The data behind Gov. Ron DeSantis's reelection win doesn't show a politician with national appeal, but a governor who suppressed and discouraged the Democratic vote in Florida.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) went on Fox News and wrecked their pro-DeSantis debate spin.
The 1/6 Committee hearings have not changed Republican minds about reality, only about Trump’s viability.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's ad airing on Fox News in Florida against Ron DeSantis is a rallying cry for Democrats to fight.
In response to Florida's Don't Say Gay law going into effect, the Biden White House encouraged parents and students to file discrimination and civil rights complaints with the federal government.
Donald Trump's reign as the ruler of the Republican Party is showing signs of ending as Ron DeSantis has a small two-point lead in a New Hampshire GOP primary poll.
MAGA world has effectively split. DeSantis sees himself as prominent as Trump and as electable as Trump.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is threatening to veto state funding for a Tampa Bay Rays facility because they spoke out against the massacre of children in Uvalde.
A Florida judge has announced that he will block the electoral map drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis that targets African-Americans.
Disney responded to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republican legislative majority passing a bill to cancel their special district by telling them that they will have to pay off all existing district debt.
Gov. DeSantis and Republicans in the Florida legislature were in such a hurry to punish Disney that they didn't give themselves the authority to take away the special district.
Gov. Ron DeSantis's proposed Florida congressional map has been labeled racist as it eliminates majority-black districts in the state.
Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the hypocrisy surrounding his attack on Disney.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) threw a tantrum and told students to take off their masks at an event in Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has refused to deploy the Florida National Guard to help protect President Biden's SOTU address.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican today announced the “Stop Woke Act,” legislation intended to stop schools from teaching critical race theory, a body of legal and academic scholarship that aims to examine how racism and disparate racial outcomes have shaped public policy via often implicit social and institutional dynamics.
“Today, we are taking a stand against critical race theory in our schools and in the workplace by calling for the enactment of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” he announced on Twitter.
Today, we are taking a stand against critical race theory in our schools and in the workplace by calling for the enactment of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act. https://t.co/7iuEjyYKsj
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) December 15, 2021
Critical race theory is taught in colleges, not in public schools, and certainly not to young children, but DeSantis has continued to push these falsehoods as he continues to court conservatives who’ve given in to these conspiracies at a time when efforts to reposition the consequences and legacy of slavery as elements vital to the historical narrative continue to gain traction.
According to DeSantis, critical race theory only further divides children and teaches them to hate each other.
The legislation, officially titled the “Stop Wrongs against Our Kids and Employees Act,” would empower parents to file lawsuits to enforce the prohibition of critical race theory lessons in public schools, defund primary and secondary education in the event they schools consultants on the theory, and bars its concepts from being included in employee training.
“It violates Florida standards to scapegoat someone based on their race, to say that they are inherently racist, to say that they are an oppressor, or oppressed or any of that and that’s good and that’s important. But we also have to realize that we have to do more to make sure that that actually carries the day in our classrooms and in our society,” DeSantis said.
The University of Florida has initiated an investigation into researchers’ claims that they felt pressured to destroy COVID-19 data after a report said they were told “not to criticize the Governor of Florida [Republican Ron DeSantis] or UF policies related to COVID-19 in media interactions.”
A report
by the Faculty Senate committee determined that staff felt “external pressure to destroy” data and “barriers to accessing and analyzing” data in a timely manner, noting that there were “barriers to publication of scientific research which inhibited the ability of faculty to contribute scientific findings during a world-wide pandemic.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee blocked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s anti-protest bill, saying that the backlash from officials to people celebrating Juneteenth and engaging in peaceful protest mirrors the racist backlash to protests against Jim Crow laws during the 1960s.
Dr. Anthony Fauci,
the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, slammed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for being “completely wrong” about Covid-19 vaccines.
On Friday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) insisted that whether or not a person gets a Covid-19 vaccine comes down to “personal choice.”
“It’s about your health and whether you want that protection or not. It really doesn’t impact me or anyone else,” he said at the time.
DeSantis’s remarks opened him up to harsh criticism from the editorial board of the Miami Herald, who admonished him for exhibiting “a profile in selfishness.”
“
Almost 46,000 have died of COVID in his state since the pandemic began. Too bad we can’t ask the thousands who have died
Donald Trump, thankfully is out of office. And some may have hoped the the COVID situation would get better with him gone. Except it hasn’t gotten better at all.
Governors in red states had tried their best to emulate Trump by fighting any kind of COVID mitigation. And Ron DeSantis has fought harder than any others. This has resulted in Florida becoming the epicenter of COVID-19.
Howard Dean, once the governor of Vermont doesn’t much care for DeSantis. In fact, he says the Florida governor is even more insane that Donald Trump.
Dean made the comments during a Friday appearance on Ari Melber’s MSNBC show. He told the host:
“Well, I am shocked by DeSantis. I never thought I would say this but I think he may be more of a lunatic than Trump ever was. Trump finally come around thinking the best thing he can do for his supporters is get them vaccinated. And DeSantis is completely out of touch with reality. I am not sure what he could possibly be thinking now when you got more than half the population that’s in school districts refusing to comply, long before the court said it was okay, more than half of the people in Florida’s school districts said no. We don’t care, shut up and go away. This guy is not – if you are the governor, you can’t do that.”
In Florida, the Covid-19 pandemic is worse than it’s ever been.
A sobering New York Times report finds that Floridians are “being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic, underscoring the perils of limiting public health measures as the Delta variant rips through the state.”
Much of the criticism for the state’s pandemic response has fallen on Governor Ron DeSantis (R), who has resisted mask mandates and downplayed the pandemic’s severity at every turn.
DeSantis has also indicated that he would like to run for president in 2024 but a new Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday indicates that most Florida voters––59%––do not want DeSantis to run.
On the heels of this poll came the Twitter hashtag #DesantisDestroysFlorida. Many social media users are expressing their frustration, even anger, with the governor and have taken him to task for his actions during the pandemic and have emphasized the toll it has had on the state.
This pernicious malignancy is attempting to pave a path to the WH with the blood of his constituents killed by his banning of mask mandates in schools & businesses & railing against the vaccine while promoting Regeneron. I hope him and Trump share a cell.#DesantisDestroysFlorida https://t.co/4JjiRx15CS
For decades, Florida was the ultimate swing state. It regularly alternated from Red to Blue. And the presidential candidate who won Florida typically won the presidency.
