Harold Titus's Blog
June 9, 2022
The Radical Right Supreme Court -- Part One -- Introductory Opinions
Justice Amy Coney Barrett is offended by those questioning the impartiality of the Supreme Court.
“This Court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,” she announced at a recent event at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center, named for Senator Mitch McConnell. “Judicial philosophies are not the same as political parties.”
For Barrett to insist on her nonpartisanship at a center named for the legislator whose procedural hardball was instrumental in securing her seat suggests that, although Barrett’s peers have praised her legal mind, her sense of irony leaves something to be desired.
But then, it’s not much more absurd than her colleague Justice Brett Kavanaugh insisting on his impartiality days after vowing revenge against the left while under oath. Similarly, Justice Clarence Thomas recently warned against “destroying our institutions because they don’t give us what we want, when we want it,” complaining that “the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference.” Next month, Thomas will give a keynote address at a symposium celebrating his years on the Court at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, alongside McConnell.
This insistence—that justices are simply following the law—is a common rhetorical tool in the partisan conflict over the Court. The most partisan judges will not admit to being hacks, instead framing their actions as consistent with the rule of law. No one wants to admit to being a hack; even hacks have to sleep at night, and resting is much easier if you’ve convinced yourself that you are an infallible tribune guided by the infinite wisdom of the ages.
The current makeup of the Roberts Court is itself the outcome of a partisan battle that has spanned decades, one in which the conservative legal movement has won a tremendous victory that is certain to shape American life for generations to come.
Anticipating their future triumphs, though, the very justices championed by this movement have taken to denying both this victory and its implications, insisting that this casino is resolutely opposed to gambling—in fact, it’s not a casino; it’s a church, and its critics are engaging in acts of civil blasphemy. With absolute control of the Court, the conservative legal movement’s main obstacle is the fact that its extreme views are unpopular. When those views are imposed on the public in the future, the justices want to be able to claim that their decisions are the result of impartial legal reasoning, rather than motivated reasoning by committed right-wing ideologues. But that doesn’t make the proposition that the justices are free of partisanship any less ridiculous.
…
In the 1970s, in the aftermath of Supreme Court decisions on due process, segregation, abortion, Church-and-state separation, business regulations, and pornography, conservatives sought to recapture the Court and bend it to their will. Conservative legal organizations helped groom generations of conservative attorneys whose decisions would more often reflect the political and policy views of the Republican Party. Where judges and justices have diverged from those preferences, the conservative movement has reacted with outrage.
As the political scientist Steven Teles writes in The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement, in 1972 Patrick Buchanan, then an aide to President Richard Nixon, exulted that “the president has all but recaptured the institution from the Left; his four appointments have halted much of its social experimentation; and the next four years should see this second branch of government become an ally and defender of the values and principles in which the President and his constituency believe.”
That turned out not to be true at the time—a fact that would inspire the rise of the powerful conservative legal infrastructure that has led to a 6–3 majority on the Supreme Court, despite the fact that a Republican president has won the popular vote only once in three decades. As Teles writes, the failure of Nixon appointees to “transform the Supreme Court taught conservatives that electoral success was not enough.” The immensely powerful Federalist Society was founded as part of an effort to create a right-wing alternative to what conservatives saw as the dominance of legal liberalism, forming a community where conservative legal philosophy could be debated and developed, from which could emerge activists, attorneys, and judges who would ultimately shape the law and the courts. In short, a movement.
Take Clarence Thomas. Then-President George H. W. Bush chose Thomas in part to shore up his right flank in the aftermath of his appointment of Justice David Souter, who would end up siding more often with Democratic appointees. In that respect,
Thomas has not disappointed the activists who ensured his placement on the Court; he called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned after less than a year on the bench. As Jeffrey Toobin writes in The Nine, when Sandra Day O’Connor retired, in 2005, the conservative activist Manuel Miranda began warning George W. Bush against appointing his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, to the Court. “It’s really no more Souters and no more Kennedys. And that does not add up to an appointment for Gonzales,” Miranda wrote.
Toobin adds that Miranda “helped popularize the devastating quip ‘Gonzales is Spanish for Souter.’” The point here is as clear as the Caribbean in the summer: Only justices who will reliably ensure the outcomes desired by the conservative movement can be appointed.
By “no more Kennedys,” Miranda meant Anthony Kennedy, a conservative justice like O’Connor who would occasionally side with Democratic appointees in big cases. Samuel Alito, Bush’s chosen replacement for O’Connor, had worked in Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department, where, in a 1985 abortion-rights case, he wrote a memo advising that “we should make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled.” Alito isn’t the only Supreme Court justice with a paper trail that illustrates long-held political views; as a young attorney, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a memo complaining that the Voting Rights Act’s anti-discrimination provisions were too strong, and then gutted them in an opinion as chief justice without ever describing what part of the Constitution they violated.
The public is meant to look at these justices’ records on abortion and voting rights and assume that it is just a coincidence that their legal reasoning lines up with their policy preferences.
…
The day Thurgood Marshall retired, he issued a furious dissent to a decision that strengthened the death penalty. “Power, not reason, is the new currency of this Court’s decision-making,” Marshall wrote, dissenting from the majority opinion in Payne v. Tennessee. “Neither the law nor the facts … underwent any change in the last four years, only the personnel of this court did.” The same is true of every precedent overturned by the Roberts Court, from voting rights to labor law.
…
The conservative movement seems to have secured the Court for a generation at least, but that is insufficient. The right-wing justices also demand their decisions be seen as the outcome of dispassionate legal reasoning, not partisan warfare. They do not want the legitimacy of their proclamations, or the institution itself, questioned to the point where their liberal counterparts might consider paths as drastic and radical as the ones they took to get here. They wish to be admired and celebrated as the sagacious intellectual giants they believe themselves to be (Serwer 1-3)
Justice, as we’re frequently told, is supposed to be blind. But court seats have never been filled by blind picks. “A judge is a lawyer who is a politician who has a friend,” Judge Paul Leahy once told his then-clerk Floyd Abrams, piercing his way to the truth. Liberal presidents pick liberal nominees and conservative presidents pick conservative ones. It’s built into the system. Filling the Supreme Court with partisan nominees is one of the reasons parties campaign so hard to win the presidency!
After almost two centuries of decrying partisan courts, why can’t we accept the Supreme Court has always been and always will be a political playground? “Partisan fidelity — not legal ability — was the primary consideration in presidents’ Supreme Court appointments,” writes historian Rachel Shelden of the 19th-century court. “Most nominees had served in federal, state or local political positions,” she continues. Back then, Senate majorities often declined to confirm or even consider nominations by presidents from the opposing party on political principle. In 1800, the lame-duck Congress of Federalists went so far as to delete one seat from the Supreme Court to block President Thomas Jefferson, who was from an opposing party, from filling an opening. As everybody knows, in the early 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt affirmed the political nature of the Supreme Court by attempting to recast its majority by expanding the court (“court-packing”). Some of today’s liberals, displeased by the Republicans’ 6-3 dominance of the court, want President Joe Biden to pack the court.
… You don’t find Supreme Court justices at the Schwab’s soda fountain. Most Supreme Court justices come up through partisan politics. John Roberts worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Elena Kagan was a President Bill Clinton hand. Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh labored for President George W. Bush. The striving begins in law school, where young aspirants find politically connected legal mentors and join organizations like the Federalist Society, where future Republican Supreme Court justices are groomed. The big sort goes on as aspirants campaign for clerkships and then judgeships, join politically connected law firms and make themselves known to power brokers they hope will someday help them reach the high court (Shafer 1-2).
Asked to name a famous Supreme Court case, many Americans would probably initially think of three that are the best known for expanding the constitutional rights of individuals: Brown v. Board of Education, which said children have a right to attend desegregated schools in 1954; Roe v. Wade, which said women have a right to have abortions in 1973; and Obergefell v. Hodges, which said gays and lesbians have a right to get married in 2015.
These landmark decisions helped to create a political mythology of the Supreme Court as an institution that has always protected the rights of Americans. However, the politicization of the courts magnified by President Trump and Senate Republicans has ironically highlighted a truth often ignored: The nation's highest court is inherently undemocratic.
Since the election, Trump has made it clear he believes the court and the three justices he appointed — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — should deliver an electoral victory for him. This is despite the fact that Joe Biden won with 306 electoral votes and by a margin of more than 7 million votes.
…
Not only will the court have the power to block the policy agenda of a popularly elected president, but the very process of choosing justices has become widely undemocratic. Republicans have won the popular vote only once since 1988, but they have appointed six out of the last 10 justices. The senators who voted against Barrett represent 13.5 million more people than do the senators who voted for her.
…
… despite widespread faith in the Supreme Court, the institution has not always stood on the side of expanding individual rights and democracy. Brown v. Board overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which found segregation constitutional six decades before. Korematsu v. United States upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Buck v. Bell, a 1927 ruling that's never been technically overturned, upheld forced sterilization of those considered "feebleminded."
For its part, the court under Chief Justice John Roberts has seriously weakened democratic rights. Shelby County v Holder gutted the Votting Rights Act and ushered in a new era of voter suppression since 2013. Citizens United v. FEC has made it difficult to effectively regulate campaign financing for the past decade. And last year's Rucho v. Common Cause said federal courts had no business placing limits on partisan gerrymandering.
…
Ultimately, Democrats should make the argument that in a democracy the will of the majority should not be so wholly subjected to nine unelected officials. (Scofield (1-2).
… even before the current gaggle of right-wing legal operatives took over, the court was rarely a democratic bastion of justice and equality. Rather, in its 233-year history, members have most often served as tenacious protectors of wealth, property, privilege, and the corporate order, fending off the egalitarian aspirations and demands of riffraff like you and me.
Today’s six-member super majority has surrendered all claim to being an impartial moral force for blind justice. Instead, the GOP’s small network of corporate and right-wing operatives has painstakingly fabricated and weaponized the court as its own political oligarchy. In only a couple of decades, backed by a few billionaires, these anti-democracy zealots have incrementally been imposing on America an extremist political agenda that they could not win at the ballot box.
Their Eureka! Moment–the startling development that opened the eyes of the moneyed elites and ideologues to the raw power they could grab by politicizing the judiciary–was the Supreme Court’s illegitimate Bush v. Gore ruling. In December 2000, that five-person GOP majority abruptly crashed Florida’s presidential vote count, storming over both democracy and judicial propriety to install George W in the White House. Appalled, dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens mocked the five, pointing out that while their trumped-up ruling didn’t really establish whether Bush or Gore won, it did make the loser “pellucidly clear: It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”
One of those who helped run the court’s blatant political power play over the Florida vote was an obscure corporate lawyer who had long been an aggressive, behind-the-scenes Republican monkey wrencher pushing to restrict voting by people of color, the poor, and other Democratic constituencies: John Roberts. Shortly thereafter–surprise!–Bush elevated Roberts to a top federal judgeship, and just two years later moved him on up to America’s ultimate judicial power spot, chief justice of the Supremes.
From this lofty roost, Roberts has orchestrated an expansive political docket for the court, handpicking cases created and advanced by far-right interests. He then has manipulated precedents and procedures to produce convoluted decisions that impose plutocratic, autocratic, and theocratic domination over the American people’s democratic rights and aspirations.
To date, Chief Justice John Roberts has cobbled together slim, all-Republican majorities to hand down more than 80 blatantly partisan rulings, fabricating law that We the People have never voted for and don’t support. They include these infamous decrees:
In the Kafkaesque Citizens United dictate of 2010, the court’s 5-4 right-wing clique embraced the absurdity of “corporate personhood,” asserting that giant, autocratic corporations (paper constructs with no body, brain, breath, voice, or morality–but lots of money) have a constitutional right equal or even superior to actual persons to spend unlimited, often secret, sums of their corporate cash to dominate our elections.
Spending on elections, they insisted, is just a form of speech and is thus protected by the Constitution. (This ruling conveniently slides past the obvious conclusion that those with the most money get the most speech, meaning that “free speech” is not free at all.) Their ridiculous play on words has produced a geyser of corrupt money from huge corporations intended to install their chosen agents in high office, defeat direct-democracy ballot initiatives proposed by grassroots progressives, and–not coincidentally–further pack our courts with judges who will serve their special interests over the public interest.
While the federal judiciary has aided corporate bosses and rich shareholders for decades by chipping away at hard-won legal protections for working families, the chisel has become a jackhammer in the last few years. GOP judges routinely pound precedents, logic, truth, and the Constitution itself beyond recognition, not merely to rule against unions, but to demolish the structural pillars of labor rights and organizing.
In a 2018 case, for example, the GOP Five undermined the funding of unions by arbitrarily striking down their process for collecting dues–a practice the court itself had authorized 41 years earlier. As Justice Elena Kagan bluntly put it in her dissenting opinion, there was no reason for the court to barge into this matter of long-settled law … except that the corporate-backed Republican majority simply didn’t like the previous decision and overruled it “because it wanted to.” This was yet another open-and-shut case of five black-robed partisans supplanting America’s hallowed rule of law with their own anti-labor whim.
The Roberts Court has become the linchpin of the Republican Party’s nationwide attack on the voting rights of African Americans, Latinos, and other constituencies inclined to support Democrats. Mass-scale voter suppression depends on a compliant network of starkly partisan judges to legalize it, and the Republican Supremes have willfully made the moral stain of this suppression the indelible emblem of their tenure. In a 2012 North Carolina case, Roberts led the charge, glibly gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To nearly everyone’s astonishment, he decreed from on high that racism was over, no longer presenting a barrier to Black voters in the South! … abracadabra–he and his four regulars merrily ruled that the core protections against voter suppression in the Voting Rights Act were henceforth null and void.
This action unleashed GOP legislatures and white supremacists to do their own thing regarding access to the polls. And they leapt at the chance. Since then, dozens of new barriers have been erected in every state covered by the Voting Rights Act. But Roberts and his right-wing cohorts have never admitted an error or apologized, instead pushing case after case to further undercut democratic access to the polls.
Since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade case established that women have a constitutional right to control their own reproduction decisions, including the right to choose a safe abortion, a nay-saying minority has ceaselessly pushed to take away this right. They insist that state and federal governments–not women –can make these decisions. Today, all GOP judges on the top court are in lockstep, and they’ve now rigged the system to bring up a case that might let them impose their political will. …
…
… Throughout Roberts’ reign, the court has sided with the Chamber of Commerce (the chief front group for US corporate giants) a staggering 70% of the time! Indeed, three members–Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas–now rank among the five most-corporate-friendly justices of the past 75 years.
