Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) is reportedly refusing to take phone calls from Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris about hurricane relief after parts his state were battered by Helene last week.

A source said that an aide to DeSantis told them he was dodging the calls because they "seemed political."

“Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” the DeSantis aide told NBC News.

Instead, DeSantis has been in contact with Federal Emergency Management Director Deanne Criswell about the storm and its aftermath.

Did he know?

DeSantis didn't seem to know about Harris's calls at a Monday press conference.

"I didn't know that she had called," he 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."

While refusing to take Harris's calls seems like a giant snub, she's not the president at this point (hopefully will never be).

She is a political candidate for the opposing party, and whoever in DeSantis's office refused to take her calls may have seen them for what they very likely were--an attempt to score political points or at least avoid criticism for not doing anything to help victims.

A record of criticism

Criticism of presidents for not helping hurricane victims seemed to start with George W. Bush after Hurricane Katrina.

The criticism wasn't really fair, but it gave Democrats an opportunity to paint Bush as someone who didn't care about the victims, who were mostly Black.

Harris likely wanted to avoid criticism for not reaching out, even though in this case it would not have had any racial component.

She already comes off as kind of uncaring because of her refusal for more than three years to go to the U.S. southern border and see the crisis her administration has fomented there.

That type of political posturing doesn't help her popularity with voters--no one wants people's suffering to be used by a politician as a means to gain power.

Florida is bracing for more damage to much of its western coastline from Hurricane Milton, currently a Category 4 storm forecast to hit the Tampa, Florida area by Thursday morning.