Ron DeSantis Equates Hurricane Misinformation With Climate Change: 'This is on Both Sides'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis equated ongoing misinformation about the federal government controlling the weather to hurricanes being more frequent and stronger as a result of climate change.

"This is on both sides," DeSantis said. "You kind of have some people think government can do this, and others think it's all because of fossil fuels. The reality is what we see, there's precedent for all this in history. It is hurricane season, you are going to have tropical weather."

However, despite DeSantis' claims, many scientists claim storms do have the potential to get stronger due to warmer weather.

A Wednesday report from Axios detailed that man-made climate change was a factor in Milton being among the five most intense storms on record in the Atlantic Ocean, saying that "sea level rise tied" to it "made the storm potentially more destructive than it would have been even a few decades ago."

Among the factors are "more instances of rapid intensification" due a to a marine heat wave in the Gulf of Mexico, which quickly propelled Milton to a Category 5 Hurricane. "Climate change made those ocean temperatures up to 800 times more likely than in a preindustrial climate with lower greenhouse gases in the air," said the report, which cites calculations from a research nonprofit.

DeSantis, however, compared Milton to other storms, saying that a Labor Day hurricane 90 years ago was the most powerful one since the 1850s. "There's nothing new under the sun," he said. "These are natural occurrences, we will deal with tropical weather for as long as we're Floridians."

Hurricane misinformation has ran rampant during these past weeks, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting Democrats can "control de weather." "Yes they can control the weather," said Taylor Greene. "It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done."

It wasn't immediately clear who the congresswoman meant by "they", as some believed it was aimed at Jewish people, based on previous comments Taylor Greene has made about the community. However, as Rolling Stone reports, it seems more likely she was referring to Democrats as she had previously shared another post on Thursday with a map of the states impacted by Helene with an overlay of their political leanings by county:

As expected, social media was abuzz, as many tried to make sense of Taylor Greene's bizarre take. Brian Schatz, senator from Hawaii, was one of the first ones to respond to the post by implicitly saying that Democrats must regain control of the House to keep people like Greene Taylor away from positions of power in the Lower House.

Trump also dabbled in misinformation, saying FEMA was $1 billion short because relief money was being sent to undocumented immigrants.

"You know, it's frankly ridiculous and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people. You know, it's really a shame that we're putting politics ahead of helping people, and that's what we're here to do. We have had the complete support of the state," said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

Criswell went on to express concern over the impact of misinformation, noting that such rhetoric is harmful to both disaster victims and emergency responders. She pointed out that local officials have joined FEMA in countering these false narratives, which she described as creating unnecessary fear among the public.