… In a Quinnipiac survey last November [2021], more than six in ten Americans said they believe Supreme Court decisions are motivated primarily by politics, not by unbiased readings of the law. Rather than instilling a modicum of humility, however, the bad reviews have stirred embarrassing outbursts of judicial pique and vitriol. Justice Alito, for example, whined loudly last year that critics are engaged in “unprecedented efforts to intimidate the court or damage it as an independent institution.” Likewise, Justice Barrett was so stung that she felt it necessary to go public with a strained denial, pleading for the public to believe that “this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.”
…
Today’s tightly knit Republican majority on the court did not come together by happenstance–and certainly not because any one of them was the brightest, most fair-minded choice in the land. All were handpicked … because they could be counted on the use their lifetime appointments to make our laws accord with the GOP’s right-wing agenda and to return to their imagined ideal of the Grand Old Days of pre-1930s corporate supremacy. This is a direct special-interest assault on workaday Americans and on the very idea of America.
…
Lisa Graves, a corporate watchdog and advocate of fair courts, reminds us that “the choice of who interprets the US Constitution and the laws of our land is every bit as important as electing those who make the laws in the first place.” The moneyed elites figured this out years ago and have captured the top court. Now, democracy champions must free it from their corporate grip (Hightower 1-4).
Works cited:
Hightower, Jim. “How the Right Wing Captured the Supreme Court.” The Hightower Lowdown, March 31, 2022. Net. https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/...
Scofield, Katie. “New Year, Time for New Thinking about the Undemocratic Nature of the High Court.” The Fulcrum, December 23, 2020. Net. https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-powe...
Serwer, Adam. “The Lie about the Supreme Court Everyone Pretends To Believe.” The Atlantic, September 28, 2021. Net. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...
Shafer, Jack. “Opinion: Let’s Be Real: The Supreme Court Is Political and Always Has Been.” Politico, January 28, 2022. Net. https://www.politico.com/news/magazin...
“This Court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,” she announced at a recent event at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center, named for Senator Mitch McConnell. “Judicial philosophies are not the same as political parties.”
For Barrett to insist on her nonpartisanship at a center named for the legislator whose procedural hardball was instrumental in securing her seat suggests that, although Barrett’s peers have praised her legal mind, her sense of irony leaves something to be desired.
But then, it’s not much more absurd than her colleague Justice Brett Kavanaugh insisting on his impartiality days after vowing revenge against the left while under oath. Similarly, Justice Clarence Thomas recently warned against “destroying our institutions because they don’t give us what we want, when we want it,” complaining that “the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference.” Next month, Thomas will give a keynote address at a symposium celebrating his years on the Court at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, alongside McConnell.
This insistence—that justices are simply following the law—is a common rhetorical tool in the partisan conflict over the Court. The most partisan judges will not admit to being hacks, instead framing their actions as consistent with the rule of law. No one wants to admit to being a hack; even hacks have to sleep at night, and resting is much easier if you’ve convinced yourself that you are an infallible tribune guided by the infinite wisdom of the ages.
The current makeup of the Roberts Court is itself the outcome of a partisan battle that has spanned decades, one in which the conservative legal movement has won a tremendous victory that is certain to shape American life for generations to come.
Anticipating their future triumphs, though, the very justices championed by this movement have taken to denying both this victory and its implications, insisting that this casino is resolutely opposed to gambling—in fact, it’s not a casino; it’s a church, and its critics are engaging in acts of civil blasphemy. With absolute control of the Court, the conservative legal movement’s main obstacle is the fact that its extreme views are unpopular. When those views are imposed on the public in the future, the justices want to be able to claim that their decisions are the result of impartial legal reasoning, rather than motivated reasoning by committed right-wing ideologues. But that doesn’t make the proposition that the justices are free of partisanship any less ridiculous.
…
In the 1970s, in the aftermath of Supreme Court decisions on due process, segregation, abortion, Church-and-state separation, business regulations, and pornography, conservatives sought to recapture the Court and bend it to their will. Conservative legal organizations helped groom generations of conservative attorneys whose decisions would more often reflect the political and policy views of the Republican Party. Where judges and justices have diverged from those preferences, the conservative movement has reacted with outrage.
As the political scientist Steven Teles writes in The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement, in 1972 Patrick Buchanan, then an aide to President Richard Nixon, exulted that “the president has all but recaptured the institution from the Left; his four appointments have halted much of its social experimentation; and the next four years should see this second branch of government become an ally and defender of the values and principles in which the President and his constituency believe.”
That turned out not to be true at the time—a fact that would inspire the rise of the powerful conservative legal infrastructure that has led to a 6–3 majority on the Supreme Court, despite the fact that a Republican president has won the popular vote only once in three decades. As Teles writes, the failure of Nixon appointees to “transform the Supreme Court taught conservatives that electoral success was not enough.” The immensely powerful Federalist Society was founded as part of an effort to create a right-wing alternative to what conservatives saw as the dominance of legal liberalism, forming a community where conservative legal philosophy could be debated and developed, from which could emerge activists, attorneys, and judges who would ultimately shape the law and the courts. In short, a movement.
Take Clarence Thomas. Then-President George H. W. Bush chose Thomas in part to shore up his right flank in the aftermath of his appointment of Justice David Souter, who would end up siding more often with Democratic appointees. In that respect,
Thomas has not disappointed the activists who ensured his placement on the Court; he called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned after less than a year on the bench. As Jeffrey Toobin writes in The Nine, when Sandra Day O’Connor retired, in 2005, the conservative activist Manuel Miranda began warning George W. Bush against appointing his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, to the Court. “It’s really no more Souters and no more Kennedys. And that does not add up to an appointment for Gonzales,” Miranda wrote.
Toobin adds that Miranda “helped popularize the devastating quip ‘Gonzales is Spanish for Souter.’” The point here is as clear as the Caribbean in the summer: Only justices who will reliably ensure the outcomes desired by the conservative movement can be appointed.
By “no more Kennedys,” Miranda meant Anthony Kennedy, a conservative justice like O’Connor who would occasionally side with Democratic appointees in big cases. Samuel Alito, Bush’s chosen replacement for O’Connor, had worked in Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department, where, in a 1985 abortion-rights case, he wrote a memo advising that “we should make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled.” Alito isn’t the only Supreme Court justice with a paper trail that illustrates long-held political views; as a young attorney, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a memo complaining that the Voting Rights Act’s anti-discrimination provisions were too strong, and then gutted them in an opinion as chief justice without ever describing what part of the Constitution they violated.
The public is meant to look at these justices’ records on abortion and voting rights and assume that it is just a coincidence that their legal reasoning lines up with their policy preferences.
…
The day Thurgood Marshall retired, he issued a furious dissent to a decision that strengthened the death penalty. “Power, not reason, is the new currency of this Court’s decision-making,” Marshall wrote, dissenting from the majority opinion in Payne v. Tennessee. “Neither the law nor the facts … underwent any change in the last four years, only the personnel of this court did.” The same is true of every precedent overturned by the Roberts Court, from voting rights to labor law.
…
The conservative movement seems to have secured the Court for a generation at least, but that is insufficient. The right-wing justices also demand their decisions be seen as the outcome of dispassionate legal reasoning, not partisan warfare. They do not want the legitimacy of their proclamations, or the institution itself, questioned to the point where their liberal counterparts might consider paths as drastic and radical as the ones they took to get here. They wish to be admired and celebrated as the sagacious intellectual giants they believe themselves to be (Serwer 1-3)
Justice, as we’re frequently told, is supposed to be blind. But court seats have never been filled by blind picks. “A judge is a lawyer who is a politician who has a friend,” Judge Paul Leahy once told his then-clerk Floyd Abrams, piercing his way to the truth. Liberal presidents pick liberal nominees and conservative presidents pick conservative ones. It’s built into the system. Filling the Supreme Court with partisan nominees is one of the reasons parties campaign so hard to win the presidency!
After almost two centuries of decrying partisan courts, why can’t we accept the Supreme Court has always been and always will be a political playground? “Partisan fidelity — not legal ability — was the primary consideration in presidents’ Supreme Court appointments,” writes historian Rachel Shelden of the 19th-century court. “Most nominees had served in federal, state or local political positions,” she continues. Back then, Senate majorities often declined to confirm or even consider nominations by presidents from the opposing party on political principle. In 1800, the lame-duck Congress of Federalists went so far as to delete one seat from the Supreme Court to block President Thomas Jefferson, who was from an opposing party, from filling an opening. As everybody knows, in the early 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt affirmed the political nature of the Supreme Court by attempting to recast its majority by expanding the court (“court-packing”). Some of today’s liberals, displeased by the Republicans’ 6-3 dominance of the court, want President Joe Biden to pack the court.
… You don’t find Supreme Court justices at the Schwab’s soda fountain. Most Supreme Court justices come up through partisan politics. John Roberts worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Elena Kagan was a President Bill Clinton hand. Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh labored for President George W. Bush. The striving begins in law school, where young aspirants find politically connected legal mentors and join organizations like the Federalist Society, where future Republican Supreme Court justices are groomed. The big sort goes on as aspirants campaign for clerkships and then judgeships, join politically connected law firms and make themselves known to power brokers they hope will someday help them reach the high court (Shafer 1-2).
Asked to name a famous Supreme Court case, many Americans would probably initially think of three that are the best known for expanding the constitutional rights of individuals: Brown v. Board of Education, which said children have a right to attend desegregated schools in 1954; Roe v. Wade, which said women have a right to have abortions in 1973; and Obergefell v. Hodges, which said gays and lesbians have a right to get married in 2015.
These landmark decisions helped to create a political mythology of the Supreme Court as an institution that has always protected the rights of Americans. However, the politicization of the courts magnified by President Trump and Senate Republicans has ironically highlighted a truth often ignored: The nation's highest court is inherently undemocratic.
Since the election, Trump has made it clear he believes the court and the three justices he appointed — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — should deliver an electoral victory for him. This is despite the fact that Joe Biden won with 306 electoral votes and by a margin of more than 7 million votes.
…
Not only will the court have the power to block the policy agenda of a popularly elected president, but the very process of choosing justices has become widely undemocratic. Republicans have won the popular vote only once since 1988, but they have appointed six out of the last 10 justices. The senators who voted against Barrett represent 13.5 million more people than do the senators who voted for her.
…
… despite widespread faith in the Supreme Court, the institution has not always stood on the side of expanding individual rights and democracy. Brown v. Board overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which found segregation constitutional six decades before. Korematsu v. United States upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Buck v. Bell, a 1927 ruling that's never been technically overturned, upheld forced sterilization of those considered "feebleminded."
For its part, the court under Chief Justice John Roberts has seriously weakened democratic rights. Shelby County v Holder gutted the Votting Rights Act and ushered in a new era of voter suppression since 2013. Citizens United v. FEC has made it difficult to effectively regulate campaign financing for the past decade. And last year's Rucho v. Common Cause said federal courts had no business placing limits on partisan gerrymandering.
…
Ultimately, Democrats should make the argument that in a democracy the will of the majority should not be so wholly subjected to nine unelected officials. (Scofield (1-2).
… even before the current gaggle of right-wing legal operatives took over, the court was rarely a democratic bastion of justice and equality. Rather, in its 233-year history, members have most often served as tenacious protectors of wealth, property, privilege, and the corporate order, fending off the egalitarian aspirations and demands of riffraff like you and me.
Today’s six-member super majority has surrendered all claim to being an impartial moral force for blind justice. Instead, the GOP’s small network of corporate and right-wing operatives has painstakingly fabricated and weaponized the court as its own political oligarchy. In only a couple of decades, backed by a few billionaires, these anti-democracy zealots have incrementally been imposing on America an extremist political agenda that they could not win at the ballot box.
Their Eureka! Moment–the startling development that opened the eyes of the moneyed elites and ideologues to the raw power they could grab by politicizing the judiciary–was the Supreme Court’s illegitimate Bush v. Gore ruling. In December 2000, that five-person GOP majority abruptly crashed Florida’s presidential vote count, storming over both democracy and judicial propriety to install George W in the White House. Appalled, dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens mocked the five, pointing out that while their trumped-up ruling didn’t really establish whether Bush or Gore won, it did make the loser “pellucidly clear: It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”
One of those who helped run the court’s blatant political power play over the Florida vote was an obscure corporate lawyer who had long been an aggressive, behind-the-scenes Republican monkey wrencher pushing to restrict voting by people of color, the poor, and other Democratic constituencies: John Roberts. Shortly thereafter–surprise!–Bush elevated Roberts to a top federal judgeship, and just two years later moved him on up to America’s ultimate judicial power spot, chief justice of the Supremes.
From this lofty roost, Roberts has orchestrated an expansive political docket for the court, handpicking cases created and advanced by far-right interests. He then has manipulated precedents and procedures to produce convoluted decisions that impose plutocratic, autocratic, and theocratic domination over the American people’s democratic rights and aspirations.
To date, Chief Justice John Roberts has cobbled together slim, all-Republican majorities to hand down more than 80 blatantly partisan rulings, fabricating law that We the People have never voted for and don’t support. They include these infamous decrees:
In the Kafkaesque Citizens United dictate of 2010, the court’s 5-4 right-wing clique embraced the absurdity of “corporate personhood,” asserting that giant, autocratic corporations (paper constructs with no body, brain, breath, voice, or morality–but lots of money) have a constitutional right equal or even superior to actual persons to spend unlimited, often secret, sums of their corporate cash to dominate our elections.
Spending on elections, they insisted, is just a form of speech and is thus protected by the Constitution. (This ruling conveniently slides past the obvious conclusion that those with the most money get the most speech, meaning that “free speech” is not free at all.) Their ridiculous play on words has produced a geyser of corrupt money from huge corporations intended to install their chosen agents in high office, defeat direct-democracy ballot initiatives proposed by grassroots progressives, and–not coincidentally–further pack our courts with judges who will serve their special interests over the public interest.
While the federal judiciary has aided corporate bosses and rich shareholders for decades by chipping away at hard-won legal protections for working families, the chisel has become a jackhammer in the last few years. GOP judges routinely pound precedents, logic, truth, and the Constitution itself beyond recognition, not merely to rule against unions, but to demolish the structural pillars of labor rights and organizing.
