Media and folks on the left have been spreading false claims about the response to the Surfside building collapse by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Perhaps the worst was from the Washington Post’s Hannah Dreier, who spread a completely false story, as I previously reported.
There's a saying in emergency management: The first 24 hours are the only 24 hours.
FEMA was ready to deploy to the condo collapse almost immediately, and included the crisis in its daily briefing, but didn't get permission from Gov. DeSantis to get on the ground for a full day. pic.twitter.com/rVmCN47sQJ
— Hannah Dreier (@hannahdreier) June 26, 2021
Now, this was not true. DeSantis can’t declare a state emergency until the local mayor declares an emergency. He did so one hour after the mayor did on the same day the collapse happened. It’s probably harder to get much faster than that. No resources were denied to the folks on site. Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava said “the state of Florida has been here in force” and that “we have not lacked for any support.” Mayor Charlie Burkett of Surfside said “the state of Florida has been here in force” and that “we have not lacked for any support.”
The DC media is suggesting @GovRonDeSantis failed to provide resources to Surfside.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, a Democrat, was asked about this on Meet The Press and said it's not true:
"Not only has the state of Florida been here in force (…) we've not lacked for any support." https://t.co/fHCEXqZH5t pic.twitter.com/LDYmgkSQ86
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) June 27, 2021
Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat politician who recently served as Florida’s Director of Emergency Management also blasted the claim by Dreier.
FEMA’s mantra is “locally executed, state managed, and federal supported.” As the former director in FL who voted for Biden this tweet below is 100% Malarkey. FEMA would have deployed the federally funded USAR teams, which are located in @MiamiDadeCounty. They were already there. https://t.co/Czj0GYY9yV
— Jared MASKowitz 😷 (@JaredEMoskowitz) June 28, 2021
This was designed to leave the impression nothing was going to be done until FEMA showed up.
Well trained, well supplied Urban Search and Rescue teams were deployed immediately. Other teams from Florida were spun up and headed south as situation progressed.— Big Ed #SurfsideStrong (@Falconeddie1) June 28, 2021
First responders were immediately there and DeSantis was there, as well, responding on the morning it happened.
Even the White House record of the call between Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis refutes Dreier’s claim, with it saying on June 25 that the “White House and FEMA have been in close coordination with local officials throughout the past two days” since the collapse on June 24.
FEMA folks said that they were doing all that they could and DeSantis explained the families were receiving care.
After witnessing the heroic rescue efforts and meeting with partners today, I’m confident we are all doing everything we can to help the #Surfside community. @fema will continue providing resources & technical support while also helping people apply for disaster assistance. pic.twitter.com/dZt7xNkZuF
— Deanne Criswell (@FEMA_Deanne) June 27, 2021
First responders are making progress and @FEMA is working with @FLSERT to make sure all the families affected by the Surfside disaster are taken care of with counselors, resources, shelter, and assistance. pic.twitter.com/0e4pdj2WOf
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 27, 2021
Everyone is doing everything they can.
But all that truth didn’t fit with the agenda that apparently Dreier wanted to pitch. Her tweet got a lot of attention and was even liked by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Dreier has been repeatedly informed of the truth but she’s been unwilling to take down the tweet. Pushing hate against DeSantis is more important than the facts or focusing on helping the people in need.
Meanwhile, Twitter, which is supposedly so concerned about “misinformation” hasn’t labeled the tweet going on two days now, so it continues to be shared to hype hate against DeSantis on a complete lie. That says a lot right there about what they’re really about.
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