The state, though, has become increasingly red. Democrats still managed to win the White House in 2020 losing Florida because Joe Biden won big in the mid-West.
That doesn’t mean, however, that Democrats wouldn’t like to win in Florida again. And pollster Fernand Amandi thinks that Ron DeSantis’ horrible COVID performance has opened the door for them to do so.
Amandi made the comments while speaking with MSNBC’s Jason Johnson on Tuesday. “Things are looking really bad for him,” he said. “I think you just touched on it. The biggest story in Florida is this notion that Emperor DeSantis has no clothes.”
The Game Has Changed: Watch Florida Pollster Explain Why DeSantis' COVID Failure Could Open the Door For Dems in the State pic.twitter.com/dRXjP6rY2I
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) August 25, 2021
Joe Biden recently ended America’s involvement in Afghanistan. And for a number of reasons, many of them not his fault, he is having a difficult time.
Ron DeSantis couldn’t be happier about cable news spending much of its airtime on Afghanistan. The Florida governor is getting a pass on the fact that the COVID surge in his state is getting worse, not better.
The MSNBC host began by mocking Republican’s claims that their freedoms are being infringed upon. “You know, Pee Wee football has a requirement that you put something much heavier than a mask on your head and shoulders. Little league baseball requires that anyone older than 6 wear a cup. There are a lot of things more invasive than a mask that people are required to do and you don’t see them physically and verbally abusing other parents at school board meetings.”
It's The Biggest Scandal in the Country Right Now: Watch Nicolle Wallace Slam Ron DeSantis for his Bumbling COVID-19 Response. pic.twitter.com/uiodo7I1B3
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa)
August 20, 2021
Ron DeSantis has helped his state of Florida to become the epicenter of the Delta variant in the United States. But he doesn’t seem at all concerned about stopping the surge.
Instead, DeSantis has focused on the COVID culture war. He has threatened to stop paying school administrators who instituted mask mandates (a number of districts have chosen to defy him.) And instead of urging vaccinations, the governor is instead pushing a treatment that people can’t access until they contract COVID and that costs $1200.
And this week, DeSantis had the gall to celebrate the fact that Florida’s tourism is booming despite the full ICU’s in the state.
The governor wrote in a statement, “Florida continues to serve as an example for the country that when you reject lockdowns and unnecessary mandates, your economy will thrive.”
Pauline Frommer, who publishes travel books, thinks that are certain kind of traveler is attracted to the lack of restrictions. She also notes, “
A lot of Americans are rightly nervous about foreign travel.” In the end, he travel expert predicts, “I think the momentum will be stalled. I don’t see how (Florida) can continue to be as popular.”
Ron DeSantis seemingly has bigger ambitions than just being the governor of one of the largest states in America. The Florida governor looks to be pushing for the 2024 Republican nomination.
In order to capture the nomination, DeSantis needs to appeal to Donald Trump supporters. He’s trying to do so by becoming a mask mandate culture warrior.
Thanks to DeSantis’ actions and words, Florida is now dealing with a massive surge of COVID cases. Still, The governor’s is acting as if there is no problem at all.
On Tuesday, Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Nikki Fried, called on DeSantis to declare a state of emergency.
During a recent Zoom event, Fried remarked, “Our hospitals and our health care workers are overwhelmed. We’re hearing reports that pediatric and rural hospitals across the state are filling up and some already at capacity”
The Agriculture Commissioner
continued
Back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump, Republican lawakers and Conservative media relentlessly pushed the drug hydroxychloroquine. And despite their repeated claims about the drug, it turned out to be pretty much useless.
The country now has a great way to combat COVID-19, vaccines that have proven to be incredibly effective. Still, in red states, vaccinations rates are low and COVID cases are high.
Ron DeSantis is dealing with yet another massive COVID surge in Florida. And rather than relentlessly advising people to get inoculated, he is pushing treatment with monoclonal antibodies. And unlike the free vaccine, this treatment costs at least $1200.
The Florida governor announced the availability of the drug in Orlando today. He told reporters, “Early treatment with these monoclonal antibodies, Regeneron and others, have proven to radically reduce the chance that somebody ends up being hospitalized. And at the end of the day, reducing hospital admissions has got to be a top priority.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis: "Early treatment with these monoclonal antibodies, Regeneron and others, have proven to radically reduce the chance that somebody ends up being hospitalized. And at the end of the day, reducing hospital admissions has got to be a top priority." pic.twitter.com/RfzPfPILPn
Florida, right now, is experiencing a severe COVID-19 surge. You wouldn’t know it, however, if you listened to Ron DeSantis. The governor is much more concerned fighting a culture war then keeping his people safe.
And people in the Sunshine state are suffering. And considering vaccine rates, it’s much more likely to be unvaccinated Republicans in the hospital than Democrats. But DeSantis has his heels dug in. For him, right now, it’s about punishing people who oppose him than protecting those who support him.
Republican Mayor Carlos Hernandez remarked, “He’s a dictator. It’s a shame because we’re paying the price.”
Fort Lauderdale’s Democratic Mayor Dean Trantalis, said, “
Florida is a big state, and each corner of the state has its own challenges, so it’s hard for a one-size-fits all approach.”
The office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has confirmed that the governor has walked back his threat to slash the salaries of school officials who impose mask mandates in defiance of his executive order.
His spokesperson said “activist, anti-science school board members” should dock their own salaries if the state imposes financial sanctions on their districts.
“Those officials should own their decision — and that means owning the consequences of their decisions rather than demanding students, teachers, and school staff to foot the bill for their potential grandstanding,” said Christina Pushaw, the governor’s press secretary.
Ron DeSantis doesn’t seem to care much about what happens in Florida right now. The state is in crisis mode thanks to the Delta variant of COVID-19. But the state’s governor seems more interested in fighting culture wars than combating the virus.
One would think that DeSantis is doing so because he thinks that’s the best way to become the 2024 GOP candidate. But if things continue to get worse in Florida, and they will, DeSantis will have plenty of egg on his face.
During a recent interview with Ari Melber, Howard Dean said it won’t be long before Republicans start coming out against DeSantis. And if Marco Rubio is one of them, the former DNC chairman says, it could end the Florida’s governors chances.
Dean began, “
He’s totally unfit to govern in any way, and he’s an embarrassment to every governor, I mean every governor, both Republicans and Democrats. A guy like this should never be in public authority. The good news here for the people of Florida is that people are beginning to stand up to this. In the last 24 hours, there are a number of large school districts that have ignored DeSantis’ crazy order. DeSantis is doing this to position himself to run for president with the MAGA people, but what he doesn’t realize and he’s a smart guy.”