In a 2018 case, for example, the GOP Five undermined the funding of unions by arbitrarily striking down their process for collecting dues–a practice the court itself had authorized 41 years earlier. As Justice Elena Kagan bluntly put it in her dissenting opinion, there was no reason for the court to barge into this matter of long-settled law … except that the corporate-backed Republican majority simply didn’t like the previous decision and overruled it “because it wanted to.” This was yet another open-and-shut case of five black-robed partisans supplanting America’s hallowed rule of law with their own anti-labor whim.
The Roberts Court has become the linchpin of the Republican Party’s nationwide attack on the voting rights of African Americans, Latinos, and other constituencies inclined to support Democrats. Mass-scale voter suppression depends on a compliant network of starkly partisan judges to legalize it, and the Republican Supremes have willfully made the moral stain of this suppression the indelible emblem of their tenure. In a 2012 North Carolina case, Roberts led the charge, glibly gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To nearly everyone’s astonishment, he decreed from on high that racism was over, no longer presenting a barrier to Black voters in the South! … abracadabra–he and his four regulars merrily ruled that the core protections against voter suppression in the Voting Rights Act were henceforth null and void.
This action unleashed GOP legislatures and white supremacists to do their own thing regarding access to the polls. And they leapt at the chance. Since then, dozens of new barriers have been erected in every state covered by the Voting Rights Act. But Roberts and his right-wing cohorts have never admitted an error or apologized, instead pushing case after case to further undercut democratic access to the polls.
Since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade case established that women have a constitutional right to control their own reproduction decisions, including the right to choose a safe abortion, a nay-saying minority has ceaselessly pushed to take away this right. They insist that state and federal governments–not women –can make these decisions. Today, all GOP judges on the top court are in lockstep, and they’ve now rigged the system to bring up a case that might let them impose their political will. …
…
… Throughout Roberts’ reign, the court has sided with the Chamber of Commerce (the chief front group for US corporate giants) a staggering 70% of the time! Indeed, three members–Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas–now rank among the five most-corporate-friendly justices of the past 75 years.
… In a Quinnipiac survey last November [2021], more than six in ten Americans said they believe Supreme Court decisions are motivated primarily by politics, not by unbiased readings of the law. Rather than instilling a modicum of humility, however, the bad reviews have stirred embarrassing outbursts of judicial pique and vitriol. Justice Alito, for example, whined loudly last year that critics are engaged in “unprecedented efforts to intimidate the court or damage it as an independent institution.” Likewise, Justice Barrett was so stung that she felt it necessary to go public with a strained denial, pleading for the public to believe that “this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.”
…
Today’s tightly knit Republican majority on the court did not come together by happenstance–and certainly not because any one of them was the brightest, most fair-minded choice in the land. All were handpicked … because they could be counted on the use their lifetime appointments to make our laws accord with the GOP’s right-wing agenda and to return to their imagined ideal of the Grand Old Days of pre-1930s corporate supremacy. This is a direct special-interest assault on workaday Americans and on the very idea of America.
…
Lisa Graves, a corporate watchdog and advocate of fair courts, reminds us that “the choice of who interprets the US Constitution and the laws of our land is every bit as important as electing those who make the laws in the first place.” The moneyed elites figured this out years ago and have captured the top court. Now, democracy champions must free it from their corporate grip (Hightower 1-4).
Works cited:
Hightower, Jim. “How the Right Wing Captured the Supreme Court.” The Hightower Lowdown, March 31, 2022. Net. https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/...
Scofield, Katie. “New Year, Time for New Thinking about the Undemocratic Nature of the High Court.” The Fulcrum, December 23, 2020. Net. https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-powe...
Serwer, Adam. “The Lie about the Supreme Court Everyone Pretends To Believe.” The Atlantic, September 28, 2021. Net. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...
Shafer, Jack. “Opinion: Let’s Be Real: The Supreme Court Is Political and Always Has Been.” Politico, January 28, 2022. Net. https://www.politico.com/news/magazin...
June 2, 2022
Amoralists -- Tucker Carlson -- Part Six -- White SupramacistPart Six -- White Supremacist
Tucker Carlson burst through the doors of Charlie Palmer Steak, enfolded in an entourage of producers and assistants, cellphone pressed to his ear. On the other end was Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of the Fox empire and his de facto boss.
Most of Fox’s Washington bureau, along with the cable network’s top executives, had gathered at the power-class steakhouse, a few blocks from the office, for their annual holiday party. Days earlier, Mr. Carlson had set off an uproar, claiming on air that mass immigration made America “poor and dirtier.” Blue-chip advertisers were fleeing. Within Fox, Mr. Carlson was widely viewed to have finally crossed some kind of line. Many wondered what price he might pay.
The answer became clear that night in December 2018: absolutely none.
When “Tucker Carlson Tonight” aired, Mr. Carlson doubled down, playing video of his earlier comments and citing a report from an Arizona government agency that said each illegal border crossing left up to eight pounds of litter in the desert. Afterward, on the way to the Christmas party, Mr. Carlson spoke directly with Mr. Murdoch, who praised his counterattack, according to a former Fox employee told of the exchange.
“We’re good,” Mr. Carlson said, grinning triumphantly, as he walked into the restaurant.
In the years since, Mr. Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news — and also, by some measures, the most successful. Though he frequently declares himself an enemy of prejudice — “We don’t judge them by group, and we don’t judge them on their race,” Mr. Carlson explained to an interviewer a few weeks before accusing impoverished immigrants of making America dirty — his show teaches loathing and fear. Night after night, hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege — by violent Black Lives Matter protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies and cultural elites who will silence them, or label them racist, if they complain. When refugees from Africa, numbering in the hundreds, began crossing into Texas from Mexico during the Trump administration, he warned that the continent’s high birthrates meant the new arrivals might soon “overwhelm our country and change it completely and forever.” Amid nationwide outrage over George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, Mr. Carlson dismissed those protesting the killing as “criminal mobs.” Companies like Angie’s List and Papa John’s dropped their ads. The following month, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” became the highest-rated cable news show in history.
His encyclopedia of provocations has only expanded. Since the 2020 presidential election, Mr. Carlson has become the most visible and voluble defender of those who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol to keep Donald J. Trump in office, playing down the presence of white nationalists in the crowd and claiming the attack “barely rates as a footnote.” In February, as Western pundits and politicians lined up to condemn the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his impending invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Carlson invited his viewers to shift focus back to the true enemy at home. “Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist?” Mr. Carlson asked. “Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?” He was roundly labeled an apologist and Putin cheerleader, only to press ahead with segments that parroted Russian talking points and promoted Kremlin propaganda about purported Ukrainian bioweapons labs.
Alchemizing media power into political influence, Mr. Carlson stands in a nativist American tradition that runs from Father Coughlin to Patrick J. Buchanan. Now Mr. Carlson’s on-air technique — gleefully courting blowback, then fashioning himself as his aggrieved viewers’ partner in victimhood — has helped position him, as much as anyone, to inherit the populist movement that grew up around Mr. Trump. At a moment when white backlash is the jet fuel of a Republican Party striving to return to power in Washington, he has become the pre-eminent champion of Americans who feel most threatened by the rising power of Black and brown citizens. To channel their fear into ratings, Mr. Carlson has adopted the rhetorical tropes and exotic fixations of white nationalists, who have watched gleefully from the fringes of public life as he popularizes their ideas. Mr. Carlson sometimes refers to “legacy Americans,” a dog-whistle term that, before he began using it on his show last fall, appeared almost exclusively in white nationalist outlets like The Daily Stormer, The New York Times found. He takes up story lines otherwise relegated to far-right or nativist websites like VDare: “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has featured a string of segments about the gruesome murders of white farmers in South Africa, which Mr. Carlson suggested were part of a concerted campaign by that country’s Black-led government. Last April, Mr. Carlson set off yet another uproar, borrowing from a racist conspiracy theory known as “the great replacement” to argue that Democrats were deliberately importing “more obedient voters from the third world” to “replace” the current electorate and keep themselves in power. But a Times analysis of 1,150 episodes of his show found that it was far from the first time Mr. Carlson had done so.
…
… To a degree not broadly appreciated outside Fox, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” is the apex of a programming and editorial strategy that transformed the network during the Trump era, according to interviews with dozens of current and former Fox executives, producers and journalists. Like the Republican Party itself, Fox has sought to wring rising returns out of a slowly declining audience: the older white conservatives who make up Mr. Trump’s base and much of Fox’s core viewership. To minimize content that might tempt them to change the channel, Fox News has sidelined Trump-averse or left-leaning contributors. It has lost some of its most respected news journalists, most recently Chris Wallace, the longtime host of Fox’s flagship Sunday show. During the same period, according to former employees and journalists there, Fox has leaned harder into stories of illegal immigrants or nonwhite Americans caught in acts of crime or violence, often plucked from local news sites and turbocharged by the channel’s vast digital news operation. Network executives ordered up such coverage so relentlessly during the Trump years that some employees referred to it by a grim nickname: “brown menace.”
…
Mr. Carlson has led the network’s on-air transformation, becoming Fox’s most influential employee. Outside Fox, Mr. Carlson is bandied about as a potential candidate for president. Inside the network, he answers solely to the Murdochs themselves. With seeming impunity, Mr. Carlson has used his broadcast to attack Fox’s own news coverage, helping drive some journalists off the air and others, like the veteran Fox anchor Shepard Smith, to leave the network entirely. In Australia, the editors of some Murdoch-owned newspapers watch Mr. Carlson’s show religiously, believing it provides clues to Mr. Murdoch’s own views. According to former senior Fox employees, Mr. Carlson boasts of rarely speaking with Fox’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, but talking or texting regularly with Mr. Murdoch. And in an extraordinary departure from the old Fox code, Mr. Carlson is exempt from the network’s fearsome media relations department, which under Roger Ailes, Fox’s founder, served to both defend the channel’s image and keep its talent in line.
But Fox Nation is also a kind of programming cocoon. Its lineup has included shows about patriotism and national parks, the nostalgic series “Who Can Forget?” and a category called, simply, “Conspiracies.” In September, it acquired “Cops,” the police reality show canceled by its previous owner in the wake of the Floyd protests. There is almost no traditional news at all on Fox Nation, but lots of Mr. Carlson — a thrice-weekly talk show called “Tucker Carlson Today” and goading documentaries like “Patriot Purge,” which presented the Jan. 6 insurrection as a false-flag operation by shadowy actors determined to persecute innocent Americans; two longtime Fox contributors quit in protest.
…
Almost from the beginning of his career, he has been marching away from the puckish libertarianism of his young adulthood. Increasingly sympathetic to the nativist currents raging through American politics after the Sept. 11 attacks, and twice cast from the heights of cable news stardom, Mr. Carlson ultimately turned on the old conservative intelligentsia, his hometown and many of his friends. His fall and rise trace the transformation of American conservatism itself. When Mr. Trump ran for president and won, thrusting anti-immigration fervor to the heart of American politics, Mr. Carlson finally found his moment. At Fox, he found his platform.
Mr. Carlson declined to be interviewed for this article. Virtually everyone who did speak asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly about Mr. Carlson or his employer; the host is vengeful toward critics, and officials or media figures Mr. Carlson attacks on his show are sometimes threatened with violence. On his show Thursday night, shortly before The Times received Fox’s statement praising the program, Mr. Carlson sought to weave this article into his nightly narrative. He called journalists at the newspaper “obedient little establishment defenders” and asked: “Why do they keep calling us racist? Well, to make us shut up, obviously.”
…
Accuracy isn’t the point on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” On the air, Mr. Carlson piles up narrative-confirming falsehoods and misleading statements so rapidly — about George Floyd’s death, while supremacists who took part in the Jan. 6 riot, falling testosterone levels in men, Covid vaccines, the Texas power grid and more — that The Washington Post’s media critic, Erik Wemple, has made a sideline of cataloging them. Though Mr. Carlson claims his show to be “the sworn enemy of lying,” Fox’s lawyers acknowledged in 2020, in a lawsuit accusing the host of slander, that “spirited debate on talk-show programs does not lend itself well to statements of actual fact.”
But if Mr. Carlson has not always been truthful, he has been remarkably consistent. Almost from the beginning, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has presented a dominant narrative, recasting American racism to present white Americans as an oppressed caste. The ruling class uses fentanyl and other opioids to addict and kill legacy Americans, anti-white racism to cast them as bigots, feminism to degrade their self-esteem, immigration to erode their political power. Republican elites, however improbably, help to import the voters Democrats require at the ballot box. The United States, Mr. Carlson tells his viewers, is “ruled by mercenaries who feel no long-term obligation to the people they rule.”
He leaves little doubt who these mercenaries are. Among the most frequent recurring characters on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” are Black politicians like the Democratic congresswomen Maxine Waters and Ilhan Omar and Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Mr. Carlson has portrayed, against the available evidence, as a kind of shadow president. He regularly disparages Black women as stupid or undeserving of their positions. “No one outside of her own neighborhood had ever heard of Kamala Harris before she showed up as Willie Brown’s girlfriend,” Mr. Carlson said last November, referring to Ms. Harris’s long-ago relationship with the California politician. “Then a few years later, she became Montel Williams’s girlfriend. Interesting.” When President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Mr. Carlson demanded that the White House release her law school admissions test scores to prove she was qualified.
Seemingly every social ill is laid at the feet of immigrants and refugees — not just working-class unemployment, but rising home prices, out-of-wedlock births among native-born Americans, even the supposedly sorry state of his favorite Beltway fishing spots. With pastoral care, Mr. Carlson reassures his viewers. “It’s OK for you to say: ‘What is this?’ and ‘Maybe I don’t want to live in a country that looks nothing like the country I grew up in,’” Mr. Carlson told a guest in 2017. “Is that bigoted?”
…
… economists broadly reject Mr. Carlson’s central argument that immigration to the United States “drives down wages for low-skilled workers nationwide,” as he said in a 2019 segment. As one review of the relevant literature put it, “Decades of research have provided little support for the claim that immigrants depress wages by competing with native workers.” Immigrants compete for jobs but also help generate new ones, not only by raising demand for goods and services but also by helping fill out workplaces as they expand to hire native-born workers with different skills. While some studies have found that earlier waves of low-skill immigration may have had short-term impacts on the wages of one relatively small group — high school dropouts — other studies have found “small to zero effects,” …
But as televised theater, the formula works.
