MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian and Symone Sanders Townsend on Saturday agreed that declining a hurricane photo-op with President Joe Biden, who is running for reelection, it was actually Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who was “making” the Hurricane Idalia disaster and recovery “about politics.”

The President and the First Lady visited Florida on Saturday before heading to their Rehoboth Beach vacation home for another getaway over the Labor Day weekend. The two surveyed the damage on the ground and from the air, speaking with reporters and visiting with Republican Sen. Rick Scott but not Gov. DeSantis.

On MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian Reports the anchor introduced the topic by using the term that left-leaning outfits and mainstream press alike have been using, calling it a “snub” of Biden that the governor’s office said they had “no plans” to meet with the president on his tour of the disaster areas.

“We don’t have any plans for the Governor to meet with the President tomorrow,” DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said to CNN on Friday evening. “In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts.”

Earlier in the day, Biden’s spox had announced the meeting would take place. Liberal media figures made much of their outrage at the “snub.”

Speaking to Sanders on Saturday, Vossoughian said the “snub” reminded her of when former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a current GOP presidential candidate, embraced then-president Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy.

Vossoughian said that politics “should not be part of this conversation” but then observed, essentially, that the meeting not only had political implications and fallout but that it has long been and continues to be viewed as a political moment.

She then said that not doing a photo op that, as she noted, would be political, was the actually political thing, as she asked Sanders about it.

“Is this, you think, one of the reasons why DeSantis is choosing not just to meet with the president today and making it more about politics?” she said.

During his Saturday visit, President Biden blamed the hurricane on climate change and talked about congress, but declined to criticize DeSantis over not meeting with him, despite the press giving him several opportunities to do so.

VOSSOUGHIAN: We are keeping an eye on the latest with the President and the First Lady. And as Emma mentioned, the DeSantis snub of Joe Biden, although the president answered yes when he was asked if he would meet with Governor DeSantis as he surveys the damage today. Here’s what the governor’s spokesperson said yesterday. ‘We don’t have any plans for the governor to meet with the president tomorrow in these rural communities and so soon after impact the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts.’ Joining me now to discuss this is the host of Symone, Symone Sanders Townsend. Symone, as always, it’s great to talk to you. Double green. I got to love it.

SANDERS-TOWNSEND: You know, this is just for you, Yasmin. Just for you to.

VOSSOUGHIAN: Talk to me about this snub, right? Because, listen, I’ve been on the ground for many of these natural disasters, and politics should not be a part of this conversation. Right? But you think back, and I remember being on the ground for Sandy, for Hurricane Sandy way back when. And you think back to the meeting that Chris Christie then had, then-New Jersey governor had with President Obama. Right. And the embrace. And some folks said that is the reason why then-President Obama got reelected. Is this, you think, one of the reasons why DeSantis is choosing not just to meet with the president today and making it more about politics?

SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Well, I would just note, I do not think that, you know, going to hurr– going to be the president, to do your presidential duty, when President Obama was president was in fact, the reason that he was reelected. Look, I think that Governor DeSantis, his team, and by the way, he has two teams, right? He has a team in the governor’s office and he has a team on his campaign. I think that the team of the campaign is likely negatively influencing what the the decisions that the team in the governor’s office makes.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

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