Speaking to CNN, Broward County Public Schools Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright said that her school board will defy Governor Ron DeSantis, who threatened to withhold school officials’ salaries if they defy an executive order forbidding schools from implementing mask mandates to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“My core value is students first. No amount of personal financial loss will cause me to go against this value. No amount of money can compare to a person’s life or the impact that this virus may have on a person or their family,” Cartwright said on CNN’s “New Day.”
“Local decisions such as this allow for responsiveness and the immediate needs for local and very real situations. It wasn’t an easy decision for them to make, but I know at the heart of every one of our board members that they are making a decision that they feel is right to keep the health and safety of our students and our community,” she said.
The Delta variant is raging in Florida. And the state is nearly setting daily records for cases of COVID-19. One might never know how bad it is, though, if they paid attention to governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis has frequently given himself a pat on the back for his performance during the pandemic. Right now, however, the state has become the epicenter for the virus.
The governor doesn’t seem to care. Today was the first day of school for many Florida students. And DeSantis seems more concerned about keeping masks off their faces than keeping them safe from COVID.
Rick Wilson tore into the Florida governor today during an appearance on MSNBC. The former Republican strategist told Joy Reid:
“I just saw his schedule for tomorrow, no calls with the Department of Health or C.D.C. or hospitals or no calls with county health officials — nothing! He is doing a Ron DeSantis love me tour in the state of Florida. I think it is possible he doesn’t give a damn and doesn’t care.”
Ron DeSantis would really like to be the next president of the United States. And the Florida governor has decided that the best way to endear himself to GOP voters is to push culture war issues.
At this moment, a quarter of new COVID cases are occurring in Florida. But DeSantis has done absolutely nothing to stop the spread. During a recent podcast, comedian Bill Burr tore the GOP governor apart.
Burr began, “
DeSantis, whoever this guy is — and they have the most grumpiest looking photo ever — this guy is starting to build stature in 2024 and he says he disagrees on mask mandates.”
Scarborough’s logic is exactly that which also enables the anti-vaccination movement and, frankly, movements to undermine democracy.
Joe Biden came into the White House on a mission to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control. And for the most part, he has done that. Over 70% of Americans have already taken at least their first shot.
But things are a little tougher where GOP governors are in charge. During a recent presser, Biden called out Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott for their poor performances in Florida and Texas.
The president said of the two men, “If you’re not going to help, at least get out of the way of people trying to do the right thing.”
DeSantis shot back today, “
Let me tell you this: if you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way, I’m not gonna let you get away with it. If you’re trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I’m gonna stand in your way…If you’re trying to lock people down, I’m standing in your way, and I’m standing for the people of Florida. Why don’t you get this border secure? Until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about Covid from you.”
The Southern region of the United States largely votes for Republican politicians. And with the GOP now being the party of Trump, those lawmakers are fine with putting their constituents in danger to spare the former president’s feelings.
So those governors have turned the pandemic into a culture war issue rather than a health concern. And according to Dr. Peter Hotez, that has set up the South the be a COVID powder keg.
The doctor told host Jonathan Capehart:
“We are seeing a very worrisome surge across the southern states, and it’s going in a giant shape of a “U” starting in Missouri, down to Arkansas, Louisiana, cutting across east into Florida and then going up into the Carolinas. And it has a different flavor from the surge that we saw last summer. It’s true that we have a lot more older Americans who are vaccinated, so the deaths are nothing like what we saw before. But what we’re seeing in its place is lots and lots of young people getting sick. And lots of hospitalizations for young people. We’re even starting to see now pediatric intensive care unit admissions. I don’t think this virus is selectively targeting kids, I just think pretty much anyone that’s not vaccinated is getting swept up in this. And the big worry is in August here in the south, schools start early. They start earlier than they do up in the north. And I think this is really going to act as an accelerant for this epidemic. What I’m holding my breath about, given the fact that except for Louisiana we don’t have mask mandates, we certainly don’t have vaccination mandates for COVID vaccines, we have fewer than 20% of adolescents vaccinated in most southern states, this is a powder keg.”
https://twitter.com/politicususa/status/1422352461499703298
Ron DeSantis has spent much of the last year congratulating himself on how he has handled COVID-19. The Florida governor has leaned in hard to the culture war aspect of the pandemic.
Not only has he made a huge deal of fighting against mask mandates, he went as far as fundraising off shirts that slammed infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
According to DeSantis, he has done all of this in an effort to keep businesses humming in his state. But are they? Economist Paul Krugman did a deep dive into Florida’s economy and found that the governor hasn’t done well at all.
Krugman laid out his findings in a tweetstorm. He began, “DeSantis has been touting the FL economy — although how well will that economy hold up as potential visitors realize that the Sunshine state has become extremely dangerous and its hospital system is in overload crisis?”
DeSantis has been touting the FL economy — although how well will that economy hold up as potential visitors realize that the Sunshine state has become extremely dangerous and its hospital system is in overload crisis? 2/
Ron DeSantis, more than any other governor in the country, has politicized mask wearing. He has regularly pointed to his state as a model for how COVID-19 should be handled.
At the same time, Florida is in the top 5 states for both total COVID deaths and cases. And right now, the virus is surging in Florida with 20% of new cases originating there.
During today’s press briefing, Jen Psaki was asked about DeSantis‘ recent declaration that masks would not be required in Florida schools this year. He told reporters, “We’re not doing that in Florida, okay? We want kids to be able to be kids. We need them to be able to breathe.”
Psaki responded, “
If I were a parent in Florida, that would be greatly concerning to me because kids under the age of 12 are not vaccinated. They’re not eligible yet.”
Florida has kind of become the epicenter of the MAGA movement. Donald Trump, or course, decided to make it his permanent residence following his presidency. And while it was one time the nation’s biggest swing state, it has become much redder over the last 10 years.
Ron DeSantis, a Trumpian politician is beloved in the state. And the governor made a point of patting himself on the back for his COVID response. Unlike other states, he said, Florida didn’t need to take strong steps to combat the illness. And he took quite a victory lap early in the pandemic.
But now, the delta variant is surging in his state. The White House recently reported that 20% of all new cases are originating in Florida.