…
Mr. Carlson was a heavy drinker until his 30s, something he has attributed in part to his early childhood. But by his own account, his mother’s abandonment also provided him with a kind of pre-emptive defense against the attacks that have rained down on his Fox show. “Criticism from people who hate me doesn’t really mean anything to me,” Mr. Carlson told Megyn Kelly, the former Fox anchor, on her podcast last fall. He went on to say: “I’m not giving those people emotional control over me. I’ve been through that. I lived through that as a child.” One lesson from his youth, Mr. Carlson told one interviewer, was that “you should only care about the opinions of people who care about you” (Confessore “How” 1-8).
A New York Times examination of Mr. Carlson’s career, including interviews with dozens of friends and former colleagues, and an analysis of more than 1,100 episodes of his Fox program, shows how he has grown increasingly sympathetic to the nativist currents coursing through U.S. politics, and how intertwined his rise has been with the transformations of his network and of American conservatism.
Here are some key takeaways from “American Nationalist,” The Times’s three-part series on Mr. Carlson.
Years of talking points from the far-right fringe
Last spring, Mr. Carlson caused an uproar when he promoted on air the notion of the “great replacement” — a racist conspiracy theory, once relegated to the far-right fringe, that Western elites are importing “obedient” immigrant voters to disempower the native-born. …
But this was hardly something new for Mr. Carlson. In more than 400 episodes, the Times analysis found, he has amplified the idea that a cabal of elites want to force demographic change through immigration.
Mr. Carlson’s producers often trawl the web for supporting material. …
He put Trumpism over Trump
In the White House, Mr. Trump had a symbiotic relationship with Fox: watching, tweeting, talking frequently to the network’s hosts. But that presented Mr. Carlson with a programming problem as his new show ascended to Fox’s marquee 8 p.m. time slot: He wanted to reach the Trump base, he told friends and co-workers, but without being beholden to the mercurial president. The solution: embrace Trumpism, not Mr. Trump.
The show would grasp the emotional core of Mr. Trump’s allure —white panic over the country’s changing ethnic coomposition— while keeping a carefully measured distance from the president. Mr. Carlson sometimes even criticized the president, and in private, he mocked Mr. Trump’s habit of phoning to head off on-air attacks.
He sought out stories, one friend observed, that were sometimes “really weird” and often inaccurate but tapped into viewers’ fears of a trampled-on American culture. He inveighed against Macy’s, for instance, for introducing a line of hijabs, likening it to promoting genital mutilation.
As Tucker goes, so goes Fox
Mr. Carlson forged a relationship with Lachlan Murdoch, heir apparent of the Fox empire, and cultivated a perception within the network that the two men were close. As his show became the highest-rated cable news program in prime time, Fox looked to its success as a model for a broader transformation.
Inside the network, journalists and commentators clashed over what many saw as a creeping invasion of the news division by allies of the higher-rated, pro-Trump prime-time hosts.
While Mr. Murdoch and Fox executives have often couched their defense of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” as a protection of free inquiry and controversial opinions, Mr. Carlson’s on-air provocations have long been something else: part of a painstaking, data-driven experiment that has succeeded wildly in bolstering Fox’s profit machine against the long-term decline in cable news subscriptions.
According to three former Fox employees, Mr. Carlson was among the network’s most avid consumers of what are known as minute-by-minutes — ratings data on an audience’s real-time ebb and flow. “He is going to double down on the white nationalism because the minute-by-minutes show that the audience eats it up,” said a former employee who worked frequently with Mr. Carlson.
Network executives soon began applying the approach to the daytime news shows. They pitched it as “Moneyball” for television: an audience-first approach to deciding what to cover and how to cover it.
Journalists on Fox’s daytime shows discerned a pattern to what the audience didn’t like: segments featuring Fox’s own reporters, stories deemed unfavorable to Mr. Trump, left-leaning or independent guests. Immigration, on the other hand, was a hit.
Network executives ordered up so much coverage of illegal immigrants or nonwhite Americans caught in acts of crime or violence that some employees referred to it by a grim nickname: “brown menace.”
…
Going after his critics
Mr. Carlson’s popularity among viewers has allowed him to fend off critics outside Fox and shut down those within, from news anchors to junior employees who have objected to his rhetoric.
After an on-air feud with Mr. Carlson in 2019 over the impeachment inquiry and Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials, Shepard Smith was reportedly warned against criticizing his fellow host. He departed Fox that October.
After a Fox producer, Dan Gallo, expressed concerns to human resources executives about recordings of Mr. Carlson defending statutory rape and calling Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys,” and on-air comments by Jeanine Pirro questioning a Muslim congresswoman’s loyalty to the Constitution, Mr. Carlson learned about his complaints and confronted him face to face in Los Angeles, demanding that Mr. Gallo “do the honorable thing” and call him if he had a disagreement. Mr. Gallo offered to talk then and there, but Mr. Carlson wasn’t interested. “I’m busy,” the host said, and walked off.
Days after a mass shooting in El Paso by a white man protesting what he called the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Mr. Carlson declared that white supremacy was largely a “hoax.” A young Fox reporter, Cristina Corbin, tweeted, without mentioning Mr. Carlson: “White supremacy is real, as evidenced by fact. Claims that it is a ‘hoax’ do not represent my views.” The host called Ms. Corbin and yelled at her to “shut your mouth,” according to a former Fox executive briefed on the episode. When asked about the incident by Fox management, Mr. Carlson denied making the call.
His playbook sent sponsors fleeing, yet nearly doubled ad dollars
Here is the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” playbook: Go straight for the third rail, be it race, immigration or another hot-button issue; harvest the inevitable backlash; return the next evening to skewer critics for how they responded. Then, do it all again. This feedback loop drove up ratings and boosted loyalty to Fox and Mr. Carlson.
What it did not do was endear Mr. Carlson to advertisers. As blue-chip sponsors fled, Fox filled the space with in-house promos — using Mr. Carlson’s popularity to push other Fox shows — and direct-to-consumer brands like MyPillow, whose chief executive is a major promoter of Mr. Trump’s stolen-election lie.
Last May, after promoting the white supremacist “replacement” theory, Mr. Carlson had half as many advertisers as in December 2018. But he brought in almost twice as much money (Confessore “What” 1-4).
Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he has not read and does not plan to read the wide-ranging examination of his career arc, editorial strategy and prominence at the network published by The New York Times over the weekend.
…
On Sunday, Carlson told Axios he has not read any of the Times piece and does not plan to. He also denied its reporting relative to his obsession over ratings.
“I’ve never read the ratings a single day in my life. I don’t even know how. Ask anyone at Fox,” Carlson told Axios. “Most of the big positions I’ve taken in the past five years — against the neocons, the vax and the war [in Ukraine] — have been very unpopular with our audience at first.”
Earlier on Sunday, Carlson posted a picture of himself on Twitter holding the front page of Sunday’s Times with a smile.
…
Carlson’s show airs weeknights and last week he alluded to the forthcoming Times opus, calling Times journalists “obedient little establishment defenders,” who “will say anything to please their bosses, they’re suck-ups, brown-nosers, lickspittles, not people you’d want to have dinner with.”
“If you don’t obey them, they denounce you as a racist,” Carlson said. “Why do they do this? They do it because it works. But here’s the thing. It can only work if you play along with it. And we don’t plan to” (Mastrangello 1-2).
Works cited:
Confessore, Nicholas. “How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear To Conquer Cable.” New York Times, April 30, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us...
Confessore, Nicholas. “What To Know about Tucker Carlson’s Rise.” New York Times, April 30, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/bu...
Mastrangello, Dominick. “Tucker Carlson Brushes off 20,000-Word NY Times Story Dubbing Him ‘American Nationalist’.” The Hill, May 2, 2022. Net.
https://thehill.com/news/media/347369...
Most of Fox’s Washington bureau, along with the cable network’s top executives, had gathered at the power-class steakhouse, a few blocks from the office, for their annual holiday party. Days earlier, Mr. Carlson had set off an uproar, claiming on air that mass immigration made America “poor and dirtier.” Blue-chip advertisers were fleeing. Within Fox, Mr. Carlson was widely viewed to have finally crossed some kind of line. Many wondered what price he might pay.
The answer became clear that night in December 2018: absolutely none.
When “Tucker Carlson Tonight” aired, Mr. Carlson doubled down, playing video of his earlier comments and citing a report from an Arizona government agency that said each illegal border crossing left up to eight pounds of litter in the desert. Afterward, on the way to the Christmas party, Mr. Carlson spoke directly with Mr. Murdoch, who praised his counterattack, according to a former Fox employee told of the exchange.
“We’re good,” Mr. Carlson said, grinning triumphantly, as he walked into the restaurant.
In the years since, Mr. Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news — and also, by some measures, the most successful. Though he frequently declares himself an enemy of prejudice — “We don’t judge them by group, and we don’t judge them on their race,” Mr. Carlson explained to an interviewer a few weeks before accusing impoverished immigrants of making America dirty — his show teaches loathing and fear. Night after night, hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege — by violent Black Lives Matter protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies and cultural elites who will silence them, or label them racist, if they complain. When refugees from Africa, numbering in the hundreds, began crossing into Texas from Mexico during the Trump administration, he warned that the continent’s high birthrates meant the new arrivals might soon “overwhelm our country and change it completely and forever.” Amid nationwide outrage over George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, Mr. Carlson dismissed those protesting the killing as “criminal mobs.” Companies like Angie’s List and Papa John’s dropped their ads. The following month, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” became the highest-rated cable news show in history.
His encyclopedia of provocations has only expanded. Since the 2020 presidential election, Mr. Carlson has become the most visible and voluble defender of those who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol to keep Donald J. Trump in office, playing down the presence of white nationalists in the crowd and claiming the attack “barely rates as a footnote.” In February, as Western pundits and politicians lined up to condemn the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his impending invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Carlson invited his viewers to shift focus back to the true enemy at home. “Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist?” Mr. Carlson asked. “Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?” He was roundly labeled an apologist and Putin cheerleader, only to press ahead with segments that parroted Russian talking points and promoted Kremlin propaganda about purported Ukrainian bioweapons labs.
Alchemizing media power into political influence, Mr. Carlson stands in a nativist American tradition that runs from Father Coughlin to Patrick J. Buchanan. Now Mr. Carlson’s on-air technique — gleefully courting blowback, then fashioning himself as his aggrieved viewers’ partner in victimhood — has helped position him, as much as anyone, to inherit the populist movement that grew up around Mr. Trump. At a moment when white backlash is the jet fuel of a Republican Party striving to return to power in Washington, he has become the pre-eminent champion of Americans who feel most threatened by the rising power of Black and brown citizens. To channel their fear into ratings, Mr. Carlson has adopted the rhetorical tropes and exotic fixations of white nationalists, who have watched gleefully from the fringes of public life as he popularizes their ideas. Mr. Carlson sometimes refers to “legacy Americans,” a dog-whistle term that, before he began using it on his show last fall, appeared almost exclusively in white nationalist outlets like The Daily Stormer, The New York Times found. He takes up story lines otherwise relegated to far-right or nativist websites like VDare: “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has featured a string of segments about the gruesome murders of white farmers in South Africa, which Mr. Carlson suggested were part of a concerted campaign by that country’s Black-led government. Last April, Mr. Carlson set off yet another uproar, borrowing from a racist conspiracy theory known as “the great replacement” to argue that Democrats were deliberately importing “more obedient voters from the third world” to “replace” the current electorate and keep themselves in power. But a Times analysis of 1,150 episodes of his show found that it was far from the first time Mr. Carlson had done so.
…
… To a degree not broadly appreciated outside Fox, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” is the apex of a programming and editorial strategy that transformed the network during the Trump era, according to interviews with dozens of current and former Fox executives, producers and journalists. Like the Republican Party itself, Fox has sought to wring rising returns out of a slowly declining audience: the older white conservatives who make up Mr. Trump’s base and much of Fox’s core viewership. To minimize content that might tempt them to change the channel, Fox News has sidelined Trump-averse or left-leaning contributors. It has lost some of its most respected news journalists, most recently Chris Wallace, the longtime host of Fox’s flagship Sunday show. During the same period, according to former employees and journalists there, Fox has leaned harder into stories of illegal immigrants or nonwhite Americans caught in acts of crime or violence, often plucked from local news sites and turbocharged by the channel’s vast digital news operation. Network executives ordered up such coverage so relentlessly during the Trump years that some employees referred to it by a grim nickname: “brown menace.”
…
Mr. Carlson has led the network’s on-air transformation, becoming Fox’s most influential employee. Outside Fox, Mr. Carlson is bandied about as a potential candidate for president. Inside the network, he answers solely to the Murdochs themselves. With seeming impunity, Mr. Carlson has used his broadcast to attack Fox’s own news coverage, helping drive some journalists off the air and others, like the veteran Fox anchor Shepard Smith, to leave the network entirely. In Australia, the editors of some Murdoch-owned newspapers watch Mr. Carlson’s show religiously, believing it provides clues to Mr. Murdoch’s own views. According to former senior Fox employees, Mr. Carlson boasts of rarely speaking with Fox’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, but talking or texting regularly with Mr. Murdoch. And in an extraordinary departure from the old Fox code, Mr. Carlson is exempt from the network’s fearsome media relations department, which under Roger Ailes, Fox’s founder, served to both defend the channel’s image and keep its talent in line.
But Fox Nation is also a kind of programming cocoon. Its lineup has included shows about patriotism and national parks, the nostalgic series “Who Can Forget?” and a category called, simply, “Conspiracies.” In September, it acquired “Cops,” the police reality show canceled by its previous owner in the wake of the Floyd protests. There is almost no traditional news at all on Fox Nation, but lots of Mr. Carlson — a thrice-weekly talk show called “Tucker Carlson Today” and goading documentaries like “Patriot Purge,” which presented the Jan. 6 insurrection as a false-flag operation by shadowy actors determined to persecute innocent Americans; two longtime Fox contributors quit in protest.
…
Almost from the beginning of his career, he has been marching away from the puckish libertarianism of his young adulthood. Increasingly sympathetic to the nativist currents raging through American politics after the Sept. 11 attacks, and twice cast from the heights of cable news stardom, Mr. Carlson ultimately turned on the old conservative intelligentsia, his hometown and many of his friends. His fall and rise trace the transformation of American conservatism itself. When Mr. Trump ran for president and won, thrusting anti-immigration fervor to the heart of American politics, Mr. Carlson finally found his moment. At Fox, he found his platform.
