2021 photo used to claim DeSantis is ‘bending the knee’ to Biden over disaster relief

Following a well-established pattern of never letting a good crisis go to waste, many on the left pounced on the opportunity to use Hurricane Ian to go after popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — the attacks began before the deadly storm ever made landfall.

With the massive storm causing widespread damage after making landfall with 150 mph winds, including more than 80 fatalities, even The New York Times got in on the effort to make political hay over the natural disaster, reporting about delayed evacuations orders for hard-hit Lee County. The area, which includes Fort Myers, took the brunt of a devastating storm surge but was not included in early projection cones, which showed the storm making landfall further north.

Unlike Democrats, hurricanes are not predictable and can radically alter course with little warning. But that didn’t stop Kool-Aid drinkers on the left from bashing DeSantis, as seen here from social media user Tom Watson: “DeSantis bends the knee.”

The deceptive tweet was as much about propping up a feeble 79-year-old President Joe Biden as it was to smear DeSantis, who could very well end up being the 2024 Republican presidential nominee should Donald Trump not run.

The photo shared was from 2021, when Biden visited South Florida following the collapse of a condo building in the coastal suburb of Surfside, but was shared this week to imply that DeSantis was being subservient to the president because he asked Biden to grant a Major Disaster Declaration in Florida, which would provide a wide range of federal assistance programs for individuals, as well as funds for both emergency and permanent work and public infrastructure, according to the governor’s office.

The media was quick to highlight that Biden and DeSantis spoke on the phone ahead of Hurricane Ian making landfall. However, DeSantis observed during an appearance on Fox News, “When people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything, if you can’t put politics aside for that, then you’re just not going to be able to.”

Christina Pushaw, rapid response director for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign, was quick to add the missing context to Watson’s tweet.

“Focus on your own state if you’re not interested in helping the people of Florida,” she tweeted. “You are using a photo from a disaster in Miami-Dade County that killed 98 people in 2021. To politicize a deadly hurricane in SWFL. My only question is WHY?”

In the end, somewhat ironically, it’s Watson bending the knee for cheap “likes,” as social media was quick to note… here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:

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