Congressman Smathers' district included the "Winter White House" of President Harry Truman in Key West, Florida. Smathers was invited by Truman to fly with him from Washington to Key West, establishing a key relationship with President Truman and members of his Cabinet. In 1949, President Truman called Smathers into a meeting at the White House and said, "I want you to do me a favor. I want you to beat that son-of-a-bitch Claude Pepper." Senator Pepper had been a strong critic of President Truman and the Truman Doctrine and had taken a prominent and visible role in the unsuccessful effort to "dump Truman" in the weeks leading up to the 1948 Democratic Party Convention.