Mr. Carlson declined to be interviewed for this article. Virtually everyone who did speak asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly about Mr. Carlson or his employer; the host is vengeful toward critics, and officials or media figures Mr. Carlson attacks on his show are sometimes threatened with violence. On his show Thursday night, shortly before The Times received Fox’s statement praising the program, Mr. Carlson sought to weave this article into his nightly narrative. He called journalists at the newspaper “obedient little establishment defenders” and asked: “Why do they keep calling us racist? Well, to make us shut up, obviously.”
…
Accuracy isn’t the point on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” On the air, Mr. Carlson piles up narrative-confirming falsehoods and misleading statements so rapidly — about George Floyd’s death, while supremacists who took part in the Jan. 6 riot, falling testosterone levels in men, Covid vaccines, the Texas power grid and more — that The Washington Post’s media critic, Erik Wemple, has made a sideline of cataloging them. Though Mr. Carlson claims his show to be “the sworn enemy of lying,” Fox’s lawyers acknowledged in 2020, in a lawsuit accusing the host of slander, that “spirited debate on talk-show programs does not lend itself well to statements of actual fact.”
But if Mr. Carlson has not always been truthful, he has been remarkably consistent. Almost from the beginning, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has presented a dominant narrative, recasting American racism to present white Americans as an oppressed caste. The ruling class uses fentanyl and other opioids to addict and kill legacy Americans, anti-white racism to cast them as bigots, feminism to degrade their self-esteem, immigration to erode their political power. Republican elites, however improbably, help to import the voters Democrats require at the ballot box. The United States, Mr. Carlson tells his viewers, is “ruled by mercenaries who feel no long-term obligation to the people they rule.”
He leaves little doubt who these mercenaries are. Among the most frequent recurring characters on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” are Black politicians like the Democratic congresswomen Maxine Waters and Ilhan Omar and Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Mr. Carlson has portrayed, against the available evidence, as a kind of shadow president. He regularly disparages Black women as stupid or undeserving of their positions. “No one outside of her own neighborhood had ever heard of Kamala Harris before she showed up as Willie Brown’s girlfriend,” Mr. Carlson said last November, referring to Ms. Harris’s long-ago relationship with the California politician. “Then a few years later, she became Montel Williams’s girlfriend. Interesting.” When President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Mr. Carlson demanded that the White House release her law school admissions test scores to prove she was qualified.
Seemingly every social ill is laid at the feet of immigrants and refugees — not just working-class unemployment, but rising home prices, out-of-wedlock births among native-born Americans, even the supposedly sorry state of his favorite Beltway fishing spots. With pastoral care, Mr. Carlson reassures his viewers. “It’s OK for you to say: ‘What is this?’ and ‘Maybe I don’t want to live in a country that looks nothing like the country I grew up in,’” Mr. Carlson told a guest in 2017. “Is that bigoted?”
…
… economists broadly reject Mr. Carlson’s central argument that immigration to the United States “drives down wages for low-skilled workers nationwide,” as he said in a 2019 segment. As one review of the relevant literature put it, “Decades of research have provided little support for the claim that immigrants depress wages by competing with native workers.” Immigrants compete for jobs but also help generate new ones, not only by raising demand for goods and services but also by helping fill out workplaces as they expand to hire native-born workers with different skills. While some studies have found that earlier waves of low-skill immigration may have had short-term impacts on the wages of one relatively small group — high school dropouts — other studies have found “small to zero effects,” …
But as televised theater, the formula works.
…
Mr. Carlson was a heavy drinker until his 30s, something he has attributed in part to his early childhood. But by his own account, his mother’s abandonment also provided him with a kind of pre-emptive defense against the attacks that have rained down on his Fox show. “Criticism from people who hate me doesn’t really mean anything to me,” Mr. Carlson told Megyn Kelly, the former Fox anchor, on her podcast last fall. He went on to say: “I’m not giving those people emotional control over me. I’ve been through that. I lived through that as a child.” One lesson from his youth, Mr. Carlson told one interviewer, was that “you should only care about the opinions of people who care about you” (Confessore “How” 1-8).
A New York Times examination of Mr. Carlson’s career, including interviews with dozens of friends and former colleagues, and an analysis of more than 1,100 episodes of his Fox program, shows how he has grown increasingly sympathetic to the nativist currents coursing through U.S. politics, and how intertwined his rise has been with the transformations of his network and of American conservatism.
Here are some key takeaways from “American Nationalist,” The Times’s three-part series on Mr. Carlson.
Years of talking points from the far-right fringe
Last spring, Mr. Carlson caused an uproar when he promoted on air the notion of the “great replacement” — a racist conspiracy theory, once relegated to the far-right fringe, that Western elites are importing “obedient” immigrant voters to disempower the native-born. …
But this was hardly something new for Mr. Carlson. In more than 400 episodes, the Times analysis found, he has amplified the idea that a cabal of elites want to force demographic change through immigration.
Mr. Carlson’s producers often trawl the web for supporting material. …
He put Trumpism over Trump
In the White House, Mr. Trump had a symbiotic relationship with Fox: watching, tweeting, talking frequently to the network’s hosts. But that presented Mr. Carlson with a programming problem as his new show ascended to Fox’s marquee 8 p.m. time slot: He wanted to reach the Trump base, he told friends and co-workers, but without being beholden to the mercurial president. The solution: embrace Trumpism, not Mr. Trump.
The show would grasp the emotional core of Mr. Trump’s allure —white panic over the country’s changing ethnic coomposition— while keeping a carefully measured distance from the president. Mr. Carlson sometimes even criticized the president, and in private, he mocked Mr. Trump’s habit of phoning to head off on-air attacks.
He sought out stories, one friend observed, that were sometimes “really weird” and often inaccurate but tapped into viewers’ fears of a trampled-on American culture. He inveighed against Macy’s, for instance, for introducing a line of hijabs, likening it to promoting genital mutilation.
As Tucker goes, so goes Fox
Mr. Carlson forged a relationship with Lachlan Murdoch, heir apparent of the Fox empire, and cultivated a perception within the network that the two men were close. As his show became the highest-rated cable news program in prime time, Fox looked to its success as a model for a broader transformation.
Inside the network, journalists and commentators clashed over what many saw as a creeping invasion of the news division by allies of the higher-rated, pro-Trump prime-time hosts.
While Mr. Murdoch and Fox executives have often couched their defense of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” as a protection of free inquiry and controversial opinions, Mr. Carlson’s on-air provocations have long been something else: part of a painstaking, data-driven experiment that has succeeded wildly in bolstering Fox’s profit machine against the long-term decline in cable news subscriptions.
According to three former Fox employees, Mr. Carlson was among the network’s most avid consumers of what are known as minute-by-minutes — ratings data on an audience’s real-time ebb and flow. “He is going to double down on the white nationalism because the minute-by-minutes show that the audience eats it up,” said a former employee who worked frequently with Mr. Carlson.
Network executives soon began applying the approach to the daytime news shows. They pitched it as “Moneyball” for television: an audience-first approach to deciding what to cover and how to cover it.
Journalists on Fox’s daytime shows discerned a pattern to what the audience didn’t like: segments featuring Fox’s own reporters, stories deemed unfavorable to Mr. Trump, left-leaning or independent guests. Immigration, on the other hand, was a hit.
Network executives ordered up so much coverage of illegal immigrants or nonwhite Americans caught in acts of crime or violence that some employees referred to it by a grim nickname: “brown menace.”
…
Going after his critics
Mr. Carlson’s popularity among viewers has allowed him to fend off critics outside Fox and shut down those within, from news anchors to junior employees who have objected to his rhetoric.
After an on-air feud with Mr. Carlson in 2019 over the impeachment inquiry and Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials, Shepard Smith was reportedly warned against criticizing his fellow host. He departed Fox that October.
After a Fox producer, Dan Gallo, expressed concerns to human resources executives about recordings of Mr. Carlson defending statutory rape and calling Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys,” and on-air comments by Jeanine Pirro questioning a Muslim congresswoman’s loyalty to the Constitution, Mr. Carlson learned about his complaints and confronted him face to face in Los Angeles, demanding that Mr. Gallo “do the honorable thing” and call him if he had a disagreement. Mr. Gallo offered to talk then and there, but Mr. Carlson wasn’t interested. “I’m busy,” the host said, and walked off.
Days after a mass shooting in El Paso by a white man protesting what he called the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Mr. Carlson declared that white supremacy was largely a “hoax.” A young Fox reporter, Cristina Corbin, tweeted, without mentioning Mr. Carlson: “White supremacy is real, as evidenced by fact. Claims that it is a ‘hoax’ do not represent my views.” The host called Ms. Corbin and yelled at her to “shut your mouth,” according to a former Fox executive briefed on the episode. When asked about the incident by Fox management, Mr. Carlson denied making the call.
His playbook sent sponsors fleeing, yet nearly doubled ad dollars
Here is the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” playbook: Go straight for the third rail, be it race, immigration or another hot-button issue; harvest the inevitable backlash; return the next evening to skewer critics for how they responded. Then, do it all again. This feedback loop drove up ratings and boosted loyalty to Fox and Mr. Carlson.
What it did not do was endear Mr. Carlson to advertisers. As blue-chip sponsors fled, Fox filled the space with in-house promos — using Mr. Carlson’s popularity to push other Fox shows — and direct-to-consumer brands like MyPillow, whose chief executive is a major promoter of Mr. Trump’s stolen-election lie.
Last May, after promoting the white supremacist “replacement” theory, Mr. Carlson had half as many advertisers as in December 2018. But he brought in almost twice as much money (Confessore “What” 1-4).
Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he has not read and does not plan to read the wide-ranging examination of his career arc, editorial strategy and prominence at the network published by The New York Times over the weekend.
…
On Sunday, Carlson told Axios he has not read any of the Times piece and does not plan to. He also denied its reporting relative to his obsession over ratings.
“I’ve never read the ratings a single day in my life. I don’t even know how. Ask anyone at Fox,” Carlson told Axios. “Most of the big positions I’ve taken in the past five years — against the neocons, the vax and the war [in Ukraine] — have been very unpopular with our audience at first.”
Earlier on Sunday, Carlson posted a picture of himself on Twitter holding the front page of Sunday’s Times with a smile.
…
Carlson’s show airs weeknights and last week he alluded to the forthcoming Times opus, calling Times journalists “obedient little establishment defenders,” who “will say anything to please their bosses, they’re suck-ups, brown-nosers, lickspittles, not people you’d want to have dinner with.”
“If you don’t obey them, they denounce you as a racist,” Carlson said. “Why do they do this? They do it because it works. But here’s the thing. It can only work if you play along with it. And we don’t plan to” (Mastrangello 1-2).
Works cited:
Confessore, Nicholas. “How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear To Conquer Cable.” New York Times, April 30, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us...
Confessore, Nicholas. “What To Know about Tucker Carlson’s Rise.” New York Times, April 30, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/bu...
Mastrangello, Dominick. “Tucker Carlson Brushes off 20,000-Word NY Times Story Dubbing Him ‘American Nationalist’.” The Hill, May 2, 2022. Net.
https://thehill.com/news/media/347369...
May 29, 2022
Amoralists -- Ron DeSantis -- Part Four -- Battling with Trump
Eyeing a possible White House bid, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declined on Monday to weigh in on one of the most divisive issues in the GOP: Could then-Vice President Mike Pence have “overturned” the 2020 presidential election?
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that Pence could have changed the outcome of the election by upending the congressional certification of the results, overturning President Joe Biden's win. On Friday, Pence rebutted his former boss, saying Trump was "wrong" to suggest he had the authority to change the outcome of the election.
Asked Monday with whom he sides, DeSantis wouldn’t say.
“I’m not. I … ,” DeSantis told reporters at an immigration-related media event at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami before he cut himself off.
Pressed by a reporter, DeSantis changed the subject to say he had a “great working relationship” with the Trump administration during the two years his administration overlapped with it. And he then criticized the Biden White House for obstructing his agenda.
Trump remains the odds-on favorite to win the GOP nomination if he runs again in 2024. DeSantis is a distant second, according to early primary polls, which show him leading the pack if Trump doesn't run. Pence, who is also laying the groundwork for a presidential run, comes in third place in a crowded field that also includes Trump allies like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Although talk of a DeSantis-Trump feud has ebbed and flowed for months, both men say they have a good relationship — underscored by DeSantis’ reticence in crossing Trump on the issue of Pence's power to interfere in the Jan. 6, 2021, tally. Polls indicate that a significant proportion of GOP primary voters nationwide believe the election was stolen — despite numerous audits, investigations and court cases that found that no widespread fraud occurred to prevent Trump's victory (Caputo 1).
For months, former President Donald J. Trump has been grumbling quietly to friends and visitors to his Palm Beach mansion about a rival Republican power center in another Florida mansion, some 400 miles to the north.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a man Mr. Trump believes he put on the map, has been acting far less like an acolyte and more like a future competitor, Mr. Trump complains. With his stock rising fast in the party, the governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside if Mr. Trump runs for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
“The magic words,” Trump has said to several associates and advisers.
That long-stewing resentment burst into public view recently in a dispute over a seemingly unrelated topic: Covid policies. After Mr. DeSantis refused to reveal his full Covid vaccination history, the former president publicly acknowledged he had received a booster. Last week [January 2022], he seemed to swipe at Mr. DeSantis by blasting as “gutless” politicians who dodge the question out of fear of blowback from vaccine skeptics.
Mr. DeSantis shot back on Friday, criticizing Mr. Trump’s early handling of the pandemic and saying he regretted not being more vocal in his complaints.
The back and forth exposed how far Republicans have shifted to the right on coronavirus politics. The doubts Mr. Trump amplified about public health expertise have only spiraled since he left office. Now his defense of the vaccines — even if often subdued and almost always with the caveat in the same breath that he opposes mandates — has put him uncharacteristically out of step with the hard-line elements of his party’s base and provided an opening for a rival.
But that it was Mr. DeSantis — a once-loyal member of the Trump court — wielding the knife made the tension about much more.
At its core, the dispute amounts to a stand-in for the broader challenge confronting Republicans at the outset of midterm elections. They are led by a defeated former president who demands total fealty, brooks no criticism and is determined to sniff out, and then snuff out, any threat to his control of the party.
