Category: Ron DeSantis

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Elections GOP LGBTQ Issues Ron DeSantis

Pete Buttigieg Hilariously Trolls Ron DeSantis For His Anti-LGBTQ Ad With ‘Oiled-Up’ Bodybuilders

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg absolutely destroyed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for a bizarre anti-LGBTQ ad he released online, suggesting that the governor might be more than a bit insecure about his own manliness.

The ad, which as been roundly condemned, NBC News reports, left both Democrats and Republicans shaking their heads.

DeSantis’ campaign reposted a video to Twitter last week showing overtures to the LGBTQ community by Trump over the years, including footage of him saying that he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” during a speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016. Trump issued the remarks in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

The second part of the video shifts to a focus on DeSantis that appears to attempt to portray him as the paragon of masculinity. Thumping background music is accompanied by images of DeSantis, shirtless muscular men and headlines about the anti-LGBTQ policies DeSantis signed into law.

Here’s the ad in question:

Log Cabin Republicans, the largest LGBT Republican organization, condemned the ad, issuing a statement which reads, “Today’s message from the DeSantis campaign War Room is divisive and desperate. Republicans and other commonsense conservatives know Ron Desantis [sic] has alienated swing-state and younger voters.”

Buttigieg was asked for his take on the advertisement during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.

“You know, I’m going to choose my words carefully, partly because I’m appearing as secretary, so I can’t talk about campaigns,” Buttigieg told host Dana Bash.

“I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled up shirtless bodybuilders. And just get to the bigger issue that that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space — which is, again, who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off? And what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?”

Buttigieg then referenced recent infrastructure initiatives he unveiled during visits to Kentucky and North Dakota.

“These are the kinds of problems that most of us got into government, politics and public service in order to work on. And I just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America.”

DeSantis may think his divisive rhetoric and ads will help him win in 2024, but he’s wrong. The vast majority of this country is sick and tired of bigotry disguised as patriotism and hatred wrapped in the guise of domestic policy.

 

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Fox News GOP Whining Ron DeSantis

Fox News Is FURIOUS Because Casey DeSantis Has Been Dubbed The ‘Walmart Melania’

Proving yet again that the biggest snowflakes on the planet are those on the political right end of the spectrum, they’re in full meltdown mode over at Fox News because an article from the Daily Beast dared to refer to Casey DeSantis, wife of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who is also seeking the 2024 GOP Presidential nomination as “Walmart Melania.”

Katie Baker wrote this about Mrs. DeSantis, and quite frankly, it’s on-point in more than a few ways:

The First Lady of Florida showed up on the campaign trail in Iowa this weekend wearing a ghastly black leather jacket—American flag on the front, an alligator and the silhouette of her state on the back, with the sneering words, “Where Woke Goes to Die”—that brought to mind nothing so much as the racks of a Red State big-bin store where it would be retailing for $24.99.

To be fair, Casey DeSantis wore the bomber to a charity biker rally and I’m sure the campaign intended it to be a viral moment, like Melania Trump’s infamous “I Really Don’t Care” coat that the former First Lady donned to check out the border crisis.

But it was the title of Baker’s article, “Casey DeSantis is the Walmart Melania” that drew the ire of the gang at Fox’s “Outnumbered,” where the discussion soon turned to how it was yet another attack on average Americans, though they failed to explain what’s “average” about either Ron or Casey DeSantis.

According to Emily Compagno, who was one of the guests on “Outnumbered,” Baker’s article was a slap at every American who struggles to make ends meet and therefore shops at Walmart.

“This is why it is so repetitively disheartening to open up the paper and read what people actually think of us. Us. We are the ones who put food on our table. We earn our income. We fly the American flag. We wear clothes from where we can afford proudly, and rightly so.”

….

“We disgust the elitist left. We disgust them by existing and by being proud of being American, being proud of being modest and humble and coming from humble beginnings and moderate ends.”

We? Who in the hell is Compagno trying to pretend she is? Because the truth is that she’s a wealthy attorney and TV host who can afford to shop anywhere she wants and probably doesn’t hang out around Walmart very much. After all, she has a net worth of millions.

Casey DeSantis, by many reports, is a conniving and cutthroat spouse who protects her husband because she sees herself getting ahead as a result of being his wife.

But here’s some free advice for Casey, Ron, and the gang at Fox: You’d better grow some thicker skin because the barbs are only going to get sharper from this point forward.

Or, as Harry Truman once wisely advised, If you can’t stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.

 

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GOP Ron DeSantis

Florida’s GOP Senators Have Had Quite Enough Of Ron DeSantis’ War On Disney

It’s been another bad week for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who saw the Walt Disney Company announce it would be canceling its plans to build a $1 billion office complex in Lake Nona, Florida that would have meant 2,000 new jobs in the Sunshine State.

Asked if Disney’s plans would cause him to rethink his ongoing war with the company, DeSantis remarked, “They can do whatever they want . . . the chance of us backing down from that is zero.”

Not everyone in Florida agrees with DeSantis’ selfish attacks on Disney, which first drew his ire when they opposed his “Don’t Say Gay” legislation which forbids any discussion of gender or sexual identity, even if such conversations are begun by high school students or involve the possible formation of support groups for LGBTQ students at public schools.

Among the voices publicly disagreeing with DeSantis are its two GOP senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, according to Newsweek.

Scott had this to say:

“This is the biggest or second-biggest employer in the state. Half the tourism that comes to our state comes to visit Disney. It’s a reason people come to our state. After they come there, people move there. So I think cooler heads need to prevail. My view is we have to do everything to help our businesses grow.”

And a month ago, Rubio weighed in during an interview on Fox:

“I think where it gets problematic in the eyes of some people is when you start creating the idea—and I’m not saying we’re there yet as a state—but the idea that somehow if you run crossways with us politically, whoever’s in charge, then you may wind up in the crosshairs of the legislature for political purposes to make a statement at you.”

Of course, the real reason for DeSantis being so eager to attack Disney is purely political. He wants to position himself to the right of failed former president Donald Trump on social issues in the hope of appealing to Republican primary voters who will choose the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, even if his selfish attacks on Disney wind up costing his state economically. That alone proves that he’s unfit for any public office, and suggests his message to voters will be one of anger and division, which may sell in the primaries but will make him unelectable come November of 2024.

 

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Business Elections GOP Ron DeSantis

Florida Loses 2,000 Jobs After Disney Pulls $1 Billion Development Project From The State

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) loves to say that if he becomes president, he’ll run the country much the way he runs the Sunshine State.

If that’s true, news today from the Walt Disney Company suggests the United States would be in a deep recession within six months of DeSantis taking the oath of office.

According to CNBC and The New York Times, Disney has scrapped plans to open a new employee campus in Lake Nona, Florida, a decision that will cost the state 2,000 jobs and over $1 billion in potential profits.

Citing “changing business conditions” and the return of CEO Bob Iger, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, penned a memo to employees Thursday, announcing that the company will not move forward with construction of the campus and will no longer be asking more than 2,000 California-based employees to relocate to Florida.

“This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one,” D’Amaro told employees.

The decision by Disney is the latest sparring between the company and DeSantis, who has targeted the multinational corporation simply because it dared to publicly disagree with his anti-LGBTQ law — “Don’t Say Gay” — that limits the discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation in Florida classrooms, even if the topic is raised by students.

Disney has also filed suit against the state for targeting its special Reedy Creek Improvement District, which allowed the company to operate virtually independent of any government intrusion.

DeSantis is expected to announce his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination sometime next week.

 

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GOP Ron DeSantis WTF?!

Conservatives Melt Down After Character On CBS Show Accuses Ron DeSantis Of Sexually Assaulting Him

Something very odd happened Thursday on the Paramount+ show “The Good Fight,” and it has led to an outpouring of anger and revulsion on social media.

According to Fox News:

The finale of the courtroom drama’s sixth and final season premiered on Thursday with the episode titled “The End of Everything.” In a clip widely shared online, the episode features the main character Diane Lockhart, played by Christine Baranski, meeting with Felix Staples, a flamboyant, gay provocateur who has made appearances in earlier seasons of the long-running show. In a conference room surrounded by lawyers, Staples claims that he was sexually assaulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who forced him to have oral sex following a CPAC conference while interning for his office. 

The accusation wasn’t left unchallenged, and it soon became clear that the Felix Staples character did indeed fabricate the entire story.

Diane immediately dismisses the accusation as politically motivated “bulls—” despite Staples claiming to have DNA proof. The lawyers spend the episode gathering evidence to expose Staples for lying. He eventually confesses to fabricating the allegations to tarnish the Florida governor’s reputation, because it will put former President Trump “ahead in the polling” in 2024’s presidential race.

Of course, had a show made the same joke about a well-known Democratic contender for the 2024 nomination, right-wingers would have delighted in the idea, probably promoting it online and trying to suggest it was true.

But since DeSantis was the recipient of the jab, conservatives had a full scale conniption fit online, suggesting that putting something like that in the script of a fictional show was a preemptive hit job on the Florida governor.

Ron DeSantis is a public figure and subject to ridicule, even if that ridicule is disgusting. Considering the horrific shit that has been said over the years about Bill and Hillary Clinton by the political right, conservatives really need to put their outrage in neutral and stop being such blatant hypocrites.