On Wednesday, the governor threw his full support behind vaccines. “If you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, the chances of you getting seriously ill or dying from Covid is effectively zero. If you look at the people being admitted to hospitals, over 95 percent of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated. And so these vaccines are saving lives.
DeSantis continued, “
They are reducing mortality. Mortality in nursing homes since we rolled out the vaccines in December is down 95 percent due to Covid. Mortality for elderly people since we rolled out the vaccines is down nearly 90 percent. So we’re proud in Florida that we put seniors first on that list because they were the most vulnerable.”
As of right now, the GOP is acting as if Donald Trump is the clear 2024 presidential candidate for the party. Things, however, may not be anything near that simple.
Trump is not only and older man with potential health difficulties, there are also plenty of legal challenges for him ahead. And while he is desperate to stay at the head of the party, other prominent Republicans are smelling blood in the water.
Ron DeSantis is clearly the party’s rising star. And South Dakota’s Kristi Noem may also have a big future. During this weekend’s CPAC conference, Noem seemingly took a shot at the Florida governor.
The South Dakota governor told attendees, “
Let’s talk about rewriting history. We’ve got Republican Governors across the country pretending they didn’t shut down their states
Republicans promote an ignorance that delights in repeating history, even it results in deadly massacres.
Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are often key allies within the GOP. But right now, the Florida governor has his hands full dealing with the recent building collapse in Miami.
And DeSantis feels that it would be best for all of his energy to by focused on handling the tragedy. With that in mind, the governor reportedly asked Trump to postpone his rally in Sarasota this weekend. And the former president is refusing to do so.
A Florida Republican told the Washington Examiner that the former president needs to, “read the room.” They continued, “
The governor is getting tested here as to how far he’s going to be pushed before he breaks ranks with President Trump. And he has to be very careful because this is Trump country. The base loves the president. But they equally love Ron. It’s a showdown going on right now.”
Last week, a Miami, Florida building collapsed likely killing dozens of residents. The tragedy has created an all hands on deck response. Joe Biden recently offered the state whatever help it needs on a federal level.
Fox News has taken advantage of the tragedy to laud the state’s Governor Ron DeSantis. During a Monday broadcast, Tomi Lahren went as far as calling the matter a “shining moment” for the Republican.
The commentator gushed:
“Just watching this press conference as long as we did, a couple of things I took away from it. It is really unfortunate that tragedy brings people together. But watching Debbie Wasserman Schultz standing next to Ron DeSantis, watching all these city officials standing next to each other, some Republicans, some Democrats — it’s just a reminder that when something like this happens, it really doesn’t matter who you voted for, it doesn’t matter what letter is behind your name, people come together.”
Donald Trump‘s mark on the Republican party is now quite clear. In order to win big among Conservatives, lawmakers feel that they have to replicate Trump’s behavior.
Ron DeSantis has a bit more a pedigree than Trump. The Navy veteran did his undergrad at Yale and has a law degree from Harvard. The Florida governor, though, is more than happy to dumb his rhetoric down.
A recent poll of Republican voters showed that DeSantis’ strategy is working. Colorado Republicans said they preferred the Florida governor to Trump as the 2024 GOP nominee. Samantha Bee recently explained why that is so scary.
“Folks, after five years of the living hell that was the 2020 election, the 2024 presidential election is finally getting into gear,” the comedian said. “And sweet American Jesus, we may already have a frontrunner for the Republican nomination!”
Bee continued, “
Governor Ron DeSantis, please look into my eyes and eat sh*t. You’re one of the worst governors in Florida history and they had Jeb Bush and Nosferatu.”
During his time in the White House, Donald Trump enjoyed huge popularity among Republicans. Sure, it was never the 95 or 96% he claimed, but the former president was able to amass over 74 million votes in 2020.
But since he’s been out of the White House, Trump has been unable to stay in front of Republican voters. Not only is he not in the news on a daily basis, he also lost his Twitter account that allowed him to blast out grievances to millions of followers.
And with Trump’s popularity dwindling, other Republican lawmakers have stepped in to fill the gap. Ron DeSantis, in particular, now seems like someone who could challenge the 45th president for leadership of the party. With that being the case, Philip Bump says, Trump will have no choice but to turn on the Florida governor.
The Washington Post scribe begins, “
The point, though, is simple: Nothing frustrates Trump more obviously and viscerally than coming in second. Which is not great news for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
Donald Trump would very much like to run for president again in 2024. He has a number of hurdles to overcome to get there. He has serious legal issues in both New York and Georgia. He is also a 75 year-old man who isn’t in the greatest physical condition. But if he’s able to clear those hurdles, Trump would be favored to be the 2024 GOP nominee.
There are other popular Republicans though. During a conference in Colorado this weekend, attendees said they’d rather see Ron DeSantis be the 2024 nominee than Trump. According to Mark Meadows, though, the former president doesn’t need to worry because the Florida governor won’t be challenging him.
The former Trump chief of staff told the Washington Examiner, “
I think Ron DeSantis is identified across the country now for the courage that he shows for conservative solutions, and he would be the first to say that if President Trump gets in, that he would win the nomination and would clear the field, and so I don’t ever see it being a 2016 primary scenario.”
Back in September, two months before losing the election to Joe Biden, when Donald Trump was repeating the fallacy either he win the election or it’s “rigged,” Trump announced the formation of the “1776 Commission,” a retaliation against The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project,” dedicated to chronicling the country’s history beginning the year Europeans shipped the first enslaved Africans to American shores.
In April, Senate Minority Leader Mitch “The Grim Reaper” McConnell led 39 Senate republicans in demanding Education Secretary Miguel Cardona retract a “divisive” education proposal to emphasize history and civics lessons about slavery and Black Americans’ contributions to the country as well as remove the 1619 Project from federal grant programs.
Ron DeSantis has spent much of the last year bragging about how the state of Florida has combated the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that the state is in the top 5 in the nation in cases and deaths, the Governor has regularly touted his leadership.
Rebekah Jones is a scientist who formerly worked for the Florida Department of Health. She claims that she was fired for her claims that DeSantis had been hiding the state’s real COVID data. And after the governor recently celebrated her temporary suspension from Twitter, Jones announced that she would be challenging Matt Gaetz for his congressional seat.
A spokesperson for the governor released a statement yesterday that read in part, “The decision (to suspend Jones) was long overdue. Rebekah Jones is the Typhoid Mary of COVID-19 disinformation and has harmed many hardworking DOH employees with her defamatory conspiracy.