That includes the 43-year-old DeSantis, who has told friends he believes Mr. Trump’s expectation that he bend the knee is asking too much. That refusal has set up a generational clash and a test of loyalty in the de facto capital of today’s G.O.P., one watched by Republicans elsewhere who’ve ridden to power on Mr. Trump’s coattails.
…
… Mr. Trump has made no secret of his preparations for a third run for the White House. And while Mr. DeSantis, who is up for re-election this year, has not declared his plans, he is widely believed to be eyeing the presidency.
Mr. Trump and his aides are mindful of Republicans’ increasingly public fatigue with the drama that trails Mr. Trump. The former president’s false claims about fraud in the 2020 election — which Mr. DeSantis has not challenged — and his role in the events leading to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol have some Republicans looking for a fresh start.
Mr. DeSantis is often the first name Republicans cite as a possible Trump-style contender not named Trump.
“DeSantis would be a formidable 2024 candidate in the Trump lane should Trump not run,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor. “He’s Trump but a little smarter, more disciplined and brusque without being too brusque.”
…
Mr. DeSantis has $70 million in the bank for his re-election, a war chest he stocked with help from the Republican rank-and-file and donor class, alike. He has raised his profile in the same spaces Mr. Trump once dominated. The governor is ubiquitous on Fox News, where he is routinely met with the sort of softballs that once arced toward Mr. Trump. And he frequently mixes with the well-tanned Republican donor community near the former president’s winter home in South Florida.
It was not always this way.
Mr. DeSantis was a little-known Florida congressman in 2017, when Mr. Trump, who was then the president, spotted him on television and took keen interest. Mr. DeSantis, an Ivy League-educated military veteran and smooth-talking defender of the new president, was exactly what Mr. Trump liked in a politician.
It wasn’t long before Mr. Trump blessed Mr. DeSantis’s bid for governor and sent in staff to help him, lifting the lawmaker to a victory over a better-known rival for the party’s nomination.
Mr. DeSantis survived the general election and has often governed in a style that mirrors his patron, slashing at the left and scrapping with the news media. But that alone doesn’t placate Mr. Trump. As with other Republicans he has endorsed, the former president appears to take a kind of ownership interest in Mr. DeSantis — and to believe that he is owed dividends and deference.
“Look, I helped Ron DeSantis at a level that nobody’s ever seen before,” Mr. Trump said in an interview for a forthcoming book, “Insurgency,” on the rightward shift of the Republican Party, by the New York Times reporter Jeremy W. Peters. Mr. Trump said he believed Mr. DeSantis “didn’t have a chance” of winning without his help.
The former president’s expectation of deference from Mr. DeSantis is a reminder to other Republicans that a Trump endorsement comes with a price …
At times, Mr. Trump has sought to kindle his relationship with Mr. DeSantis. He has suggested the governor would be a strong choice for vice president. Similar courtship has helped win deference from other potential rivals. But Mr. DeSantis has not relented (Martin and Haberman 1-4).
Longtime Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone is dumping on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as an Ivy League 'fat boy' – in the latest sign of split between DeSantis and Trump.
Stone, who has known Trump for decades and advised him informally during the 2016 campaign – then got a presidential pardon following a long legal saga amid the Russia probe – tore into DeSantis following a report the former president considers the potential rival 'dull.'
'Trump sometimes President Donald Trump hits it right on the nose. Ron DeSantis Yale Harvard fat boy can’t get out of his own way,' he wrote.
'Not smart. Not honest and not going to be president,' Stone wrote on social media.
He called DeSantis, 43: 'An unknown congressman with a bad haircut and an ill-fitting suit until Donald Trump made him governor' ...
…
The attack came days after Trump addressed a rally in Arizona and stoked conspiracy theories about Jan. 6th – as he positions for a potential run to reclaim the White House in 2024.
…
Trump is said to have branded DeSantis a 'dull' charisma free-zone as rumors swirl the former president is angry the popular Florida governor hasn't said that he won't challenge Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Sources close to the former president who have recently talked to him about DeSantis said Trump has grown increasingly irked by DeSantis in recent months, with Trump beginning to voice his frustrations to those in his inner circle.
'In the context of the 2024 election, he usually gives DeSantis a pop in the nose in the middle of that type of conversation,' said a source who recently spoke to Trump about DeSantis.
'He says DeSantis has no personal charisma and has a dull personality,' the source told Axios.
…
The root of Trump's ire towards DeSantis appears to stem from the fact that the Florida governor 'won't say he won't run [in 2024]. ...
The others have stated pretty clearly they won't challenge him,' the source went on to say.
…
When Trump was president, DeSantis was a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club in Palm Beach. The two would often dine together when Trump was in town (Earle and McNulty 1-2).
But DeSantis has … been careful to avoid direct confrontation with Trump, especially given the fact that he’s facing reelection this year and needs to maintain the support of the former president’s loyal voter base. In the interview with “Ruthless,” DeSantis dismissed the notion that his relationship with Trump had soured, blaming the media for fueling such rumors.
“You cannot fall for the bait,” he said. “You know what they’re trying to do, so just don’t take it. Just keep on keeping on. We need everybody united for a big red wave in 2022. We’ve got to fight the left, and not only fight, but beat the left. And that’s what we’re doing in Florida.”
…
… DeSantis’s appeal among Republicans — including Trump’s base — is clear. Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based GOP strategist and former congressional candidate, said the governor has been successful in taking aspects of Trump’s political brand and making them his own, especially amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“What he’s done is he’s taken Donald Trump’s America First playbook and crafted it as a Florida First playbook,” O’Connell said.
“If you had told me that Ron DeSantis would display more political courage than Greg Abbott, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he added, referring to the Republican governor of Texas. “The idea that DeSantis gave all the other Republicans a backbone and cover to do what’s best for their states is why conservatives are rewarding him now.”
One Republican consultant with ties to Florida said that part of the interest in DeSantis as a future presidential candidate stems from the perception among many in the party that the Florida governor is effectively “Trump without the baggage.”
“He’s a little more polished, I think. He’s got the Harvard credentials, he served in the military, he’s the governor of the third largest state, but he can still speak the language of the MAGA crowd,” the consultant said. “With Trump, there’s still a lot of drama, so I think it probably worries him that there’s this other guy who’s getting a lot of attention” (Greenwood 1).
Trump holds sizable margins in pretty much every poll you can find, but some of the numbers are tightenng. Last week, the polling firm Echelon Insights published a raft of data on the Florida governor. It found that Trump’s lead over DeSantis among G.O.P. voters, which, according to its own poll, was 62 percent to 22 percent of respondents in October, had shrunk to 57 percent to 32 percent as of late January. Perhaps the most compelling bit of information Echelon found was that while 54 percent of Republicans thought “Trump was a great president and should remain the leader of the Republican Party,” 22 percent said Trump “was a great president but it is time for the Republican Party to find a new leader” and 18 percent said Trump “was not a great president and the Republican Party would be better off without his influence.” Which means that 40 percent of G.O.P. voters are at least open to the possibility of someone new.
...
DeSantis’s recent rise to national prominence has come from his handling of the pandemic — he has become the loudest anti-lockdown voice in the national conversation and can point to his repeated refusal to shut down his state. This might be a popular stance in 2022, but it’s hard to imagine how it will play in two years. If Covid is shutting down schools and businesses in two years, we will most likely be looking at a vastly different country. If we have returned to some semblance of normalcy, it’s quite possible that nobody will really care how DeSantis handled the pandemic (Kang 1-2).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chastised a group of students wearing face masks on Wednesday, saying, “Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve got to stop with this Covid theater.”
“How much of a [expletive] do you have to be to yell at a bunch of high school students who are just trying to be safe?” Seth Meyers said.
“They’re actually doing the right thing and you’re scolding them for it; you’re like an old man who sees a bunch of innocent teens walking by and screams, ‘Hey, you kids get on my lawn!’”
“Also, what the hell is Covid theater? Those plays where all the actors have to stand six feet apart? [imitating theatergoer] ‘I just saw the Covid theater production of “Les Mis” — the stage was the size of a football field!’” — SETH MEYERS (Bendix 1)
Florida feels like a state running a fever, its very identity changing at a frenetic pace.
Once the biggest traditional presidential battleground, it has suddenly turned into a laboratory of possibility for the political right.
Discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity prohibited in early elementary school. Math textbooks rejected en masse for what the state called “indoctrination.” Schools and employers limited in what they can teach about racism and other aspects of history. Tenured professors in public universities subjected to new reviews. Abortions banned after 15 weeks. The creation of law enforcement office to investigate election crimes. A congressional map redrawn to give Republicans an even bigger advantage.
And, perhaps most stunning of all, Disney, long an untouchable corporate giant, stripped of the ability to govern itself for the first time in more than half a century, in retaliation for the company’s opposition to the crackdown on L.G.B.T.Q. conversations with young schoolchildren.
“It does have this feeling of, ‘Oh, what the hell just happened?’” said Kristen Arnett, a novelist and Orlando native who now lives in Miami. “It’s overwhelming.”
Florida has transformed over the past two years as Gov. Ron DeSantis has increased and flexed his power to remarkable effect, embracing policies that once seemed unthinkable. That has made the Republican governor a favorite of the party’s Fox News-viewing base and turned him into a possible presidential contender (Maxxei 1-2).
Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed on Friday [April 30, 2022] that he would make Florida a so-called constitutional carry state, which would allow people to publicly carry firearms without permits.
"The legislature will get it done," DeSantis said during a news conference in north Florida. "I can't tell you if it's going to be next week or six months, but I can tell you that before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that."
…
For DeSantis, successfully ushering a constitutional carry measure into law would be another conservative victory as he builds a resume that could appeal to Republican primary voters if he decides to run for president. …
…
Responding to DeSantis' announcement on Twitter, US Rep. Charlie Crist, ... running for governor as a Democrat, said, "The last thing Florida needs during a gun violence epidemic is a governor who wants dangerous people carrying guns on the street without so much as a background check."
…
Though DeSantis has voiced support for constitutional carry in the past, Friday's declaration was his most vocal assurance to gun rights groups that he intends to make it a priority. If it's approved, Florida would become the second-largest state to allow permitless concealed carry of guns. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signed a bill last year that allows people to carry guns most places without licenses or safety training.
A permit is not required to carry a handgun in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (Contorno 1-2).
Works cited:
Bendix, Trish. “Seth Meyers Roasts Ron DeSantis for Berating Teens.” New York Times, March 4, 2-22. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/ar...
Caputo, Marc. “DeSantis Refuses To Take Sides in Trump-Pence Clash as 2024 Speculation Grows.” NBC News, updated February 8, 2022. Net. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/poli...
Contorno, Steve. “DeSantis Vows Florida Will Allow People To Carry Firearms without Permits 'Before I Am Done as Governor'.” CNN, April 29, 2022. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/politi...
Earle, Goeff and McNulty, Matt. “'Ron's a Yale Harvard Fat Boy, Not Honest and Not Going To Be President': Roger Stone Sides with Trump in Rift with De Santis.” Daily Mail UK, updated January 18, 2022. Net. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
Greenwood, Max. “Trump-DeSantis Tensions Ratchet Up.” The Hill, January 18, 2022. Net. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...
Kang, Jay Caspian. “Does Ron DeSantis Really Have a Shot against Trump?” New York Times, February 3, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/op...
Martin, Jonathan and Haberman, Maggie. “Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise between Trump and a Former Acolyte.” New York Times, January 16, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/us...
Mazzei, Patricia. “How DeSantis Transformed Florida’s Political Identity.” New York Times, April 28, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/us...
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that Pence could have changed the outcome of the election by upending the congressional certification of the results, overturning President Joe Biden's win. On Friday, Pence rebutted his former boss, saying Trump was "wrong" to suggest he had the authority to change the outcome of the election.
Asked Monday with whom he sides, DeSantis wouldn’t say.
“I’m not. I … ,” DeSantis told reporters at an immigration-related media event at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami before he cut himself off.
Pressed by a reporter, DeSantis changed the subject to say he had a “great working relationship” with the Trump administration during the two years his administration overlapped with it. And he then criticized the Biden White House for obstructing his agenda.
Trump remains the odds-on favorite to win the GOP nomination if he runs again in 2024. DeSantis is a distant second, according to early primary polls, which show him leading the pack if Trump doesn't run. Pence, who is also laying the groundwork for a presidential run, comes in third place in a crowded field that also includes Trump allies like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Although talk of a DeSantis-Trump feud has ebbed and flowed for months, both men say they have a good relationship — underscored by DeSantis’ reticence in crossing Trump on the issue of Pence's power to interfere in the Jan. 6, 2021, tally. Polls indicate that a significant proportion of GOP primary voters nationwide believe the election was stolen — despite numerous audits, investigations and court cases that found that no widespread fraud occurred to prevent Trump's victory (Caputo 1).
For months, former President Donald J. Trump has been grumbling quietly to friends and visitors to his Palm Beach mansion about a rival Republican power center in another Florida mansion, some 400 miles to the north.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a man Mr. Trump believes he put on the map, has been acting far less like an acolyte and more like a future competitor, Mr. Trump complains. With his stock rising fast in the party, the governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside if Mr. Trump runs for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
“The magic words,” Trump has said to several associates and advisers.
That long-stewing resentment burst into public view recently in a dispute over a seemingly unrelated topic: Covid policies. After Mr. DeSantis refused to reveal his full Covid vaccination history, the former president publicly acknowledged he had received a booster. Last week [January 2022], he seemed to swipe at Mr. DeSantis by blasting as “gutless” politicians who dodge the question out of fear of blowback from vaccine skeptics.
Mr. DeSantis shot back on Friday, criticizing Mr. Trump’s early handling of the pandemic and saying he regretted not being more vocal in his complaints.
The back and forth exposed how far Republicans have shifted to the right on coronavirus politics. The doubts Mr. Trump amplified about public health expertise have only spiraled since he left office. Now his defense of the vaccines — even if often subdued and almost always with the caveat in the same breath that he opposes mandates — has put him uncharacteristically out of step with the hard-line elements of his party’s base and provided an opening for a rival.
But that it was Mr. DeSantis — a once-loyal member of the Trump court — wielding the knife made the tension about much more.
At its core, the dispute amounts to a stand-in for the broader challenge confronting Republicans at the outset of midterm elections. They are led by a defeated former president who demands total fealty, brooks no criticism and is determined to sniff out, and then snuff out, any threat to his control of the party.
