As a governor?
He’s got a handful of issues to manage….
That….
On top of his running for office next year and looking for the White House job in 2024….
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing mounting pressure on the home front as he looks to cement his superstar status among Republicans nationally.
Over the past week, COVID-19 infections have surged in Florida to the point that the state now accounts for about 1 in 5 new cases. The vaccination rate, meanwhile, has begun to level off. At the same time, Florida’s Gulf Coast is suffering from a particularly harsh bout of red tide, prompting local officials to call on the governor to declare a state of emergency.
The troubles in Florida are putting pressure on DeSantis as he seeks to carve out a more robust national profile for himself in anticipation of what his supporters and critics alike see as a potential 2024 presidential run.
He took a fundraising trip to California last month ahead of his 2022 reelection bid. Over the weekend, he traveled to Texas to visit the southern border, where Florida law enforcement is deployed. And he was in Aspen, Colo., earlier this week for a meeting of the Republican Governors Association.
“He’s running for president, not for governor. He’s much more interested in fundraising and shallow and destructive appeals to the MAGA base,” Thomas Kennedy, a Democratic National Committee member from Florida, said, using the acronym for “Make America Great Again,” former President Trump’s campaign slogan.
“The guy has a big responsibility, and he’s abdicating it because of his own political aspirations,” Kennedy added.
The rise in COVID-19 cases in the state, combined with DeSantis’s recent trip to the southern border, prompted a scathing editorial from the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board on Tuesday that suggested that the governor was more interested in “burnishing his 2024 presidential ambitions” than addressing Florida’s public health challenges.
“To save lives, he must start acting like Florida’s governor and less like he’s auditioning for Turning Point USA or Texas Gov. Greg Abbott or whatever Fox News host comes calling,” the editorial reads…..
image…NPR/Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Is DeSantis still peddling those “Don’t Fauci on My Florida” kookiest on his website?
Ought to go over with the virus spreaders as Fauci is a particular target of their hate.
Only slightly over half the House Republicans are vaccinated. What the fuck is wrong with these people?
100% of House Democrats are vaccinated.
Tell me this doesn’t have to do with education.
You shouldn’t need a lot of education to know that you ask your doctor medical questions when politicians and the news media are saying inconsistent things.
Forget vaccines….
This is just about masks!
Southern California cities rebel against new mask mandate, hinting at delta variant drama to come.
Regional uproar shows how government response to the dominant coronavirus variant is dividing even liberal Southern California, a brawl that could play out all over the country…
More…
Increasingly,I am coming to the conclusion that the American people DESERVE this a disease.
While public health officials struggle to alleviate this scourge, we sit around worrying about wearing a damn mask ,getting a damn shot,putting up with lectures from a bunch of Trump Republican idiots about the dangers of vaccines and what an evil man Dr. Fauci is because he’s trying to save lives and on and on.
Yes it’s time for some raw cynicism here.
Republicans do. If their leaders had taken this seriously from the start this would be over now.
Every single unvaccinated person I know is a Republican. The minority here in California is vocal and abusive. Those attempts to start city health departments are all driven by Republicans, and will never be successful.
I saw an interview yesterday with a hospitalized COVID patient that still refuses the vaccine. I would bet the farm from his age, color, and size that he’s a Republican.
I would like Biden to make the vaccine mandatory for federal employees. There will be outrage, but it’s the right thing to do.,
Why is Florida law enforcement on the land border in Mexico (rather than on maritime borders with the Caribbean) when so much help is needed at home (disasters, Surfside, etc.)?
Of course vigorous reinforcement of the coastline and bordering waters with the Caribbean American communities in Florida.
I wish we had a Florida participant here, such as those (Sunlover?) who contributed to Politics1 lo! these 15 years ago.
DSD…..
A Lot Of Red State governor’s sent small contingents of state troopers to the border for short periods of time….
I would assume their taxpayers pay for assignment which should entitle them to some sort of special pay….
I did a comment on some midwest state thst had a private rich rightleaner pay for a group going down to the border…..
Mutual-Aid assignments are not unusual for big events around the country like inauguration and large sport events….
Only Big city police departments have enough people to cover almost anything….
BTW?
Most people don’t know it but cops made a TON of money covering the crazy protests last year…
The O/T for Capitol cops has just anout exhausted their budget
Another reason a lot of cops are retiring after making more money then they normally would last year….
Oh, SC GOP Sen Scott’s Police ‘Reform’ bill looks about stalled…
Even Democratic politicians seem allergic to ‘defunding the police’…….
Next NYC Mayor will be a Black ex-Cop….