.@GovRonDeSantis’ office on Rebekah Jones Twitter suspension pic.twitter.com/a5jR0YTRtb
— Matt Dixon (@Mdixon55) June 7, 2021
Jones responded to the message via her Instagram account. She wrote, “Didn’t want to announce it this way, but since DeSantis is now taking credit for getting me suspended for sharing an article that proves he’s a sociopathic liar, it looks like I have to say it this way. I’m running for Matt Gaetz’ seat next year. No more sex traffickers in congress!”
Two weeks ago, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed his pet bill against Big Tech censorship.
Yesterday, he celebrated when whistleblower Rebekah Jones got banned from Twitter.
Now, she's coming for @mattgaetz's seat in Congress to force DeSantis to defend her account.
IRONIC. pic.twitter.com/8CFyg7CVVz
Donald Trump has given every indication that he plans on running for president again in 2024. And most Republicans have been quick to fall in line behind him.
But behind closed doors, there have to be some ambitious young Republicans who want to run for president in 2024. And according to David Jolly, the decline shown by Trump during last night’s North Carolina speech opens the door for people like Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem.
The former Florida congressman made the comments while speaking to Alex Witt. He told the MSNBC host:
“I think unfortunately Donald Trump is still relevant for a couple of very important reasons. First, he is still the leader of the party until somebody replaces him, right? He has not receded into the shadows. Secondly, he’s very relevant because as leader of the party he continues to stoke the big lie, he continues to stoke this anti-democratic, illiberal attack on our democracy, if you will. that’s a very dangerous moment we’re living in.”
https://twitter.com/politicususa/status/1401682281660661763
For a number of years, Conservatives have accused major tech companies of discrimination. Republican lawmakers frequently called the heads of major tech companies to testify in front of committees.
The last straw for the GOP seemed to be when Donald Trump was batted from all of the most prominent social media sites. Florida’s Ron DeSantis, a major Trump fan, recently introduced legislation to punish tech companies that “discriminate” against Conservatives.
DeSantis told reporters, “
Many in our state have experienced censorship and other tyrannical behavior firsthand in Cuba and Venezuela. If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable.”
Donald Trump has lived in New York City for basically his entire life. But near the end of his presidency, he announced that he would be moving to Florida. And he didn’t just make the move for the weather.
Trump has powerful friends in the state of Florida, including governor Ron DeSantis. It was even rumored this week that DeSantis might be able to protect the former president from being extradited to New York in the case of a criminal charge.
But Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg says that the governor doesn’t have the power to protect Trump. He gave the explanation during a Sunday interview on CNN.
Host Jim Acosta asked, “Prosecutors in Florida are beginning to have conversations with prosecutors in New York about the possibility of extraditing Trump to New York if some kind of an indictment comes down. Are you aware of these talks. What can you tell us about that?’
Aronberg responded:
“I can clear that up. We have not had conversations with prosecutors in New York about this. The story you saw was with the clerk of court and other officials in case an indictment happens. There was a story in the New Yorker some time ago that said there are rumors that the governor of Florida would try to stand in the way of an extradition to New York. What is the governor’s power? It’s really nonexistent. He can try to delay it but his role is ministerial. The state of New York can go to court and get an order to extradite the former president but DeSantis can delay matters.”
https://twitter.com/politicususa/status/1394080962825359367
When Donald Trump left the White House, he went right down to Florida and hasn’t really left Mar-a-Lago. Luckily for Trump the state is run by Ron DeSantis, a big booster of the former president.
And having DeSantis in charge could be beneficial to Trump in the coming months. The New York District Attorney’s office is seemingly getting closer to charging the former president with a crime.
During Thursday’s episode of Deadline White House, Nicolle Wallace and her panel broke down what would happen if DeSantis refused to extradite
Trump to New York.
Wallace asked Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor on Robert Mueller‘s team what would happen if this was the case.
“So, this happens all the time in foreign countries where essentially you have people who are sort of imprisoned in a country,” Weissman explained. “Here, Donald Trump would be imprisoned in Florida. If he went overseas, if he went to any other state, he would be subject to those laws, and so he would really have to stay in Florida. It certainly would be quite an interesting issue if he were to, for instance — this is way down the road — but if he tried to run again, he would not be inhabiting the White House in that situation because there would be papers seeking his extradition to New York.”
https://twitter.com/politicususa/status/1392999390189654021
After Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in 2012, Democrats began to plan for the next election in 2016. They could have not imagined, at that point, that they would be running against a failed businessman and reality TV star.
So the party is pulling out all the stops for their 2024 opposition research. Of course, Trump could again be the candidate. In order to do so, though, he would have to clear a number of different hurdles.
So the DNC is looking at around 20 candidates. There are favorites in the group like Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. But in leaving no stone unturned, Democrats are even looking at wildcard candidates like My Pillow Guy, Mike Lindell.
The Hill reports, “T
he DNC also has a team in place to beef up its fundraising and organizing operations for both the 2022 midterms and the 2024 cycle.” Running the operation is Jen O’Malley Dillon who successfully ran Biden
In an interview with Fox Business, former President Donald Trump said he’d consider running in 2024 with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) as his running mate.
“Well, he’s a friend of mine. I endorsed Ron. And after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship,” Trump said.
Over the last 5 years, states like Georgia and Arizona have become bluer and helped Democrats gain control of the senate. At the same time, states like Florida and Ohio have become redder.
Florida, once the biggest swing state in the country, now has a GOP governor and two Republican senators. That does not mean, however, that Democrats can’t win there.
Val Demings, a Congresswoman from the 10th district, is very popular on both a state and national level. She was on Joe Biden‘s short list of Vice Presidential candidates. And the former police officer could have her eyes on a bigger Florida seat.
The congresswoman told Politico, “I’ve received so many calls and texts and emails, and have been stopped when I’m out and about by people who are asking me that very same question. Matter of fact, they think I should run for statewide office and maybe challenge the governor, or challenge Sen. Rubio next year. I’m seriously considering a statewide run. And we’ll see what happens.”
Demings had a highlight reel moment this week during an exchange with Jim Jordan. She responded to Jordan’s police officer comments by saying, “I served as a law enforcement officer for 27 years. It is a tough job, and good police officers deserve your support. It’s interesting to see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle support the police when it is politically convenient to do so.”
When Jordan tried to interrupt, she ruthlessly replied, “did I strike a nerve?”
