The Know-Nothing Candidate: This Week, DeSantis Spent Less than Fifteen Minutes Talking About Florida
Tallahassee, FL. — During his first official week on the campaign trail, U.S. Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis has struggled to answer the most basic questions about policy, and spent less than fifteen minutes talking about his plans for Florida.
DeSantis has seemingly gone out of his way to avoid talking about some of the crucial issues facing Florida. Instead of sitting down with reporters from the state press corps, he has appeared on a far right podcast (with 495 subscribers!) to praise Donald Trump. He’s taken to Twitter to make bizarre South Park references as part of an effort to sabotage the Russia investigation. Most embarrassingly, he stated that one of his biggest priorities as governor would be for Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act — something Congress has been unable to do for the past year.
“The only thing Ron DeSantis seems to know anything about is Donald Trump’s legal troubles. When it comes to Florida, he’s clueless,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Kevin Donohoe. “DeSantis is struggling to transition from being a Fox News favorite to an actual candidate for governor. Since officially launching his campaign in Boca Raton, he’s shown that he basically knows nothing about some of the most basic issues facing the state. If Ron DeSantis is so passionate about sabotaging the Mueller investigation and taking away health care from millions, he should drop his bid for governor and just run for re-election.”
Here’s a breakdown of Florida issues that DeSantis has refused to answer:
BRINGING AMAZON TO FLORIDA: “Here’s what U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis had to say about incentives for Amazon: No comment. A DeSantis campaign spokesman said he would ask the congressman about the matter, and then declined to respond to multiple follow ups. DeSantis, by the way, also has declined to take a position on restoring voting rights for felons.” [Tampa Bay
Times, 2/1/2018]
RESTORING VOTING RIGHTS: “I haven’t looked at it yet, but I’ll look at it.” [Miami Herald, 2/1/2018]
WHEN ASKED ABOUT HIS HEALTH CARE PLANS: On the right-wing Conservative Conscience podcast, DeSantis said one of his top priority would be gutting the Affordable Care Act “HOST: What could you do on the health care issues, I know you mentioned opioid… what do you think you could do as a governor of the fourth largest state? DESANTIS: Well if we were able to get waivers from Obamacare or if Congress this year were to pass something that would at least give states the affirmative option to choose wading out of the harmful Obamacare mandates you would have the opportunity to fashion an actual competitive market system.” [Conservative Conscience Podcast, 1/31/18]
SILENCE ON FLORIDA: DeSantis spent only about nine and a half minutes talking about Florida during his first week as an official gubernatorial candidate. His 25-minute campaign announcement speech in Boca Raton only included nine and a half minutes focused on Florida. On the Conservative Conscience, he only spoke about his agenda as governor for approximately 4 minutes during a 43-minute interview.
SILENCE ON WYNN: DeSantis has still refused to denounce sexual predator Steve Wynn, who has been a long-time patron of his political career — even after the Republican National Committee dumped Wynn as their national finance chair. According to Politico Florida, DeSantis went as far as to personally beg Donald Trump to help him win Wynn’s backing for his gubernatorial bid.