Florida Governor Ron DeSantis firmly rejected reports claiming he had denied a phone call from Kamala Harris ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall.

The hurricane, which strengthened into a Category 5 storm on Monday, is threatening Florida’s Gulf Coast, with the Tampa Bay area at high risk.

Evacuations are underway in several communities, just over a week after the state was hit by Hurricane Helene.

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On Monday, ABC News reported, citing a “source close to the governor,” that DeSantis had refused to take a call from Harris regarding the impending storm.

The report implied that some staffers viewed the vice president’s outreach as politically motivated.

ABC News, owned by Disney, which has had a longstanding dispute with DeSantis, also suggested the Florida governor was avoiding communication with the White House.

Harris was asked about the situation while boarding a plane on Monday and responded by criticizing the governor. “You know, moments of crisis, if nothing else, should really be the moment that anyone who calls themselves a leader, says they’re going to put politics aside and put the people first,” she said. “People are in desperate need of support right now. And playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations, these are the height of emergency situations, is just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish.”

Harris went on to accuse the Florida governor of prioritizing “political gamesmanship” over fulfilling his duties to the people of Florida. “It is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first,” she added.

This is so fake… and shameful… and disgusting:

Kamala runs to avoid the press, except for today, when she takes a planted question about DeSantis refusing to take her call.

The only problem is that it’s a lie. It never happened.

She proceeds with her scripted,… pic.twitter.com/dNThTVaIUl

— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) October 7, 2024

A few hours later, Governor DeSantis addressed the issue during a press conference and categorically denied receiving any call from Harris. “No, I didn’t know she called me. I saw [the report], but I was not aware of that,” DeSantis said.

He explained that while he had communicated with Joe Biden during the response to Hurricane Helene, he had not received any further calls from the president or the vice president since then.

“So Biden called me a couple of days ago with Helene when I was on the helicopter. I didn’t have any issues. They had helped us with what we’ve done. I’m not aware that he’s tried to call since then. Certainly hasn’t called my phone, so I don’t know quite where they’re getting that information,” DeSantis said in response to ABC News’ insinuation that he was also dodging calls from Joe Biden.

DeSantis reassured Floridians that his administration has been in full cooperation with federal authorities, emphasizing that all necessary approvals for disaster response have been granted. “At the same time, we got the approvals that we need. If there’s something else that we need, you know, I’ll hop on the phone very quickly whether that’s a FEMA administrator or the president, and we will press the case to be able to get approvals for what we need in Florida. But we have gotten approvals for everything that we’ve asked for,” he said.

The governor dismissed the notion that his office had politicized the situation, calling the reports from Harris’s camp inaccurate. “I didn’t know that she had called, so I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me, and their characterization of it was something that they did—wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did in terms of saying that it was political,” DeSantis clarified.

The exchange has added another layer of tension between DeSantis and the Biden-Harris administration as Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida, threatening widespread damage.

As the storm looms, the governor and federal authorities are expected to coordinate further disaster relief efforts to protect those in the path of the hurricane.