Hurricanes are a fact of life in Florida. Some 110 of them have hit the state since recordkeeping began in 1851. That said, when a Category 3 storm hits, it’s still a big deal and requires a massive recovery effort.

As Hurricane Milton drifts off into the Atlantic, millions of Floridians are once again left to put life back together. As of this morning, at least four people were killed, while wind damage is widespread and storm surge has flooded many cities along the state’s Gulf Coast. Again, that’s after Hurricane Helene hit the state’s Big Bend region on September 26 as a Category 4, killing 20 Floridians and destroying a huge swath of the Southeast (the death toll is well over 230).

“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” Governor Ron DeSantis said of Milton this morning. “The storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario.”

As I’ve written before, DeSantis has a good record dealing with multiple hurricanes during his tenure. He has provided the management model, and it’s a safe bet that he’ll continue demonstrating that leadership.

The contrast he provides with President in Absentia Joe Biden and Vice President of DEI Kamala Harris is precisely why Leftmedia outlets are so vigorously attacking DeSantis, even as he deals with the aftermath of two hurricanes.

The Leftmedia’s job is to make Kamala Harris look like a serious leader (spoiler alert: she’s not) so as to help her win November’s election. The flip side of the coin is the media’s goal of making Republicans look like they’re just playing politics with lies and misinformation to win the election.

So, as multiple states struggle to turn the power back on, repair damaged and ruined infrastructure, and even recover bodies swept away by flash floods, the Leftmedia is laser-focused on — wait for it — whether Harris called DeSantis and if he rejected her call.

NBC News began the fiasco by portraying the governor as obtuse and needlessly political. “Ron DeSantis is refusing to take Harris’ call on Hurricane Helene” read its headline Monday. The story quotes an unnamed DeSantis aide saying, “Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer” because the calls “seemed political.”

Early this morning, after Biden praised DeSantis yesterday, NBC churned the story with this headline: “Biden didn’t know Ron DeSantis had refused to take Harris’ call when he praised him as ‘gracious.’”

The governor denied the episode. “I didn’t know that she had called,” DeSantis said. “I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me. Their characterization of it was something that they did. It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did in terms of saying it was political.”

Given the opportunity to weigh in, Harris played not the leader but the victim. “People are in desperate need of support right now, and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations … is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” she lectured. “It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.” And how, exactly, would it “put the people first” to take a political phone call from a campaigning Harris? I also note that she was careful not to say she called and DeSantis didn’t answer. She just laid into him as if NBC’s report was established fact.

DeSantis, who had already spoken with Biden and was ably dealing with the crises without Harris’s “help,” responded accordingly. “For Kamala Harris to try to say that my sole focus on the people of Florida is somehow selfish is delusional,” he said. “She has no role in this. In fact, she’s been vice president for three and a half years. I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts, and so what I think is selfish is her trying to blunder into this.”

“She’s the first one who’s trying to politicize the storm, and she’s doing that just because of her campaign,” he added. “I don’t have time for political games.”

Not only that, but DeSantis isn’t waiting around for FEMA to get its act together. “Just let me be clear,” he said. “In Florida, we run the show. FEMA’s not running the show. We will utilize them to support some of the things we’re doing, but you are not going to see FEMA running amok in Florida. I’m the sheriff that’s in charge here, and we will make sure to protect you.”

The man’s a leader, no question.

The only reason he’s had anything to say about Harris is because her campaign seeded the story about him not answering her call. It seems she had an aide dial an aide precisely so that she couldn’t get through to the governor. Then, she could complain through her aides to the media that DeSantis wouldn’t answer. White Republican man snubs black Democrat woman. The media would then dutifully ask her about it, which would provide a great campaign moment for her to project high-minded ideas of bipartisanship while making Republicans seem cold and callous.

It’s a perfect example of what Nancy Pelosi dubbed the “wrap-up smear.” The hilarious thing about her claim is that she wants you to think Republicans are the ones who collude with the media to do this.

Remind me, who controls the media? Who made sure Harris got exactly what she wanted out of this story?

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