Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “is planning a private fundraiser in Utah later this month that is expected to draw some of the country’s wealthiest Republican donors as he signals a possible run for president in 2024,” CNBC reports.
Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
Trial Balloon · Ep. 194: What Just Happened?
Ron DeSantis Keeps a Tight Grip on Power
“Gov. Ron DeSantis has become arguably the most powerful governor in Florida’s history,” Politico reports.
“With one year left in his first term in office, DeSantis’ consolidation of power has become clear: Democrats, who are in the minority, are unable to stop him. And Republicans in the Florida Legislature are enthusiastically carrying out his wishes or are unwilling to buck him.”
Said one GOP legislator: “They are not going to embarrass Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis is essentially the speaker of the House, the president of the Senate and the chief justice of the Supreme Court right now.”
Said a former legislator: “There are no second chances. It’s well known you can’t go against him. If you cross him once, you’re dead.”
Trump Would Consider Ron DeSantis as His Running Mate
Former President Donald Trump told Fox Business that he would “certainly” consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as a potential running mate if he runs for president again in 2024.
Said Trump: “He’s a friend of mine. I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship.”
He added: “A lot of people like that — you know, I’m just saying what I read and what you read — they love that ticket. But certainly, Ron would be considered. He’s a great guy.”
DeSantis Knowingly Misled the Public on the Virus
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “suppressed unfavorable facts, dispensed dangerous misinformation, dismissed public health professionals, and promoted the views of scientific dissenters” who supported the governor’s hands off approach on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
The Governor Who Holds Trump’s Fate In His Hands
Politico: “The notoriously media-averse DeSantis has always been uncomfortable talking about himself and maybe even more so hearing others talk about him. And people are talking about him a lot these days. As much as any current governor, DeSantis is a subject of national fixation because of Florida’s singular political importance to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.”
“But DeSantis remains something of a cipher, easily caricatured for the way he vaulted to this perch in 2018—on the strength of a collection of complimentary tweets and an endorsement from Trump. He is seen by many as not just Trump-tied but Trump-made. It’s an assessment that’s not wrong in the simplest sense—DeSantis has an open line to the president that he uses regularly—but it’s also an underselling of him, even a fundamental misreading.”
“The more accurate picture of DeSantis, revealed through more than 60 interviews with people who’ve watched him and worked with him and for him, strategists, consultants, operatives, lobbyists, friends and fellow pols, is not of a White House errand boy but of a stubbornly independent player whose personal ambition far exceeds any loyalty to the president. Indeed, DeSantis’ life is in many respects a far truer version of the story Trump always has told falsely about himself: self-made, supersmart, somehow destined for greatness.”
DeSantis Surprises Nearly Everyone In Florida
“It was a moment lost on Election Night. As newly elected Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) faced a blockade of TV cameras in Orlando, he told reporters that he had been misunderstood, or ‘unfairly demagogued,’ by political rivals and the media,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“At the end of a bitter campaign in which he cast himself as an uncompromising conservative who reveled in his support from President Trump, DeSantis said he was eager to move on and work with those who had tried to defeat him.”
“Three months later, his short time in office has already shattered assumptions that he would govern exclusively from the right. He has drawn unexpected praise from Republicans and Democrats.”
DeSantis Warns Florida Voters Not to ‘Monkey This Up’
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said that voters would “monkey this up” if they elect his opponent for Florida governor, Andrew Gillum (D), who would be the state’s first African American governor, the Washington Post reports.
Said DeSantis: “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. That is not going to work. That’s not going to be good for Florida.”
He also called Gillum “articulate.”
Billionaires Follow Trump’s Lead In Florida
“After Donald Trump appeared to endorse Ron DeSantis’ campaign for Florida governor last week, a handful of the biggest and most influential billionaires in Republican politics threw their support behind the three-term GOP congressman, upending the race in the nation’s biggest swing state,” Politico reports.
“DeSantis has yet to formally announce his 2018 campaign for governor, but his intentions to seek the office became clear in May after he established a state political committee, called the Fund for Florida’s Future, that’s allowed to raise and spend unlimited soft money from corporate contributors.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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