DeSantis' office says he doesn't plan to meet with Biden when he comes to Florida over the weekend

A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that he doesn't plan on meeting with President Biden when he comes to Florida over the weekend amid Hurricane Idalia. 

“We don’t have any plans for the Governor to meet with the President tomorrow,” DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said to CNN on Friday. “In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts.”

According to the outlet, Biden had told CNN that he would be meeting with DeSantis over the weekend, contradicting the office's statement.

White House spokesperson Emilie Simons told CNN that Biden's visit to Florida was carefully planned not to disrupt the recovery efforts that are going on in Florida due to the storm. 

“President Biden and the First Lady look forward to meeting members of the community impacted by Hurricane Idalia and surveying impacts of the storm,” Simons said in her statement. "They will be joined by Administrator (Deanne) Criswell who is overseeing the federal response. Their visit to Florida has been planned in close coordination with FEMA as well as state and local leaders to ensure there is no impact on response operations.” 

DeSantis said that he spoke with Biden over the phone and raised concerns about his coming because of the resources needed for security.

“The hardest hit communities, it would be very disruptive to have the whole kind of security apparatus that goes, because there’s only so many ways to get into these places,” he said during a Tallahassee briefing. “And so what we want to do is make sure that the power restoration continues, that the relief efforts continue, and that we don’t have any interruption in that.”