DeSantis Claims ‘National Regime Media’ Wanted Hurricane Ian to Hit Tampa: ‘They Want to Use Storms and Destruction… to Advance Their Agenda’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) told a local Florida website in a clip published Tuesday that the “national regime media” wanted hurricane Ian to hit Tampa, a major population center, because “they thought that would be worse for Florida.”

DeSantis made the off-color comment to Florida’s Voice, which local media describes as a “right-of-center” website.

Editor-in-chief of the website, Brendon Leslie, asked DeSantis if there would be “accountability in the media” for storm models and predictions that he claimed wrongly suggested Ian would hit Tampa Bay.

“Quite frankly, you have national regime media that they wanted to see Tampa, because they thought that would be worse for Florida. That’s how these people think,” DeSantis replied, adding:

They don’t care about the people of this state. They don’t care about the people of this community. They want to use storms and destruction from storms as a way to advance their agenda. And they don’t care what destruction’s in their wake. They don’t care about the lives here. If they can use it to pursue their political agenda, they will do it

The Republican then said he was “obviously concerned about Tampa, too.” The clip was flagged by local reporter A.G. Gancarski of floridapolitics.com.