Washington.- President Biden on Thursday warned those in the path of Hurricane Milton to “evacuate now, now, now,” canceling a diplomatic trip abroad so he could oversee his administration’s response to the storm heading toward the west coast of Florida.
Speaking from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, the president said he had given Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, his personal phone number and urged Floridians to listen to state officials.
“I directed this team to do everything possible to save lives and our communities, help our community before, during and after these extreme weather events,” Biden told reporters after being briefed by disaster response officials. ” And that is being done.”
The evacuations, the president said, are “a matter of life and death.”
Mr. Biden said Mr. DeSantis had “got everything he needed” from the federal government and that the two men had spoken Monday night.
“I said, ‘No, you’re doing a great job. Everything’s going well, thank you for that,’ and I actually gave him my personal phone number to call me,” Mr. Biden said, describing the conversation.
Mr. Biden said the government had already “surged by thousands” of emergency personnel across the Southeast as part of the response to Hurricane Helene. He said he had told officials his priority was to increase the size and presence of that staff.
With the storm poised to hit Tampa Bay on Thursday morning, Biden decided to postpone a trip to Germany and Angola aimed at bolstering support for Ukraine and promoting investment in Africa.
Biden’s absence during a major natural disaster would likely have sparked intense political backlash against the White House — and, indeed, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign — for being abroad during a domestic crisis.
His decision to delay his trip abroad is a serious blow to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. Europe increasingly fears a drop in American support for Ukraine should former President Donald J. Trump win the election. When Mr. Zelensky tried to press for support for Ukraine in Washington last month, he was met with a much more muted response in Congress than during his previous visits.
Biden’s visit was an opportunity – perhaps one of his last on the world stage as president – to convince the public of the importance of supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
The president has promised to visit an African nation during his term, but delayed those plans last year, and now his trip to Angola is up in the air. The administration sees Angola as a prime example of its efforts to revitalize relations with African nations after falling behind Russia and China in security and economic influence.
The United States has helped mobilize $3 billion in public and private investments in Angola’s clean energy and agriculture sectors, as well as a rail corridor that transports critical minerals, such as cobalt and copper, from central Africa. to the Atlantic port of Lobito, in Angola. The project, known as the Lobito Corridor, has also contributed to Biden’s goal of diversifying supply chains.
The White House has not yet set new dates for the trip abroad.
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