Watch a video of the exchange below:
Let's just say things got pretty heated between Val Demings and Jim Jordan in today's House Judiciary meeting pic.twitter.com/SaE5gQBB7b
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 20, 2021
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) pushed back against requiring vaccine passports in his state, saying he wouldn’t allow them.
“We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” he said. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.”
Within weeks of being in office, Joe Biden passed a massive stimulus package. The legislation will put money in the pockets of millions of Americans and also aid countless small businesses.
The measure is favored by over 2/3’s of Americans and more than half of the country’s Republicans. GOP lawmakers are now in the unenviable position of having the slam the massively popular bill.
Rick Scott came up with an idiotic plan to show that the stimulus money wasn’t needed in Red States. The Florida senator wrote a letter to Republican governors. He urged:
“By rejecting and returning any unneeded funds, as well as funds unrelated to COVID-19, you would be taking responsible action to avoid wasting scarce tax dollars. After all, every dollar in this package is borrowed.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) slammed the “failed Republican establishment” in remarks at the Conservation Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“Florida’s leading on the issues that matter to conservatives,” DeSantis said. “We don’t spout hollow rhetoric. We take decisive action.” He referred to Florida as “an oasis of freedom” and praised his administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added: “We cannot, we will not go back to the days of the failed Republican establishment of yesteryear. We reject open borders and instead support American sovereignty and the American worker. Building a movement on amnesty and cheap foreign labor is like building a house on a field of quicksand.”
You can listen to DeSantis’s remarks in the video below.
.@GovRonDeSantis Blasting Establishment Republicans
"We reject open borders & instead support American sovereignty & the American worker. Building a movement on the foundation of amnesty & cheap foreign labor is like building a house on a field of quicksand." #CPAC2021 pic.twitter.com/yqj7d9ixQk
Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) has requested that the Department of Justice launch an investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has confirmed he will order that flags be flown at half-staff at public buildings in honor of conservative firebrand Rush Limbaugh. The often controversial radio personality died earlier this week of lung cancer.
“What we do when there’s things of this magnitude, once the date of internment for Rush is announced, we’re going to be lowering the flags to half-staff,” DeSantis told the crowd during a political rally in West Palm Beach.
Donald Trump has claimed that voting by mail is safe in Florida because the governor is a Republican. The President has been at pains to explain why mail-in ballots should be used in that state but not others.
Trump has railed against mail-in ballots, to the dismay of some Republicans, but recently stressed that voting by mail was completely safe in the crucial swing state of Florida.
The President cited past and present Republican leadership in the state to justify this apparent contradiction.
“Florida’s got a great Republican governor. And it had a great Republican governor,” Trump said.
He’s referring to Governor Ron DeSantis and former Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott.
“Two great governors. And over a long period of time they’ve been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally,” he said.
“They’re so well run. Florida’s a very well run state.”
“Low taxes, low everything. They’ve done a great job. Really a great job. And the two governors, between the both of them, they’ve really got a great system of absentee ballots and even in the case of mail-in ballots.”
Florida is crucial to Trump’s reelection and many in the GOP are worried his attacks on mail-in ballots will discourage their voters from using them.
Follow Darragh Roche on Twitter
When Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the House floor last Thursday to address the widespread sexism at work in the halls of Congress and deeply embedded in American culture and society, she had to suspect her remarks would garner some media attention.
The Orlando Sentinel‘s editorial board criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after he blamed the high number of unemployed people for the state’s failure to pay unemployment benefits.
DeSantis made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question about delays that have affected individuals who first applied for unemployment in March.
“I can tell you that DEO goes through this, and nine times out of 10 the application’s incomplete. And I think if you have complied in that time period, and your application’s complete, and you qualify, I think 99.99% of those folks have been paid,” DeSantis said at the time.
His statements prompted a rebuke from the Sentinel: “As if getting laid off isn’t scary enough, as if getting put through the unemployment wringer isn’t humiliating and frustrating enough, Gov. Ron DeSantis has decided to start blaming the jobless for the state’s failure to pay benefits,” the editorial board wrote.
“In other words, the governor thinks the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of people who still haven’t received unemployment benefits to pay for rent and food have only themselves to blame. User error,” they continued. “Not a state unemployment system that was designed to fail and frustrate workers who find themselves out of a job through no fault of their own. A system that, in the year 2020, is asking people to fax information.”
The editorial board goes on to say that it empathizes with DeSantis and his frustration, noting that he “is taking a lot of heat for an albatross he inherited from former Gov. Rick Scott.”
“But we’ve reached a new level of tone-deafness when responsibility is shifted from the state to the citizens who desperately need benefits they’re entitled to,” they say, later concluding that DeSantis:
…probably is right that many of those who haven’t been paid were deemed ineligible to receive unemployment for one reason or another. What’s mystifying is how DeSantis, knowing better than anyone how lousy and glitchy the state’s system is, can be so confident those people truly are not eligible.
This was a bad moment for the governor. People are hurting. They’re scared. They’re broke. But DeSantis gets peevish, and sounds like he’s totally over answering questions about unemployment benefits.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called his state “God’s waiting room” for senior citizens during a coronavirus briefing.
“Florida is ground zero for the nursing home, we’re God’s waiting room,” DeSantis said. “We have a huge number of facilities, a huge number of residents.”
When he noted that the city of Orlando has 68 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized, he described the number as “probably a two-hour stretch in Brooklyn” in a jab at the large number of fatalities in New York City.
“If you go back six weeks, there were people saying that Florida was going to be another New York or another Italy,” DeSantis said. “Those have all been proven to be false. Florida’s performed better than anyone predicted.”
You can watch DeSantis’s remarks in the video below.
People over the age of 60 make up roughly 28 percent of Florida’s population. Seniors are also especially vulnerable to the coronavirus, which according to the most up-to-date statistics, has claimed at least 1,074 lives in the state. Florida has currently recorded 31,528 coronavirus cases.
On Saturday, DeSantis said he is in no rush to lift restrictions on business operations in the wake of the pandemic. Although restrictions expire on April 30, it seems he will extend social distancing requirements through May.
“We’re not doing in-person sports yet, no matter what. That’s just not going to happen in May,” he said. “Another thing in Phase 1, they say movie theaters with social distancing, I’m not there yet on the movie theaters. I think it is an enclosed environment (and) you are much better off being outdoors then in an enclosed environment — that’s just a reality.”
