Hurricane Dorian isn’t bringing Florida politicians together, at least when it comes to President Donald Trump.
As Republicans highlighted the potential for federal assistance this week, Democrats expressed astonishment that Trump revived his spat with Puerto Rican leaders as the storm threatened the island.
Also, Democrats criticized the Trump administration for shifting millions of dollars from the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, to bolster immigration enforcement along the country’s southern border.
“The President must be out of his mind if he thinks it’s a good idea to shift funds out of @fema for immigrant detention at the border while a potential Category 3 Hurricane #Dorian bears down on the United States,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the lone statewide elected Democrat, tweeted Wednesday.
Other Democrats criticized Trump’s tweets aimed at Puerto Rico, including the president calling San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz “incompetent” and the island “one of the most corrupt places on earth.”
“The storm hasn’t even hit Puerto Rico yet and the POTUS is already attacking her. How is this helpful?” tweeted state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando.
Congresswoman Val Demings, an Orlando Democrat, added, “There’s a storm approaching land that may kill American citizens and the President of the United States is insulting and attacking the people in harm’s way while taking funding away from FEMA.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s Republican U.S. senators announced Wednesday they had received assurances of federal help from the president as Dorian moves toward slamming into Florida’s East Coast as a major hurricane.
“Spoke with @realDonaldTrump @POTUS tonight at 8:45 pm to give him an update on #HurricaneDorian and he reassured me that #Florida has the full support of the federal government as residents prepare for the storm,” DeSantis tweeted Wednesday night.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday they received a pre-landfall emergency decree for Puerto Rico from Trump, with both senators releasing straightforward acknowledgements of the declaration.
“Late last night @POTUS approved #PuertoRico’s emergency declaration request in preparation for #Dorian, which is expected to hit the island today @SenRickScott & I asked him to approve yesterday to ensure island has the necessary resources to prepare & respond to the storm,” Rubio tweeted.
The U.S. territory was devastated in 2017 by Hurricane Maria, with many Puerto Ricans coming to Florida in the aftermath. Dorian wound up sideswiping the island as it moved into more open water Thursday and barreled toward Florida.
ANDREW’S BIG CHECK
When the Capital Tiger Bay Club met Wednesday in Tallahassee, it might as well have said the theme would be to bash Andrew Gillum.
A hint that the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee would be targeted may have come with the announcement that Orlando trial attorney John Morgan would be the keynote speaker for the luncheon.
For several months, Morgan has blasted Gillum’s decision to sit on more than $3 million ahead of the November election, which he narrowly lost to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Knowing about the feud, the Tiger Bay political group used the opportunity to display for Morgan a giant, fake check to poke fun at an ethics probe that included allegations about Gillum traveling to Costa Rica with an undercover FBI agent, who posed as Mike Miller.
The probe stemmed from Gillum’s time as Tallahassee mayor.
“Here is this check for $3 million, drawn on the First Bank of Costa Rica. He got the money from a friend of his, his name was Mike Miller,” said former Tallahassee City Commissioner Gil Ziffer, president of the club.
Morgan, who contributed $250,000 to Gillum’s campaign a month before Election Day, played along with the gag and continued to bash Gillum for almost half of his 40-minute talk to the group.
Later Wednesday, Gillum fired back at Morgan and tweeted that the Orlando attorney "may have raised money for Democrats, but last cycle he spent as much money supporting Republicans as he did Democrats."
Morgan says he does not have a party affiliation.
FIRING POLITICAL BLANKS
Democrats this week said they would continue to press for gun reforms, such as a ban on high-capacity magazines, expansion of red-flag laws and universal background checks, during the 2020 legislative session.
But the calls may be more of annual Sisyphean effort for the minority party in the Legislature.
An effort in recent weeks by House Democrats to hold a special session on gun violence went south quickly, as expected.
Democrats needed 60 percent of the House and Senate to go along with the special-session idea. But the idea was defeated by a 68-38 vote in the House and 20-14 vote in the Senate, according to the Department of State.
Also, three Democrats --- Rep. Bruce Antone of Orlando, Rep. Al Jacquet of Riviera Beach and Sen. Bill Montford of Tallahassee --- voted against the proposal.
Republican leaders in the past have not taken up Democratic gun-control proposals.
“Committee is around the corner. Will one bill be heard?” Rep. Cindy Polo, D-Miramar, asked Tuesday. “This past session, I’d like to serve this as a reminder to all, the Legislature debated whether or not dogs should attend a bar for hours on the House floor. But not one of our bills was heard. Our children are dying.”
Some Republicans have indicated they may be willing to consider strengthening the state’s “red flag” law, which was part of legislation passed after last year’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
But others on the GOP side are offering proposals such as expanding legal rights to carry concealed weapons.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: “Here in Miami we're at the point with hurricane Dorian where the forecasters are warning us that anybody, anywhere, is probably going to die.” --- humor writer Dave Barry (@rayadverb).
