Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was no fan of President Barack Obama in 2012. As a top surrogate for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and a rising star in GOP politics, he spent most of the year railing against Obama's handling of the economy, blasting him as being out of touch and ineffective.
But when Superstorm Sandy slammed the mid-Atlantic in late October (just days before the 2012 election), leaving 117 Americans dead and tens of billions in property damage, Christie set all of that aside — in a way that feels quaint in the light of recent events.
The governor worked closely with Obama, talking with him regularly on the phone, touring the devastated Jersey Shore with him and praising his relief efforts in interviews, leading a Fox News anchor at one point to try to steer him back to talking about Romney.
Christie rebuffed the suggestion. "If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don’t know me," he said.
The trail of destruction left by Superstorm Sandy appears to have included the long tradition of bipartisanship after a natural disaster.
It was a high point for bipartisan cooperation in the aftermath of a natural disaster, but it also appears to have been its death knell. On Wednesday night, Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, Florida. Today, Americans will wake up, survey the damage and try to rebuild — again. But it’s worth remembering that the trail of destruction left by Superstorm Sandy appears to have also included the long tradition of bipartisanship after a natural disaster.
A major reason is that Christie's cooperation and praise were seen as helping a Democratic president win re-election.
Polls showed that voters gave Obama sky-high marks for his handling of the hurricane, and exit polls indicated that it may have been a major factor for late-deciding voters who backed him. Obama's efforts are largely to credit for that, but Christie's praise may have helped by convincing Republican-leaning independents who didn't see them first-hand.
But even if Christie had no effect on the race, many stalwart Republicans were convinced that he did. A photo of Obama putting his hand on Christie's shoulder at the Atlantic City Airport as the two men shook hands, in GOP memories, morphed into a "hug." Christie was unapologetic about his handling of the storm, but memories of him working so closely with Obama haunted his failed 2016 bid for the Republican presidential nomination as primary voters regularly cited it as a concern.
It's haunting Republicans still. Governors who might want to run for president one day are now much more cautious about praising a Democratic president for his handling of a natural disaster.
After Hurricane Ian hit Florida in 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis was so careful to avoid anything remotely close to a "hug" photo with President Joe Biden that he inadvertently created the opposite. During their joint tour of Fort Myers, Biden was photographed chatting amiably with a man in a camouflage cap and a "Florida cracker" T-shirt as DeSantis walked past looking dour.
As embarrassing as that viral moment may have been, it didn't hurt DeSantis' bid for the Republican nomination this year. He may not have gotten much closer than Christie to the nomination but he definitely did not fail because Republican primary voters were concerned that he might have been too nice to Biden one time.
Nor has he changed course. As Hurricane Milton was headed toward Florida, a DeSantis aide told NBC News that he was avoiding taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about Helene recovery efforts, saying they "seemed political." (DeSantis later denied the report, claiming at a press conference that he "didn't know that she had called" and that nobody in his office said it was political.)
It only got worse from there. Harris unfortunately took the bait, saying that "playing political games" after a natural disaster is "utterly irresponsible" and "selfish." DeSantis then fired back, telling Fox News that the vice president "has no role" in disaster recovery and that she, in turn, was "being selfish by trying to blunder into this when we're working just fine."
This is all deeply stupid. At least 220 people died because of Helene as some communities were wiped from the map along a 500-mile path of destruction. Milton is projected to generate life-threatening storm surges of up to 15 feet along the west coast of Florida. Turning any of this into a chance to score political points is not only reckless, but also likely to backfire among the voters affected by the storm.
Looming over all of this is Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose response to Helene was to spread misinformation, rush to visit the affected area even though it's considered disruptive that early in the aftermath and seek to turn the storm to his political advantage. His allies are no better, as billionaire Elon Musk shared false claims about the federal response on X and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shared weird conspiracy theories about weather control.
To be fair, not every Republican has gone along with all of this. Sen. Thom Tillis, Rep. Chuck Edwards and state Sen. Kevin Corbin have rejected conspiracy theories about Helene. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have been professional about their work with the Biden administration on relief efforts.
But the damage is done. Even if most elected officials are focused on working together to provide relief to their communities, it only takes a few to derail the conversation into conspiracy theories and snarky attacks. And that's a disaster that's entirely human-made.