Former Florida GOP chair backs Harris after Helene ‘trolling’

Tara Suter
Mon, October 7, 2024 

The former head of the Florida Republican Party said he’s supporting Vice President Harris after “trolling” from other Republicans over the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene.

Al Cárdenas said in his appearance Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that natural disasters have “always been a bipartisan issue.”

“Both Democrats and Republicans have worked together to assist the people in harm’s way,” Cárdenas added. “Well, you know, the White House asked Congress to pass a bill to — a supplemental bill — to really help people with these disasters, because we may be running outta cash. All of a sudden, the trolling, the Trump operatives and everybody else started saying, ‘Well, they’re giving that money to illegal immigrants.’ Not true.”

Republicans, including former President Trump have gone after the federal response to Hurricane Helene. Last week, at a rally in Saginaw, Mich., the former president said the response “is going even worse” than Hurricane Katrina.

“A certain president, I will not name him, destroyed his reputation with Katrina,” Trump said of former President George W. Bush. “And this is going even worse. She’s doing even worse than he did.”

Cárdenas said in his appearance on “Morning Joe” that he believes “Harris and [Tim] Walz may not necessarily be my ideal ticket, but they’re not gonna put America in harm’s way.”

“And so I made an easy decision for me,” the former Sunshine State GOP head said.

It’s not surprising that Cárdenas would back Harris as he has been a critic of Trump in the past, once saying in a post on the social platform X back in 2018 that the president is “a despicable divider; the worse social poison to afflict our country in decades” in response to a campaign ad from Trump on immigration.

“This ad, and your full approval of it, will condemn you and your bigoted legacy forever in the annals of America’s history books,” Cárdenas continued in the post.

The Hill has reached out to the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign.