DeSantis boasted about sending Iowa help — 10 hours after FL officials learned the mission was cancelled

Residents of Davenport, Iowa were horrified when, on May 28, a six-story apartment complex with around 80 units partially collapsed. Three people were killed, and one of the residents lost a leg.

On Monday night, June 5, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted a tweet announcing efforts to help residents of Davenport. The MAGA governor, who has been campaigning in Iowa and is competing with former President Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, wrote, "At the request of Iowa, I've directed @FLSERT and @myFDOT to deploy personnel to assist in the ongoing recovery in Davenport following the recent building collapse. We are proud to help the people of Iowa."

But according to NBC News reporters Matt Dixon and Adam Edelman, DeSantis failed to mention "that more than ten hours earlier, the mission had been canceled and Iowa had informed the DeSantis Administration that its help was no longer needed."

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Dixon and Edelman, in an article published on July 7, explain, "A day earlier, on June 4, the administration of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, sent both Florida and Wisconsin requests for assistance in the recovery effort…. According to public records, Florida was scheduled to send six structural specialists and specialized equipment on June 5. Yet early that day, Iowa alerted Florida that it no longer needed help."

The morning of June 5, according to Dixon and Edelman, Erik Sanchez, a Miami fire captain, sent an e-mail saying, "Copy on the mission being canceled."

"Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management confirmed that the original request for assistance was to help find three people who were missing after the building collapsed and that the mission was canceled after those people, each of whom died, were found," the NBC News reporters note.

DeSantis has visited Iowa several times in 2023, hoping to pick up support among Republicans in the midwestern state — where the Iowa Caucuses will be held in 2024. DeSantis has been trailing Trump by double digits in polls; a Fox News poll released in late June found Trump ahead of the Florida governor by 34 percent. But DeSantis is hoping his presidential campaign will enjoy a major boost in Iowa.

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Read NBC News' full report at this link.