Americans enduring unemployment have typically, in the culture of the U.S. political economy, not been responded to with sympathy but rather with disdain, judgment, and blame.
And this has been true, we see, even when the nation has faced conditions of great economic austerity, begging the question, how can we blame people for not working when there is a scarcity of jobs?
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has called on Texas and Florida to do more to contain the spread of Covid-19. Dr. Gottlieb told CNBC that the states’ governors needed to take action.
“I think the real wild card here and the decision point on whether or not we’re gonna have the bad outcome that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx talked about is what populous states like Texas and Florida do,” he said.
“[They] really haven’t taken aggressive steps even now,” Gottlieb said.
“They’re large states, they have large urban areas that have very dense populations and if they don’t get more aggressive, then we could be on the cusp of some of these bad outcomes.”
Gottlieb said Texas and Florida should act ‘very aggressively right now’ in order to keep the number of infections low.
He went on to explain how the federal government had limited authority to impose restrictions on states.
Watch the video:
Dr. Scott Gottlieb says he’s worried that large states like Florida and Texas have not been aggressive enough in combatting the coronavirus outbreak. “I don’t understand why those governors have not acted more forcefully.” https://t.co/jB8m6i5yyO pic.twitter.com/IqAMbhKQ4h
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was forced to sign an NDA and not disclose to the public information about the Russian hacking of his state's voter databases.
The Trump administration is backing off its plan to use disaster relief funding to build a Mexican border wall due to pushback from members of both parties in Congress.
Officials in the White House told news outlets on Thursday that President Trump is considering the use of billions of dollars of Army Corps of Engineers funding to build his unpopular border wall, which has been deemed to be unnecessary and ineffective.
The Corps of Engineers funding was originally allocated by Congress for states and territories suffering from storm or wildfire damage but has not yet been spent. The affected areas are Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas, and California.
Trump came up with the idea as a way for him to avoid the need to obtain the approval of Congress in order to build his border wall.
On Friday, after additional pushback and complaints from conservatives in Congress — as well as the Wall Street Journal — Trump said he’s “not looking” to declare a national emergency for the border wall right now.
Trump’s allies in Congress had denied that he is planning to divert disaster funding for the wall.
“I’ve spoken directly with the White House,” Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a tweet.
Trump, he wrote, “Fully supports Corps funding to help Harvey communities rebuild/prevent future flooding.”
Brady is referring to 2017’s Hurricane Harvey in Houston, which inflicted $125 billion in damage, primarily from flooding. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also said Friday he opposes “any reprogramming of Harvey disaster funds.”
Basically what happened is that Trump and his advisers backtracked on the idea of diverting disaster funding after outcries from Republicans in the affected states.
For Trump to diverting disaster funding would mean real harm to many communities that are still recovering from storms and wildfires. It would also set an undesirable precedent for presidential use of money appropriated by Congress. It might also be unconstitutional, and would be subjected to legal challenges.
“This is weaponizing disaster assistance funding,” Craig Fugate, the former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said. “It’s using it for purposes to extract concessions or force issues that have nothing to do with a disaster.”
On Friday several state governors criticized Trump’s planned move, saying it would make their states more vulnerable.
For example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a conservative and Trump supporter, said he is against using hurricane funding for a Mexican border wall. Florida is still recovering from several hurricanes in the past few years, including Hurricane Michael, which hit the state in October and caused at least 60 deaths.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, still suffering from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Maria in 2017, said:
“No wall should be funded on the pain and suffering of U.S. citizens who have endured tragedy and loss through a natural disaster.”
President Donald Trump declared that “an honest vote count is no longer possible” in the controversial Florida midterm elections for the state’s governor and U.S. Senate positions. The president is now claiming (with no evidence) that many of the ballots are “missing or forged.”
Trump tweeted:
“The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!”
The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
It’s possible that Andrew Gillum is the biggest surprise of the 2018 midterm election season.
Very few people thought he could win a crowded Democratic primary for Florida’s governor, yet he did.
Very few people think that a true liberal progressive who endorses all of the positions of Bernie Sanders can be elected governor of a Deep South state, but he might.
Since his shocking win against four other prominent and well-funded Florida Democrats in the August 28 primary Gillum has been leading his Republican opponent Ron DeSantis in almost every poll.
It seems that there is just something about the charismatic 39 year-old African American mayor of Tallahassee that people just like — and respect.
In recent days Gillum has also had the opportunity to demonstrate his poise and his leadership skills in the face of blistering attacks from the President of the United States.
DeSantis was hand-picked by Trump, and he has taken all the credit for the young congressman’s victory in the GOP primary. So if DeSantis loses it will be seen as a clear slap in the face for the president.
In his desperate attempts to prevent that from happening Trump has taken to Twitter to make ludicrous and outrageous charges against Gillum.
In the worst of these tweets Trump wrote:
“In Florida there is a choice between a Harvard/Yale educated man named @RonDeSantisFL who has been a great Congressman and will be a great Governor – and a Dem who is a thief and who is Mayor of poorly run Tallahassee, said to be one of the most corrupt cities in the Country!”
In Florida there is a choice between a Harvard/Yale educated man named @RonDeSantisFL who has been a great Congressman and will be a great Governor – and a Dem who is a thief and who is Mayor of poorly run Tallahassee, said to be one of the most corrupt cities in the Country!
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has opened up a 12 point lead over Republican Ron DeSantis (54%-42%) as Florida women are backing Democrats.
President Donald Trump is lashing out in anger the Florida Republican Party’s gubernatorial nominee, former congressman Ron DeSantis, POLITICO reported Tuesday.
This is not a positive development for DeSantis with less than seven weeks until the crucial midterm elections on November 6th.
According to
POLITICO
Andrew Gillum leads Republican Ron DeSantis by six points in a new poll of the Florida governor's race by Republican-leaning pollster Rassmussen.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that Florida’s GOP candidate for governor, Ron DeSantis, spoke four different times at a conference organized by an extreme right-wing activist and attended by controversial conservative figures.
The Post article said that DeSantis attended conferences at the David Horowitz Freedom Center in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. He has been in Congress six years and has often promoted right-wing causes. He is known to be a huge supporter of Donald Trump’s policies and receives financial support from the Koch Brothers Network.
Horowitz is an extremely controversial and outspoken figure who has always promoted a point of view that is considered racially divisive. He has often been quoted saying that in the United States, the “only serious race war” is against whites. He is also has been called an Islamaphobe, and has espoused anti-Islam views for many years.