That includes the 43-year-old DeSantis, who has told friends he believes Mr. Trump’s expectation that he bend the knee is asking too much. That refusal has set up a generational clash and a test of loyalty in the de facto capital of today’s G.O.P., one watched by Republicans elsewhere who’ve ridden to power on Mr. Trump’s coattails.
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… Mr. Trump has made no secret of his preparations for a third run for the White House. And while Mr. DeSantis, who is up for re-election this year, has not declared his plans, he is widely believed to be eyeing the presidency.
Mr. Trump and his aides are mindful of Republicans’ increasingly public fatigue with the drama that trails Mr. Trump. The former president’s false claims about fraud in the 2020 election — which Mr. DeSantis has not challenged — and his role in the events leading to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol have some Republicans looking for a fresh start.
Mr. DeSantis is often the first name Republicans cite as a possible Trump-style contender not named Trump.
“DeSantis would be a formidable 2024 candidate in the Trump lane should Trump not run,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor. “He’s Trump but a little smarter, more disciplined and brusque without being too brusque.”
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Mr. DeSantis has $70 million in the bank for his re-election, a war chest he stocked with help from the Republican rank-and-file and donor class, alike. He has raised his profile in the same spaces Mr. Trump once dominated. The governor is ubiquitous on Fox News, where he is routinely met with the sort of softballs that once arced toward Mr. Trump. And he frequently mixes with the well-tanned Republican donor community near the former president’s winter home in South Florida.
It was not always this way.
Mr. DeSantis was a little-known Florida congressman in 2017, when Mr. Trump, who was then the president, spotted him on television and took keen interest. Mr. DeSantis, an Ivy League-educated military veteran and smooth-talking defender of the new president, was exactly what Mr. Trump liked in a politician.
It wasn’t long before Mr. Trump blessed Mr. DeSantis’s bid for governor and sent in staff to help him, lifting the lawmaker to a victory over a better-known rival for the party’s nomination.
Mr. DeSantis survived the general election and has often governed in a style that mirrors his patron, slashing at the left and scrapping with the news media. But that alone doesn’t placate Mr. Trump. As with other Republicans he has endorsed, the former president appears to take a kind of ownership interest in Mr. DeSantis — and to believe that he is owed dividends and deference.
“Look, I helped Ron DeSantis at a level that nobody’s ever seen before,” Mr. Trump said in an interview for a forthcoming book, “Insurgency,” on the rightward shift of the Republican Party, by the New York Times reporter Jeremy W. Peters. Mr. Trump said he believed Mr. DeSantis “didn’t have a chance” of winning without his help.
The former president’s expectation of deference from Mr. DeSantis is a reminder to other Republicans that a Trump endorsement comes with a price …
At times, Mr. Trump has sought to kindle his relationship with Mr. DeSantis. He has suggested the governor would be a strong choice for vice president. Similar courtship has helped win deference from other potential rivals. But Mr. DeSantis has not relented (Martin and Haberman 1-4).
Longtime Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone is dumping on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as an Ivy League 'fat boy' – in the latest sign of split between DeSantis and Trump.
Stone, who has known Trump for decades and advised him informally during the 2016 campaign – then got a presidential pardon following a long legal saga amid the Russia probe – tore into DeSantis following a report the former president considers the potential rival 'dull.'
'Trump sometimes President Donald Trump hits it right on the nose. Ron DeSantis Yale Harvard fat boy can’t get out of his own way,' he wrote.
'Not smart. Not honest and not going to be president,' Stone wrote on social media.
He called DeSantis, 43: 'An unknown congressman with a bad haircut and an ill-fitting suit until Donald Trump made him governor' ...
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The attack came days after Trump addressed a rally in Arizona and stoked conspiracy theories about Jan. 6th – as he positions for a potential run to reclaim the White House in 2024.
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Trump is said to have branded DeSantis a 'dull' charisma free-zone as rumors swirl the former president is angry the popular Florida governor hasn't said that he won't challenge Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Sources close to the former president who have recently talked to him about DeSantis said Trump has grown increasingly irked by DeSantis in recent months, with Trump beginning to voice his frustrations to those in his inner circle.
'In the context of the 2024 election, he usually gives DeSantis a pop in the nose in the middle of that type of conversation,' said a source who recently spoke to Trump about DeSantis.
'He says DeSantis has no personal charisma and has a dull personality,' the source told Axios.
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The root of Trump's ire towards DeSantis appears to stem from the fact that the Florida governor 'won't say he won't run [in 2024]. ...
The others have stated pretty clearly they won't challenge him,' the source went on to say.
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When Trump was president, DeSantis was a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club in Palm Beach. The two would often dine together when Trump was in town (Earle and McNulty 1-2).
But DeSantis has … been careful to avoid direct confrontation with Trump, especially given the fact that he’s facing reelection this year and needs to maintain the support of the former president’s loyal voter base. In the interview with “Ruthless,” DeSantis dismissed the notion that his relationship with Trump had soured, blaming the media for fueling such rumors.
“You cannot fall for the bait,” he said. “You know what they’re trying to do, so just don’t take it. Just keep on keeping on. We need everybody united for a big red wave in 2022. We’ve got to fight the left, and not only fight, but beat the left. And that’s what we’re doing in Florida.”
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… DeSantis’s appeal among Republicans — including Trump’s base — is clear. Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based GOP strategist and former congressional candidate, said the governor has been successful in taking aspects of Trump’s political brand and making them his own, especially amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“What he’s done is he’s taken Donald Trump’s America First playbook and crafted it as a Florida First playbook,” O’Connell said.
“If you had told me that Ron DeSantis would display more political courage than Greg Abbott, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he added, referring to the Republican governor of Texas. “The idea that DeSantis gave all the other Republicans a backbone and cover to do what’s best for their states is why conservatives are rewarding him now.”
One Republican consultant with ties to Florida said that part of the interest in DeSantis as a future presidential candidate stems from the perception among many in the party that the Florida governor is effectively “Trump without the baggage.”
“He’s a little more polished, I think. He’s got the Harvard credentials, he served in the military, he’s the governor of the third largest state, but he can still speak the language of the MAGA crowd,” the consultant said. “With Trump, there’s still a lot of drama, so I think it probably worries him that there’s this other guy who’s getting a lot of attention” (Greenwood 1).
Trump holds sizable margins in pretty much every poll you can find, but some of the numbers are tightenng. Last week, the polling firm Echelon Insights published a raft of data on the Florida governor. It found that Trump’s lead over DeSantis among G.O.P. voters, which, according to its own poll, was 62 percent to 22 percent of respondents in October, had shrunk to 57 percent to 32 percent as of late January. Perhaps the most compelling bit of information Echelon found was that while 54 percent of Republicans thought “Trump was a great president and should remain the leader of the Republican Party,” 22 percent said Trump “was a great president but it is time for the Republican Party to find a new leader” and 18 percent said Trump “was not a great president and the Republican Party would be better off without his influence.” Which means that 40 percent of G.O.P. voters are at least open to the possibility of someone new.
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DeSantis’s recent rise to national prominence has come from his handling of the pandemic — he has become the loudest anti-lockdown voice in the national conversation and can point to his repeated refusal to shut down his state. This might be a popular stance in 2022, but it’s hard to imagine how it will play in two years. If Covid is shutting down schools and businesses in two years, we will most likely be looking at a vastly different country. If we have returned to some semblance of normalcy, it’s quite possible that nobody will really care how DeSantis handled the pandemic (Kang 1-2).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chastised a group of students wearing face masks on Wednesday, saying, “Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve got to stop with this Covid theater.”
“How much of a [expletive] do you have to be to yell at a bunch of high school students who are just trying to be safe?” Seth Meyers said.
“They’re actually doing the right thing and you’re scolding them for it; you’re like an old man who sees a bunch of innocent teens walking by and screams, ‘Hey, you kids get on my lawn!’”
“Also, what the hell is Covid theater? Those plays where all the actors have to stand six feet apart? [imitating theatergoer] ‘I just saw the Covid theater production of “Les Mis” — the stage was the size of a football field!’” — SETH MEYERS (Bendix 1)
Florida feels like a state running a fever, its very identity changing at a frenetic pace.
Once the biggest traditional presidential battleground, it has suddenly turned into a laboratory of possibility for the political right.
Discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity prohibited in early elementary school. Math textbooks rejected en masse for what the state called “indoctrination.” Schools and employers limited in what they can teach about racism and other aspects of history. Tenured professors in public universities subjected to new reviews. Abortions banned after 15 weeks. The creation of law enforcement office to investigate election crimes. A congressional map redrawn to give Republicans an even bigger advantage.
And, perhaps most stunning of all, Disney, long an untouchable corporate giant, stripped of the ability to govern itself for the first time in more than half a century, in retaliation for the company’s opposition to the crackdown on L.G.B.T.Q. conversations with young schoolchildren.
“It does have this feeling of, ‘Oh, what the hell just happened?’” said Kristen Arnett, a novelist and Orlando native who now lives in Miami. “It’s overwhelming.”
Florida has transformed over the past two years as Gov. Ron DeSantis has increased and flexed his power to remarkable effect, embracing policies that once seemed unthinkable. That has made the Republican governor a favorite of the party’s Fox News-viewing base and turned him into a possible presidential contender (Maxxei 1-2).
Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed on Friday [April 30, 2022] that he would make Florida a so-called constitutional carry state, which would allow people to publicly carry firearms without permits.
"The legislature will get it done," DeSantis said during a news conference in north Florida. "I can't tell you if it's going to be next week or six months, but I can tell you that before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that."
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For DeSantis, successfully ushering a constitutional carry measure into law would be another conservative victory as he builds a resume that could appeal to Republican primary voters if he decides to run for president. …
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Responding to DeSantis' announcement on Twitter, US Rep. Charlie Crist, ... running for governor as a Democrat, said, "The last thing Florida needs during a gun violence epidemic is a governor who wants dangerous people carrying guns on the street without so much as a background check."
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Though DeSantis has voiced support for constitutional carry in the past, Friday's declaration was his most vocal assurance to gun rights groups that he intends to make it a priority. If it's approved, Florida would become the second-largest state to allow permitless concealed carry of guns. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signed a bill last year that allows people to carry guns most places without licenses or safety training.
A permit is not required to carry a handgun in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (Contorno 1-2).
Works cited:
Bendix, Trish. “Seth Meyers Roasts Ron DeSantis for Berating Teens.” New York Times, March 4, 2-22. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/ar...
Caputo, Marc. “DeSantis Refuses To Take Sides in Trump-Pence Clash as 2024 Speculation Grows.” NBC News, updated February 8, 2022. Net. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/poli...
Contorno, Steve. “DeSantis Vows Florida Will Allow People To Carry Firearms without Permits 'Before I Am Done as Governor'.” CNN, April 29, 2022. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/politi...
Earle, Goeff and McNulty, Matt. “'Ron's a Yale Harvard Fat Boy, Not Honest and Not Going To Be President': Roger Stone Sides with Trump in Rift with De Santis.” Daily Mail UK, updated January 18, 2022. Net. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
Greenwood, Max. “Trump-DeSantis Tensions Ratchet Up.” The Hill, January 18, 2022. Net. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...
Kang, Jay Caspian. “Does Ron DeSantis Really Have a Shot against Trump?” New York Times, February 3, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/op...
Martin, Jonathan and Haberman, Maggie. “Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise between Trump and a Former Acolyte.” New York Times, January 16, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/us...
Mazzei, Patricia. “How DeSantis Transformed Florida’s Political Identity.” New York Times, April 28, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/us...
May 26, 2022
Amoralists -- Ron DeSantis -- Part Three -- Extreme Right Wing Legislation
For DeSantis, the pandemic offered the opportunity to distinguish himself from Trump. In January [2022], Jonathan Chait described his strategy in New York magazine:
Where Trump was tiptoeing around vaccine skepticism, DeSantis jumped in with both feet, banning private companies like cruise lines from requiring vaccination, appointing a vaccine skeptic to his state’s highest office, and refusing to say if he’s gotten his booster dose.
DeSantis “may or may not actually be more delusional on Covid than Donald Trump,” Chait wrote, “but it is a revealing commentary on the state of their party that he sees his best chance to supplant Trump as positioning himself as even crazier” (Edsall 2).
[Here are some of the far-right bills that DeSantis has championed to become Florida law.]
Intimidating University Students and Faculty
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation into law on Tuesday [June 2021] that requires students and faculty of public Florida universities to report their political views to the state starting this July. [It] … requires university students and faculty to fill out a survey from the government about their political beliefs in what Gov. DeSantis has called an effort to monitor “intellectual diversity” on campus. Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson (R), echoing the Governor’s sentiments, said that there was a “great risk” that the state’s universities had become “socialism factories.”
Democrats and university faculty have attempted to get answers from state Republicans on how these survey results will be used, as the bill provides no guarantees or protections against partisan targeting of campuses and staff and does not protect student confidentiality. The move to “diversify” campus speech comes just a few days after Gov. DeSantis publicly supported the banning of critical race theory and announced he would campaign against any school board members who promote teaching the history of racism in America to Florida students.
Moment of Silence Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed [June 2021] a new law mandating that public schools in the Sunshine State have a daily moment of silence.
The bill, which DeSantis signed into law on Monday, requires teachers to set aside at least one minute each day in the first period of school for a moment of silence.
Teachers are prohibited “from making suggestions as to the nature of any reflection that a student may engage in during the moment of silence,” the law states.
DeSantis spoke about the new law in religious terms when signing it on Monday, saying it allows students to “reflect and be able to pray as they see fit,”according to local television station WJXT.
The governor, a close ally of former president Trump, signed the bill at a Jewish community center while behind a placard that read “protect religious liberty,” the local outlet reported (Oshin 1).
Anti-Riot Bill
The legislation is one of many attempts to monitor and silence dissent that Florida Republicans have passed into law this year. In April [2021], Gov. DeSantis signed HB 1 into law, an “anti-riot bill” that Democrats say will stifle First Amendment rights to protest and is purposely written broadly to allow police significant leeway to arrest and convict protesters (Florida 1).
Florida's new "anti-riot" law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a way to quell violent protests, is unconstitutional, and cannot be enforced; a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The 90-page decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee found the recently-enacted law "vague and overbroad" and amounted to an assault on First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly as well as the Constitution's due process protections.
People engaged in peaceful protest or innocently in the same area when a demonstration turned violent could face criminal charges and stiff penalties under the law, the judge said.
