00:00Have you spoken with former President Trump at all?
00:03Are you kidding me?
00:05Mr. President Trump, former President Trump, get a life, man.
00:12Help these people.
00:13Will you hold him accountable?
00:14You said you were going to hold those accountable.
00:17I'll make a hold of account.
00:19You better impress hold of account because you know the truth.
00:22Will you plan to speak with former President Trump?
00:25No.
00:30We have been listening to President Joe Biden live at the White House.
00:38It's hard to make out what he just said.
00:40We've been listening to President Joe Biden live at the White House,
00:43answering questions from reporters and giving an update on the federal response to Hurricane Milton.
00:49A number of specific lines stood out.
00:52First, President Biden saying, quote,
00:54We will do everything we can to help you pick up the pieces.
00:58In reference to folks who have lost everything here in the Sunshine State,
01:02the president talked about everything the federal government is doing to facilitate
01:05the work of helping residents get back on their feet
01:08and coordinating with local officials and state officials as well.
01:11He talked about speaking with Governor Ron DeSantis of the state,
01:14the FEMA administrator as well, Deanne Criswell.
01:17Also, President Biden called for Congress to come back as soon as possible, he said,
01:22to help allocate funds not only to FEMA, but also to the Small Business Administration.
01:26The president said he had not spoken to House Speaker Mike Johnson about that in recent days.
01:31He was asked if he spoke to former President Donald Trump.
01:34The president there talking extensively about what he sees as disinformation
01:38and false claims that have been made by the former president about the federal response,
01:42specifically to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Georgia and other southeastern states.
01:46The president there in response to Trump saying, quote,
01:50Get a life, man. Help these people.
01:53I want to get a reaction now from Florida's Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez,
01:57who we spoke to yesterday, who's obviously been tracking the storm closely.
02:01First, Lieutenant Governor, I just want to ask for your response
02:04to what you heard there from President Biden, both about his coordination with local officials
02:08and some of the political stuff between him and the former president over disinformation.
02:13Well, certainly, as I said yesterday,
02:16the governor has been very focused on making sure we have all the things we need
02:21from the federal government, Helene, and then now, of course, Milton.
02:25So we've been working very closely with our FEMA director,
02:28and the governor has not been able, he has not lacked for anything from the federal government.
02:33And so as it relates to some of those comments, again, I think we need to focus on recovery,
02:38leave our personal feelings about individual candidates, the former president as well.
02:43I don't think there needs to be a time to have that sort of rancor.
02:46What we need to focus on is getting Floridians the relief that they deserve and that they need right now.
02:53And also accounting for those folks that may have fared worse during Hurricane Milton,
03:00Lieutenant Governor, I just got an update moments ago that you now have
03:04eight confirmed dead as a result of the hurricane.
03:08We know at least five of those were in St. Lucie County as a result of tornadoes there.
03:15Do you have any other information you can offer on the three others that were killed?
03:20No, I don't have additional information on that.
03:23What I will say is that those five that you referenced due to the tornadoes, those have been confirmed.
03:29We expect as the day wanes on, as we continue to get into that rebuilding and recovery process,
03:35we may see additional fatalities above and beyond that because as we know,
03:39a lot of the fatalities occur post-storm.
03:42People driving through flooded streets, people using generators inside their home.
03:47And so that's sort of been our focus now on messaging,
03:49making sure people understand the hazards that exist when they begin that process of recovery and rebuilding.
03:55So we want to make sure people are mindful of that.
03:59Yeah, there are all kinds of hazards out there that could create issues.
04:03Quickly, Lieutenant Governor, before we let you go, I'm just curious.
04:06Obviously, you're in the initial stages of surveying the damage,
04:09but which areas would you say you are most concerned about?
04:12Are there any areas that are currently inaccessible for rescue crews?
04:17Well, as you know, we started conducting search and rescue early in the midnight hours.
04:22It is my understanding that that has all been done.
04:25There may be some additional rescue operations, but at this point, we're feeling good about that.
04:31But now we have to, of course, get law enforcement and FDOT, our Department of Transportation,
04:36to start clearing roads, making sure that streets, if they're impenetrable, if they're impassable,
04:40that they can open those up, inspecting bridges, inspecting streets.
04:44And so we'll have a long haul ahead of us, but we're confident,
04:48given all the resources and all the personnel that the Governor has staged,
04:51that we'll be able to get through that pretty quickly.
04:54I will say, of course, the area of direct impact, the Sarasota area,
04:59west coast, had some significant flooding and damage, hurricane winds, hurricane force winds.
05:05And then, of course, on the east coast, we're going to continue to monitor,
05:09because even the St. Johns River, they're concerned with increased flooding with that river.
05:14So we'll be monitoring that for the next 24 hours, 48 hours.
05:18So the impact, although Milton is gone, the impact is far from over.
05:24Yeah, no question about that.
05:26And, Lieutenant Governor, if there's anything we can do to help expedite the process of recovery,
05:30any message you want put out there, please let us know.
05:33Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez of Florida, thank you so much for joining us.
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