Due to his wildly extremist views Horowitz has been thrown off Twitter and had his ability to receive donations blocked by Visa and Mastercard.
Other extreme right-wing speakers at the Horowitz conferences have included former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, all of whom are famous for their white-supremacist points of view.
This latest revelation about DeSantis assures that the topic of race will continue to be an issue in the upcoming Florida gubernatorial contest between DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum, who is black.
Last month DeSantis provoked outrage when he urged Florida voters to vote against Gillum, using a racially charged phrase. He said voters should not “monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.”
The comment was immediately criticized as being racially insensitive and provocative, and even Fox News told DeSantis he should apologize. But the current congressman from Florida’s sixth congressional district downplayed the criticism, saying his comments had “zero to do with race.”
Then, a few days after that, Gillum was the target of a
racist robocall
Ron DeSantis, who on August 28th won the Republican nomination for governor of Florida, is getting off to a rough start, much to the delight of his Democratic opponents in the Sunshine State. It turns out that his lieutenant governor running mate once tweeted that “Trump is the biggest conman there is,” according to Florida’s Sun-Sentinel newspapers.
DeSantis is currently a Member of Congress from Florida’s 6th Congressional District, but he has never had any tough competition and never had to campaign very hard to get elected. He also is my Congressman, and I know what a horrible job he has done in Congress for his constituents, and what a horrible governor he would be for Florida. (For the record, he receives most of his financial backing from the Koch Brothers and their donor network.)
DeSantis won the GOP nomination by sucking up to Donald Trump as much as possible. He made a disgusting TV ad where he used his young children as props as he taught them how to build a wall with toy blocks while he read excerpts to them from one of Trump’s books.
After winning the nomination by being the most pro-Trump candidate, he immediately went full-blown racist on his African American opponent, Andrew Gillum, the current mayor of Tallahassee. He said that electing Gillum would “monkey up” the state of Florida.
In addition to that it has now been revealed that “Rubber Stamp Ron” (his nickname for approving all of Trump’s agenda) has been an administrator of a white nationalist Facebook group. This has allowed him to show his true racist colors for all the world to see. In short, he is a confirmed racist, and doesn’t even try to hide it, which he thinks will help him win the governorship of a deep South state.
But two
recent polls
Racism is already tainting the Florida governor’s race after African American candidate Andrew Gillum won the Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Voters in Tallahassee are now receiving robocalls against Gillum that are being paid for by a neo-Nazi group in Idaho.
Gillum’s GOP opponent, Ron DeSantis, started the campaign off on a negative footing when he seemed to call his opponent a monkey, which obviously is a racially derogatory term used to refer to Americans of African descent.
“He is an articulate spokesman for those far left views and he’s a charismatic candidate. I watched those Democrat debates. None of that is my cup of tea but he performed better than the other people there. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.”
The automated calls are racially offensive also. They are being narrated by a person who pretends to be Gillum with an exaggerated “minstrel dialect” with jungle noises in the background. Minstrel dialects were historically used in conjunction with blackface as ways to mimic and make fun of African Americans.
The robocalls end with a disclaimer that they are being paid for by “The Road to Power” which is an anti-Semitic, white supremacy website and podcast tied to Scott Rhodes of Sandpoint, Idaho, a well known for his racist activism and publishings.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the group has been linked to other robocall campaigns in Charlottesville, Virginia, Oregon and California.
Terry Kant-Rauch is one Tallahassee resident who received one of the robocalls in the voice mail of her cell phone. Kant-Rauch is a Democrat and a realtor who happens to have a biracial daughter, so the call was very upsetting to her and she became emotional after hearing it.
“Campaign on the merits,” she said, “not on the color of his skin.”
Geoff Burgan, communications director for Gillum’s campaign, responded to reports of the robocalls by saying, “This is reprehensible — and could only have come from someone with intentions to fuel hatred and seek publicity. Please don’t give it undeserved attention.”
The Democrat decided not to publish a transcript of the robocall because of its blatantly racist and extremely offensive content. They said the call came from a phone number in Tallahassee.
The Democrat tried calling Rhodes for comment but he did not answer and did not immediately return the phone call.
The Democrat’s sister paper, The Des Moines Register reported earlier this week that robocalls from the same group, Road to Power, were going out using the death of Mollie Tibbetts to promote white supremacist messages in Iowa.
Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student, disappeared July 18, and her body was discovered more than a month later. So-called alt-right groups have attempted to capitalize on her killing because the suspect is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.
Although DeSantis has not been tied to the racist robocalls directly, it is clear from his comments and also from
President Trump’s comments after Gillum won,
Bernie Sanders-supported progressive Democrat Andrew Gillum, the thirty-something mayor of Tallahassee, is leading Trump-supported right-wing Republican Rep.
Ron DeSantis
Republican Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis needed less than 24 hours before he launched a Trump-style racist attack on his Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum.
In a shocking political upset yesterday in the Florida primary, a young African American mayor named Andrew Gillum beat a crowded field of wealthy establishment figures to win the Democratic nomination for governor of the Sunshine State.
His opponent will be Congressman Ron DeSantis who won the GOP primary after advertising his closeness to Donald Trump and then being strongly endorsed by the president.
Gillum has also won endorsements, but from the other side of the political spectrum. His upset victory came about because of the enthusiastic involvement of such liberal groups as Indivisible and the Bernie Sanders-affiliated group called OurRevolution.
Gillum was the only Democratic Party candidate to embrace such liberal ideas as “Medicare for All” and his positions are very closely aligned with those of Sanders.
Democrats hope that Gillum’s victory will inspire the so-called Obama Coalition which includes such groups as minority voters, single women and young voters. If he has any chance of victory it will depend on massive turnout from these groups.
Republicans claim that Gillum’s liberal positions will lead to an easy victory for DeSantis in November.
In fact the president himself weighed in on Twitter this morning, not only congratulating DeSantis and taking credit for his victory, but also attacking Gillum.
“Not only did Congressman Ron DeSantis easily win the Republican Primary, but his opponent in November is his biggest dream….a failed Socialist Mayor named Andrew Gillum who has allowed crime & many other problems to flourish in his city. This is not what Florida wants or needs!”
Not only did Congressman Ron DeSantis easily win the Republican Primary, but his opponent in November is his biggest dream….a failed Socialist Mayor named Andrew Gillum who has allowed crime & many other problems to flourish in his city. This is not what Florida wants or needs!
