Far-right Republican Governor Ron DeSantis politicized tornado damage he said should not be politicized on Friday, falsely criticizing President Joe Biden as thumbing his nose at Florida whenever he has the chance while apparently forgetting he praised him as “very supportive” last summer.

In July, after the devastating collapse of the Surfside highrise condominiums, DeSantis praised President Biden’s response as “great,” and said Biden had “recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one,” and added, “you’ve been very supportive.”

He didn’t stop there.

“You guys have not only been supportive at the federal level, but we’ve had no bureaucracy.”

DeSantis is singing a different tune now that he’s ramping up his presidential aspirations.

Speaking at a highly-staged event with TV cameras rolling in front of the governor and other Florida officials DeSantis stood with a mobile home destroyed by a tornado last month behind him. He blasted FEMA for denying the state’s request for emergency relief and attacked Biden, claiming since he took office he’s denigrated the Sunshine State.

“These things should be above politics when people have needs like this. If you look at since Biden’s been president, it seems like whatever they can do to thumb their nose at Florida, you know they try to do it.”

Florida Politics reports “FEMA officials ruled the damage from the storm was not extensive enough to warrant federal response.”

DeSantis went on to complain that the Biden administration “cut our monoclonal antibody funding.”

The Biden administration revamped the distribution of monoclonal antibodies after Florida, thanks to DeSantis’ anti-vaccine policies became the top user of the coronavirus treatment, effectively limiting doses to other states.

DeSantis’ top donor is heavily invested in Regeneron, the manufacturer of the COVID treatment that the Florida governor had been pushing, opting for treatment over prevention in direct contradiction to CDC guidance. When omicron became the dominant variant the federal government stopped the distribution of the monoclonal antibodies after its manufacturers announced they did not work against omicron.

NCRM examined the Florida governor’s tweets going back to 2017. When Trump was president he tweeted @POTUS when referring to him. Since Biden has become president he has tweeted by our count 50 times at President Biden, never with the @POTUS name. The vast majority of those tweets are attacks.

.@GovRonDeSantis: “These things [tornado assistance] should be above politics when people have needs like this. Since Biden’s been president, it seems like whatever they can do to thumb their nose at Florida, you know they try to do it.” pic.twitter.com/EZdwLcU36a

— The Hill (@thehill) February 18, 2022

As part of a deep dive into the growing popularity of White House press secretary Jen Psaki who has a legion of admirers on social media due to her handling of press, former Donald Trump press secretary Sean Spicer complained to the New York Times that she has gotten a free pass from the media that he never got.

According to the report, even Peter Doocy of Fox News had high praise for Psaki despite his almost daily battles with Psaki that have become widely shared on Twitter and evening newscasts.

“It never feels like I’m getting smacked down or vice versa,” Doocy admitted. “I understand why it looks like that, some of the ways that stuff gets clipped, but it doesn’t feel like that in the room.”

He added, “When I got back from my wedding she made a point to tell everybody in the briefing room that I just got married. That’s a transcript I can print out and show to my kids one day.”

As for Spicer, who eventually resigned following combative press conferences that were famously mocked on Saturday Night Live — with actor Melissa McCarthy portraying a bullying and manic Spicer — he thinks he was held to a higher standard than the current press secretary.

“‘I walked into the lion’s den every day — she walks into a bunch of kittens,'” Sean Spicer, Mr. Trump’s first press secretary and now the 6 p.m. anchor on Newsmax, said in an interview,” the Times’ Michael Grynbaum wrote.

Spicer also took exception to Psaki taking a dig at him during a press conference after President Joe Biden asked him to resign from the board of the United States Military Academy when she was asked about his performance in her job as well as appearances by Kellyanne Conway defending Donald Trump.

Psaki replied, “I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified.”

That led Spicer to complain, “Jen chose to stand and question my qualifications and services to this country. Once she did that, the gloves were off.”

You can read more here.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, the Republican senior senator from Texas who has served since 2002, on Monday tweeted the U.S. has 30,000 troops in Taiwan, which is false. The U.S. pulled out of Taiwan in 1979. America’s current U.S. military presence in that country is reportedly just 30.

Cornyn sits on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees budgets for the civilian and military agencies that comprise the intelligence community, and as such would be expected to know that the 30,000 figure was false.

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale caught the false tweet. He notes it was up for more than 13 hours before being deleted.

Cornyn has caused a bit of an incident with this false Taiwan figure.

Pentagon data says the US recently had *30* active duty personnel in Taiwan, not “30,000.” Not clear if Cornyn mistakenly added the 000 or mistakenly pulled from a Wiki page about the situation decades ago. pic.twitter.com/GBtu4BlcD9

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 17, 2021

The tweet appears to be part of Cornyn’s attack on President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Cornyn is very active on social media, frequently tweeting out news reports and his opinions throughout the day.

There’s no question that terrorist organizations will use our withdrawal from Afghanistan as an opportunity to reconstitute themselves and be a threat not only in the region, but to the American homeland. This was an unforced error and a terrible tragedy. https://t.co/yzBM6ULBQm

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) August 16, 2021

The Chinese Communist Party’s daily English-language tabloid Global Times used the opportunity to lash out at the U.S. – or mock Cornyn: “If the tweet is correct, it is a military invasion and occupation of China’s Taiwan and equivalent to the US declaring war on China.”

Cornyn, who in April complained that President Biden was not tweeting enough, was once the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate, serving as Majority Whip until 2019.

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Image: U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo by Glenn Fawcett via Flickr