CNN contributor Adam Kinzinger said Friday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that it was “outrageous” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) does not plan to join President Joe Biden when the president tours Hurricane Idalia’s devastation.
Host John Berman said, “I want to shift gears to what we started this block on, which was this confusion over whether President Biden will meet with Governor Ron DeSantis when Biden goes down to Florida to view the hurricane damage tomorrow. Do you think the DeSantis team is worried about the logistics of it, as they said in a statement, or is it more about the optics?”
Kinzinger said, “There’s a 1 to 2% chance it’s logistics. There’s a 98 to 99% chance it’s the optics. Look, politics has become, from even ten years ago when there were moments you could put politics aside and do what you were actually elected to do, which is lead, help, all that kind of stuff. It has now infected everything.”
He continued, “Ron DeSantis, at the cost of the benefit to Florida, has decided his political campaign cannot have him meet with Joe Biden, the president of the United States, who ultimately will be signing the checks that Florida is going to be begging for. I mean, it is absolutely outrageous.”
Kinzinger added, “I couldn’t imagine being governor of any state having a tragedy like that and then turning around and thinking about how this could affect my election. It’s just where we’re at now, and people have to just reject that.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN