Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is already facing a very uncertain bid for reelection next year in the Sunshine State, having completely mishandled the response to COVID and taking the public stance that he will oppose any local efforts to combat the deadly virus, which has resulted in sending nearly 60,000 Floridians to their graves.
But it now appears things are about to get much worse for DeSantis, as he’s facing a challenge on the extreme right-wing from longtime Donald Trump friend and protégé Roger Stone, who is demanding DeSantis run a full audit of Florida’s voter registration rolls.
Stone sent this warning to DeSantis via Twitter:
He followed up with this one:
Here’s the interesting thing about Stone’s threat to DeSantis: Both of them are acolytes of the failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president, so it’s hard to know if Donald put Stone up to this in order to take DeSantis down a notch and keep him from being a viable GOP presidential candidate in 2024. Because if DeSantis can’t get a second term in Florida, he’s all but guaranteed to be a dud in a run for the White House.
Of course, as unhinged and duplicitous of a bottom-feeding insect as Stone is and always has been (he used to work as a dirty trickster for Richard Nixon), he may have cooked up his run on the Libertarian ticket just so he can remain relevant and try to raise a few bucks. Word is that money is tight for Stone and his legal bills are believed to be enormous.
Whether Stone actually runs or not isn’t exactly the point. Just the threat proves that DeSantis is potentially weak on his right flank, which he thought he had safely covered.
For now, Stone is just testing the waters to see if he can get what he wants. But if he does choose to run, Ron DeSantis could well be sending out his résumé after the votes are counted next November.
