Leftist politicians and journalists spread false and misleading claims about Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ response to the building collapse in Miami that were so outrageous that local Florida Democrats have strongly pushed back on their claims.
Washington Post reporter Hannah Dreier was one of the main leftist actors who was spreading false information about DeSantis’ response. In a tweet that gained significant traction online, Drier wrote: “FEMA was ready to deploy to the condo collapse almost immediately, and included the crisis in its daily briefing, but didn’t get permission from Gov. DeSantis to get on the ground for a full day.”
Far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) “liked” the tweet, which means that millions of her 12.7 million followers on Twitter would see it in their feeds.
There's a saying in emergency management: The first 24 hours are the only 24 hours.
FEMA was ready to deploy to the condo collapse almost immediately, and included the crisis in its daily briefing, but didn't get permission from Gov. DeSantis to get on the ground for a full day. pic.twitter.com/rVmCN47sQJ
— Hannah Dreier (@hannahdreier) June 26, 2021
FEMA’s National Incident Management System shows that requests for assistance are supposed to be made by local officials to state officials, who then contact federal officials for assistance.
So, this is something I had a deep education on due to my previous job as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal tech. The control for these situations is directed by NIMS. https://t.co/6ZM7Jw9pb0
As you can see, requests flow from the local gov to the state gov: pic.twitter.com/uiVzZeJx4X
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) June 27, 2021
Furthermore, DeSantis signed an executive order declaring an emergency less than an hour after Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava, a Democrat, signed a local order declaring a state of emergency. Dreier’s claim that it took DeSantis a full day to respond is also false as he approved the emergency declaration on the same day as the incident.
Time to kill another conspiracy theory:
How this works:
Emergency declaration from the local government -> state government -> federal government.
The mayor didn’t sign an emergency order until 4:33 pm ET. The governor signed one less than an hour later, at 5:32pm. https://t.co/5cVl1YPFQs pic.twitter.com/uXMubrKxEs
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) June 27, 2021
On Sunday, when pressed by far-left NBC host Chuck Todd over whether the state had provided all the support that she needed, Cava said that “the state of Florida has been here in force” and that “we have not lacked for any support.”
The DC media is suggesting @GovRonDeSantis failed to provide resources to Surfside.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, a Democrat, was asked about this on Meet The Press and said it's not true:
"Not only has the state of Florida been here in force (…) we've not lacked for any support." https://t.co/fHCEXqZH5t pic.twitter.com/LDYmgkSQ86
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) June 27, 2021
Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat politician who recently served as Florida’s Director of Emergency Management, slammed Dreier, writing on Twitter: “FEMA’s mantra is ‘locally executed, state managed, and federal supported.'”
“As the former director in FL who voted for Biden this tweet below is 100% Malarkey,” Moskowitz said. “FEMA would have deployed the federally funded USAR teams, which are located in @MiamiDadeCounty. They were already there.”
FEMA’s mantra is “locally executed, state managed, and federal supported.” As the former director in FL who voted for Biden this tweet below is 100% Malarkey. FEMA would have deployed the federally funded USAR teams, which are located in @MiamiDadeCounty. They were already there. https://t.co/Czj0GYY9yV
— Jared Moskowitz (@JaredEMoskowitz) June 28, 2021
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said on Sunday that the town does not have a “resource problem” and that they were “drowning in resources.”
Other far-left journalists in the media appeared to try to mislead people by trying blame DeSantis for the incident by posting side-by-side screenshots of a 2019 tweet from DeSantis where he championed deregulation next to a screenshot of a CNN article, titled: “Engineer raised concerns about ‘major structural damage’ at Florida building a few years before collapse.”
I too can put two completely unrelated images next to each other in a tweet https://t.co/wzP5c2VAD5 pic.twitter.com/kz1m2FgsiY
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 27, 2021
Why did you make that building collapse, SIR? pic.twitter.com/RPLqk1lotr
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 27, 2021
The CNN article specifically noted that the engineer made the warning in a report that was published before DeSantis was governor. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said that he himself has not even seen the report. The report also did not give any indication that the structure was at risk of collapsing.
The Miami Herald, which is often highly critical of DeSantis, reported over the weekend that the firm of the engineer who reported on the structural issues at the facility had created a plan in late Spring 2021 to repair the building as part of a 40-year recertification that is required by Miami-Dade County.
The Miami Herald reported:
Records released Saturday by Surfside show that the 2018 report was forwarded to the town’s building official at the time, Ross Prieto, by a member of the Champlain condo board, Mara Chouela. It wasn’t immediately clear why the board member had shared the document with Prieto; there was no requirement that the report be provided to the town.
The condo association was required to furnish a final 40-year recertification report to Surfside this year, but the town had not yet received it, according to current Surfside building official James McGuinness.