That didn’t make any sense:
“Of course vigorous reinforcement of the coastline and bordering waters would not be completely popular with the Caribbean American communities in Florida.
Don’t Republicans claim to be pro-business? Then why is DeSantis making life so difficult for the cruise industry that they are threatening to stop doing business in Florida? And DeSantis’s actions will further spread the virus simultaneously.
All ot this to accommodate the virus-spreaders – who are, if anything, declining as a voting block.
That’s almost unbelievable that DeSantis is such a vicious virus spreader that he insists that Vaccinated people submit themselves to possible infection by these virus spreaders by insisting they be allowed on cruises and then selling np merchandise to his fellow mocking a scientist trying to save people’s lives.
So now he makes a self serving “appeal” for vaccinations?Then announces that he will call the legislature into special session if any school district dares to enact a mask mandate.
And this is the Republican alternative to Trump?
Rep. Madison Cawthorn wants to prosecute Anthony Fauci if Republicans rake control of the House on 2022.
Every GOP member of Congress and candidate needs to be asked if they agree with this creep.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz on why Republicans are starting to push people to get vaccinated…
“ I think they’ve finally realized that if their people aren’t vaccinated,they’re going to get sick,and if their people aren’t vaccinated,they’re going to get blamed for COVID outbreaks in the future.”
For Republicans?Its all about the politics.
In what is being described as “damage control,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is urging Tennesseans to get vaccinated .Earlier Lee ,adopting the typical Republican line ,had refused to push vaccinations calling it a “personal choice.”Lee still refuses to support school masking.
You’re a profile in courage,Bill.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) seems to wake up:
[Teresa Hanafin’s “Fast Forward” newsletter for The Boston Globe]
Meanwhile, conservatives who have finally become alarmed by the jump in illnesses and deaths in Republican-led states are, remarkably, actually urging people to get vaccinated.
GOP governors like Alabama’s Kay Ivey, acutely aware that they’ll be blamed, are suddenly yelling about the need for vaccinations. Just two months after she barred all public and private organizations and businesses from requiring vaccinations before they will provide goods or services to people, Ivey now is crying that enough Alabamans aren’t getting vaccinated. In fact, Alabama is the only state with less than 40 percent of its residents fully vaccinated.
“These folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain,” she said to reporters yesterday about the unvaccinated. “We’ve got to get folks to take the shot.”
When asked how that could be done, Ivey said, “I don’t know. You tell me.” Oh, so sorry — we thought you were the state’s leader. Never mind. (Can you refer us to anyone who is exhibiting leadership?)
“Folks are supposed to have common sense,” Ivey said. “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down. I’ve done all I know how to do. I can encourage you to do something, but I can’t make you take care of yourself.”
But of course you can! Good grief, Kay, you’re old enough (76) to remember the days when smallpox, polio, mumps, rubella, and diphtheria were all too common and killed far too many people. But vaccines were developed to overcome them, and mandates by state and local governments have virtually wiped them out. It’s pretty reassuring to parents to know that their kids aren’t going to die of smallpox.
So what’s the difference with COVID-19, the latest deadly disease that’s still killing hundreds of people a day? Politics, pure and simple.
If it’s not about politics, but about freedom of choice as Republicans claim, then why doesn’t Ivey immediately rescind Alabama’s requirements that school children receive vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, mumps, rubella, measles, chickenpox, hib, and pneumococcal disease? Inquiring minds want to know.
At the very least, she and her fellow conservatives could stop imposing their conservative “values” on private businesses, interfering with the decisions those owners want to make to keep themselves and their employees safe.
She’s hardly alone. You remember that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott stripped power away from cities and towns, telling those local leaders that they can’t require vaccines.
When cities, towns, schools, and businesses mandate vaccines, they save lives. When they are prohibited from doing so by Republican leaders still adhering to Trump’s scoffing dismissal of the coronavirus last year, Americans die.
FL-Gov: Despite his strong opposition to COVID mitigation measures, Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has been pushing vaccinations pretty aggressively for months. His recent reiterations due to spiking cases in Florida has upset his fan club of people who cannot handle someone opposing lockdown measures while supporting vaccination against COVID. DeSantis’ team is handling the situation well by attacking the press and the lunatics attacking him at the same time. Thus why I think he might be one of the best political operators in recent times….
RRH…
Florida has by far the most daily Covid cases in the country.Hospitals are setting up tents while “Operator Ron” was out of state .
Florida reported over 14000 cases yesterday ,almost twice as many as the much larger California.
And surprise!
Some Right Wing site designates him a great “political operator.”Well if you mean by being a dedicated Trumper who fully backed Trumps lying, cheating and attempted theft and presiding over stats such as the above?
Well ..Spot On!