Florida governor Ron DeSantis has claimed that “regime media” wanted Hurricane Ian to strike Tampa as it would better “advance their agenda”.
A week after the category 4 hurricane struck, leaving more than 100 people dead and causing billions of dollars of damage, Mr DeSantis has continued to insist that all Floridians received a warning to evacuate in good time.
This included people in places such as Lee County, location of many of the deaths, and which issued an evacuation order a day after other areas.
Many had believed the storm would hit Tampa. As it was, Ian shifted south and delivered a devastating blow to Ft Myers Beach and Sanibel Island, both on Lee Island.
Speaking to conservative media outlet Florida’s Voice, Mr DeSantis said he was fed up with the “pissing match” that he claimed was going on.
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He was asked by Editor-in-Chief Brendon Leslie if the media ought to be “held accountable”, given it had been reporting that Tampa was likely to be hit.
“Quite frankly, you have national regime media that… wanted to see Tampa, because they thought that would be worse for Florida. That’s how these people think,” Mr DeSantis said. “They don’t care about the people of this state. They don’t care about the people of this community. They want to use storms and destruction from storms as a way to advance their agenda.”
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He added: “And they don’t care what destruction’s in their wake. They don’t care about the lives here. If they can use it to pursue their political agenda, they will do it.”
Mr DeSantis, who has previously clashed with reporters from outlets such as CNN when he was pressed about his handling of the pandemic response, did not specify which outlets he was referring to.
He also provided no evidence to back up the claim that the media wanted to see Tampa struck, and his interviewer did not ask for it.
