a wide berth. Was Biden really thinking that DeSantis would welcome him with open arms, like Chris Christie welcoming Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy? Who knows, this is the same old man who thinks his house almost burned down in a small kitchen fire.

Now, is it politically touchy for DeSantis to avoid Biden? A little, but there is no up side for DeSantis to meet with Biden, either. Thankfully, there have been no deaths directly attributed to the hurricane, though there are two car crash deaths due to the rain. So the aftermath of the hurricane has been property damage, flooding, and power outages. With no deaths, there is no call for Biden’s so-called “empathy.” DeSantis can easily let Biden go touring with FEMA administrator Criswell, and let Senator Rick Scott go on the presidential photo-op instead.

Tomorrow, I’ll be in Suwannee County with @POTUS to receive a briefing from local officials and meet with families impacted by Hurricane #Idalia. I’ll be urging him to support the immediate passage of my Federal Disaster Responsibility Act – families in Florida and across the…

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) September 2, 2023

In this way, the Florida delegation is still represented, and Ron DeSantis avoids having a photo-op with Biden while they are both running for president – something that Team Biden probably was hoping for, but that Team Trump was likely salivating over. You can’t tell me that the Trump campaign wouldn’t have LOVED a photo or video of DeSantis and Biden together to use in an ad.

It’s clear that DeSantis did an excellent job with the preparation and response to Hurricane Idalia. Just how good a job? Good enough that the Florida Democrats are complaining. Not about how he handled the storm, but that he won’t be meeting with Joe Biden.

Tomorrow, President Biden will visit Florida to survey damage from Hurricane #Idalia. In times of crisis, the American people expect our leaders to put aside their differences but @RonDeSantis is proving again — he will always put politics over people. https://t.co/LPunPzGW3d

— Florida Democrats (@FlaDems) September 1, 2023

If that’s all they have to whine about, then DeSantis has done a superbly competent job, and he definitely doesn’t need a Biden-sized headache. Let FEMA show him around for the optics, and then Biden will shuffle his way back off to the beach in Delaware, and then will go suck up to the labor unions in Philadelphia on Labor Day. Gotta get those photo ops in for the campaign ads before they put Joe back in the basement again!

Featured image: composite collage photo of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida (official portrait, cropped, public domain) and President Joe Biden (official White House portrait, cropped, public domain)