Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bizarrely claimed this week that “regime” media wanted Hurricane Ian, which devastated Southwest Florida when it hit last week, to strike about 100 miles north in Tampa instead. “Quite frankly, you have national regime media that… wanted to see Tampa, because they thought that would be worse for Florida. That’s how these people think,” DeSantis told conservative outlet Florida’s Voice, without providing any evidence. He added: “They want to use storms and destruction from storms as a way to advance their agenda. And they don’t care what destruction’s in their wake.” Ian, which made landfall as a catastrophic Category 4 storm, was initially expected to make landfall in Tampa Bay, an area that has triple the population of its southern neighbors and is infamously ill-prepared to handle any hurricane. But Ian’s path abruptly shifted south just before landfall, leaving Florida’s southwest coast, where nearly 100 are confirmed dead, in harm’s way.
