They often cross swords through interposed screens and could, according to what Donald Trump decides, find themselves on the road to the White House in 2024. But a week after the devastating passage of Hurricane Ian, Joe Biden and the Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis displayed their unit on Wednesday.

"Today is about America uniting" behind Florida, devastated by Hurricane Ian, Joe Biden said on Wednesday, visiting the lands of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, one of his more virulent political opponents.

“You have my promise, and America's promise, that we will not let you down.

We will accompany you throughout this process and it will take quite a long time, ”assured the 79-year-old Democrat to the people of Florida, as the governor stood camped behind him, the mine closed.

"We are grateful for the work done together at various levels of administration," Ron DeSantis, 44, told him.

A figure of the hard right, he is often announced as a presidential candidate for 2024, and therefore a potential rival of Joe Biden, who officially intends to run again.

Category 4

The White House, which had declared a state of emergency before Category 4 Hurricane Ian hit a week ago, promised, among other things, to fully fund two months for the removal of debris and the urgent work of consolidation.

Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis greeted Joe and Jill Biden with quick handshakes as they arrived at the fishing port of Fort Myers, one of the hardest-hit communities.

The presidential couple had already flown by helicopter over the disaster areas.

He strolled with his hosts, each keeping their distance somewhat, in this very tested district.

Joe Biden, true to his empathetic nature, distributed handshakes and occasionally hugged his interlocutors.

Florida is still counting its dead and assessing the considerable damage caused by one of the most violent storms in recent American history.

93 dead

The official death toll was 93 on Wednesday (89 in Florida and 4 in North Carolina) but the American media count more than a hundred deaths.

Hundreds of thousands of Florida residents were still without power on Tuesday and authorities said it would take months and $50 billion or more to rebuild.

Speaking to reporters on site, the Democratic president said: “We have very different political approaches but we have worked hand in hand.

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Migrants and “culture war”

The governor of Florida is regularly talked about with his controversial statements and decisions.

He recently airlifted migrants to Washington and a popular Democratic elite vacation spot, Martha's Vineyard.

The White House had criticized a “political maneuver (…) cruel”.

Ron DeSantis also passed a law that prohibits teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation in public elementary schools, a text that could harm young people from the LGBT + community, according to his critics.

Also alongside Joe Biden during his visit to Florida, one of the Republican senators he most willingly crushes, Rick Scott, considered by the president as another representative of the “extreme” right.

The southern state, long considered a “swing state” oscillating between Democrats and Republicans, now seems to lean more clearly to the right.

Florida voted Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections, and polls promise Ron DeSantis an easy re-election as governor in November.

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