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DeSantis said during an appearance in New Port Richey that the state will take its case to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. …
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The lawsuit was filed against DeSantis and other state officials by the NAACP Florida conference, Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter, Alliance Broward and other groups who argue the law appears specifically aimed to halt protests by Black people and other minorities.
The measure was passed earlier this year by the GOP-led Legislature and signed into law [2021] by the governor. It was a reaction to demonstrations around the country following last year's killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd, a Black man, that stirred passions nationwide under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement (Associated “Judge” 1).
Anti-Sanctuary Cities Bill
On September 22, 2021, a federal judge ruled that sections of a 2019 Florida immigration enforcement law were racially motivated. The law generally banned so-called sanctuary cities, which is a city, county, or state that limits its cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in order to protect low-priority undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in 2019 as one of his administration’s priorities. His administration said it would appeal the ruling.
U.S. Southern District of Florida Judge Beth Bloom struck down portions of SB 168 that bans local and state officials from adopting “sanctuary” policies for undocumented immigrants and requires law enforcement agencies and officers to “use best efforts to support the enforcement of immigration law” when actively performing their duties. She also blocked a provision that enables local and state agencies to transport detainees to federal custody outside of their jurisdiction.
Judge Bloom repeatedly said that the law was racially motivated and that its supporters provided no evidence that such law was necessary to lower crime. Additionally, she said anti-immigrant hate groups such as Floridians for Immigration Enforcement guided the bill, citing numerous correspondence between the organization and staff members of State Senator Joe Gruters, who sponsored the bill.
The case began after the city of South Miami, the Florida Immigration Coalition, and other organizations filed a lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis in order to void the law. The plaintiffs’ witnesses testified that more people were victims of domestic violence because they were afraid of being deported if they involved the police. Others said undocumented immigrants did not access social services or healthcare clinics because of the same fear.
According to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and federal data on ICE arrests, which was presented by the plaintiffs, approximately 73 percent of ICE arrests in Florida between 2015 and 2018 involved individuals with no criminal history or a record of minor offenses.
On the other hand, only 0.4 percent of these arrests involved individuals with serious criminal offenses, such as sexual assault and murder. Therefore, the bill sponsors’ claim that the law would improve public safety and reduce crime rates are not supported by statistical data, despite the increase in undocumented immigration (Hubbs 1-2).
Anti-Mandate Law Protecting Workers and Children’s Parents
Today [November 18, 2021], Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Florida Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson to sign legislation that will protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and protect parents' rights to make healthcare decisions for students. The bills were passed through a Special Session of the Florida Legislature and are effective upon the Governor's signature. The legislation signed today is the strongest pro-freedom, anti-mandate action taken by any state in the nation.
✓ Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited.
✓ Employers who violate these employee health protections will be fined.
✓ Government entities may not require COVID-19 vaccinations of anyone, including employees.
✓ Educational institutions may not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated.
✓ School districts may not have school face mask policies.
✓ School districts may not quarantine healthy students.
✓ Students and parents may sue violating school districts and recover costs and attorney's fees (Florida 1-2).
“Don’t Say Gay” Bill
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation on Monday [March 2022] that prohibits classroom instruction and discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school grades, a law that opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay.”
“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, said from a classroom at a charter school in Spring Hill, Fla., north of Tampa.
The law, titled “Parental Rights in Education,” has drawn national criticism from L.G.B.T.Q. organizations that fear it will have a chilling effect among teachers and young students.
Workers at Disney, one of the state’s major employers and corporate political donors, staged walkouts in protest after the bill passed the Legislature, even after the company’s chief executive had apologized to employees for not taking a stronger stand against the legislation and paused contributions to political campaigns. On Monday, Disney released a statement condemning the new law and urging lawmakers to repeal it or the courts to strike it down.
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“DeSantis is attempting to censor and exclude an entire community of people from our public schools for his own political gain,” State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat and the state’s first openly gay Latino lawmaker, said in a statement. “This law doesn’t solve any problem that exists.”
The uproar did little to move the governor or lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature, who spent much of their annual session passing legislation to put Florida at the forefront of the nation’s culture wars, including a 15-week abortion ban, while avoiding pressing issues such as the state’s lack of affordable housing and shaky insurance market.
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“If those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’ rights, I wear that like a badge of honor,” he [DeSantis] said at the bill signing. “I don’t care what corporate media outlets say, I don’t care what Hollywood says, I don’t care what big corporations say. Here I stand. I’m not backing down” (Mazzei 1).
Hospital Visitation Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a COVID-19-linked bill requiring health care centers to allow in-person visitations, as the Republican announced he approved dozens of other measures passed during this year’s legislative session.
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The visitation bill requires that health care facilities, including nursing homes, allow in-person visits during end-of-life situations and in most other cases.
DeSantis and other state health officials said the measure was inspired by hospitals limiting visits during the coronavirus pandemic (Associated “DeSantis” 1).
No CRT in the Classroom Bill
Florida lawmakers on Thursday [March 2022] passed a bill that would limit how educators discuss certain racial issues in classrooms.
The bill, known as HB 7/Individual Freedom, was passed by the Senate along party lines Thursday and now goes to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was expected to sign it into law.
DeSantis and Republican lawmakers in the state have pushed for legislation to prevent Critical Race Theory instruction in schools, with the governor proposing a "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" last year to take aim against CRT in schools. The acronym stands for "Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees."
Proponents said the bill simply states that teachers and businesses can't force students and employees to feel they are to blame for racial injustices in America's past.
Opponents said the legislation was designed to create racial division and would have a chilling effect on the discussion of injustices past and present.
The bill reads in part, "A person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex."
Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. It was developed during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what scholars viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society (Florida Senate 1).
Anti-Abortion Law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Thursday [April 2022] a Mississippi-style anti-abortion measure that bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy without exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
The bill, which goes into effect July 1, does allow exemptions in cases where a pregnancy is "serious risk" to the mother or a fatal fetal abnormality is detected if two physicians confirm the diagnosis in writing.
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Previously, Florida had allowed abortion through the second trimester of a pregnancy, making it one of the most permissive states for abortion in the southeast. Abortion advocates said many women from neighboring states often traveled to Florida for the procedure, meaning changes to Florida's law could be felt all throughout the region.
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"We are here today to defend those who can't defend themselves," DeSantis said Thursday on a stage surrounded by several female lawmakers, anti-abortion advocates and children. "This will represent the most significant protections for life that we have seen in a generation."
The signing of the bill comes days after a Tallahassee circuit court judge ruled that Florida can require a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion, ending a seven-year legal battle over another contentious anti-abortion measure (Contorno 1-2).
DeSantis Wants Stronger Gerrymander Bill
Republican legislative leaders in Florida say they're going to give up trying to redraw the state's new map of congressional districts and instead consider one offered by Gov. Ron DeSantis during a special session next week [April 2022].
DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential aspirant, has been pushing a map that's considered more advantageous to his party.
The announcement on Monday by state Senate President Wilton Simpson and House Speaker Chris Sprowls came two weeks after DeSantis vetoed a map that had been approved by the legislature.
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Florida is one of just three states with more than one congressional district that hasn't yet finalized its new map, according to FiveThirtyEight.
The state could prove crucial to determining control of the U.S. House.
Thanks to massive population growth, Florida gained a congressional seat as a result of the last U.S. census, for a total of 28 districts (Hernandez 1).
Stop Woke Act
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Friday that aims to regulate how schools and businesses address race and gender, the state’s latest effort to restrict education about those topics.
The law, which has become known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” prohibits workplace training or school instruction that teaches that individuals are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously”; that people are privileged or oppressed based on race, gender, or national origin; or that a person “bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” over actions committed in the past by members of the same race, gender, or national origin. The law says such trainings or lessons amount to discrimination.
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“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” DeSantis said in a statement on Friday [April 22, 2022]. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”
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“This dangerous law is part of a nationwide trend to whitewash history and chill free speech in classrooms and workplaces,” Amy Turkel, interim executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement. “It will infringe on teachers’ and employers’ First Amendment rights and chill their ability to use concepts like systemic racism and gender discrimination to teach about and discuss important American history.”
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… it prohibits lessons or trainings in schools and workplaces that teach that individuals “should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion,” an apparent reference to affirmative action policies, which traditionally benefit Black and Latino students or employees in an effort to offset centuries of racial discrimination. They may also not advance the idea that concepts like merit or racial colorblindness “were created by members of a particular race, color, sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex, or national origin” (Reilly 1-2).
Works cited:
Associated Press. “A Judge Has Blocked the 'Anti-Riot' Law Passed in Florida after George Floyd Protests.” NPR, September 9, 2021. Net. https://www.npr.org/2021/09/09/103568...
Associated Press. “DeSantis Signs Hospital Visitation Bill, Other Legislation.” Local 10, April 8, 2022. Net. https://www.local10.com/news/florida/...
Contorno, Steve. “DeSantis Signs Florida's 15-Week Abortion Ban into Law.” CNN, April 14, 2022. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politi...
Edsall, Thomas B. ‘”We Want People That Are Going To Fight the Left,’ Says the Man Out-Trumping Trump.” New York Times, March 16, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/op...
Florida Health. “ ICYMI- Governor Ron Desantis Signs Legislation to Protect Florida Jobs.” Florida Health, November 18, 2021. Net. https://www.floridahealth.gov/newsroo...
“Florida Senate Passes Race Education Bill, Goes to DeSantis for Signature.” NBCMiami, March 10, 2022. Net. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/f...
“Florida Students Must Register Their Political Views with the State.” Democracy Docket, June 23, 2021. Net. https://www.democracydocket.com/alert...
Hernandez, Joe. “Florida Lawmakers Let DeSantis Draw a Congressional Map after He Vetoed the Last One.” NPR, April 12, 2022. Net. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/109229...
Hubbs Law Firm. “Federal Judge Rules Florida's SB 168 Was Racially Motivated.” Hubbs Law, October 15, 2021. Net. https://www.hubbslawfirm.com/blog/202...
Mazzei, Patricia. “DeSantis Signs Florida Bill that Opponents Call ‘Don’t Say Gay’.” New York Times, March 28, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/us...
Oshin, Olafimhan. “DeSantis Signs Law Mandating Daily Moment of Silence in Florida Schools.” The Hill, June 15, 2021. Net. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-wa...
Reilly, Katie. “Florida’s Governor Just Signed the 'Stop Woke Act.’ Here’s What It Means for Schools and Businesses.” Time, April 22, 2022. Net. https://time.com/6168753/florida-stop...
Where Trump was tiptoeing around vaccine skepticism, DeSantis jumped in with both feet, banning private companies like cruise lines from requiring vaccination, appointing a vaccine skeptic to his state’s highest office, and refusing to say if he’s gotten his booster dose.
DeSantis “may or may not actually be more delusional on Covid than Donald Trump,” Chait wrote, “but it is a revealing commentary on the state of their party that he sees his best chance to supplant Trump as positioning himself as even crazier” (Edsall 2).
[Here are some of the far-right bills that DeSantis has championed to become Florida law.]
Intimidating University Students and Faculty
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation into law on Tuesday [June 2021] that requires students and faculty of public Florida universities to report their political views to the state starting this July. [It] … requires university students and faculty to fill out a survey from the government about their political beliefs in what Gov. DeSantis has called an effort to monitor “intellectual diversity” on campus. Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson (R), echoing the Governor’s sentiments, said that there was a “great risk” that the state’s universities had become “socialism factories.”
Democrats and university faculty have attempted to get answers from state Republicans on how these survey results will be used, as the bill provides no guarantees or protections against partisan targeting of campuses and staff and does not protect student confidentiality. The move to “diversify” campus speech comes just a few days after Gov. DeSantis publicly supported the banning of critical race theory and announced he would campaign against any school board members who promote teaching the history of racism in America to Florida students.
Moment of Silence Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed [June 2021] a new law mandating that public schools in the Sunshine State have a daily moment of silence.
The bill, which DeSantis signed into law on Monday, requires teachers to set aside at least one minute each day in the first period of school for a moment of silence.
Teachers are prohibited “from making suggestions as to the nature of any reflection that a student may engage in during the moment of silence,” the law states.
DeSantis spoke about the new law in religious terms when signing it on Monday, saying it allows students to “reflect and be able to pray as they see fit,”according to local television station WJXT.
The governor, a close ally of former president Trump, signed the bill at a Jewish community center while behind a placard that read “protect religious liberty,” the local outlet reported (Oshin 1).
Anti-Riot Bill
The legislation is one of many attempts to monitor and silence dissent that Florida Republicans have passed into law this year. In April [2021], Gov. DeSantis signed HB 1 into law, an “anti-riot bill” that Democrats say will stifle First Amendment rights to protest and is purposely written broadly to allow police significant leeway to arrest and convict protesters (Florida 1).
Florida's new "anti-riot" law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a way to quell violent protests, is unconstitutional, and cannot be enforced; a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The 90-page decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee found the recently-enacted law "vague and overbroad" and amounted to an assault on First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly as well as the Constitution's due process protections.
People engaged in peaceful protest or innocently in the same area when a demonstration turned violent could face criminal charges and stiff penalties under the law, the judge said.
…
DeSantis said during an appearance in New Port Richey that the state will take its case to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. …
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The lawsuit was filed against DeSantis and other state officials by the NAACP Florida conference, Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter, Alliance Broward and other groups who argue the law appears specifically aimed to halt protests by Black people and other minorities.
The measure was passed earlier this year by the GOP-led Legislature and signed into law [2021] by the governor. It was a reaction to demonstrations around the country following last year's killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd, a Black man, that stirred passions nationwide under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement (Associated “Judge” 1).
Anti-Sanctuary Cities Bill
On September 22, 2021, a federal judge ruled that sections of a 2019 Florida immigration enforcement law were racially motivated. The law generally banned so-called sanctuary cities, which is a city, county, or state that limits its cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in order to protect low-priority undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in 2019 as one of his administration’s priorities. His administration said it would appeal the ruling.
U.S. Southern District of Florida Judge Beth Bloom struck down portions of SB 168 that bans local and state officials from adopting “sanctuary” policies for undocumented immigrants and requires law enforcement agencies and officers to “use best efforts to support the enforcement of immigration law” when actively performing their duties. She also blocked a provision that enables local and state agencies to transport detainees to federal custody outside of their jurisdiction.
Judge Bloom repeatedly said that the law was racially motivated and that its supporters provided no evidence that such law was necessary to lower crime. Additionally, she said anti-immigrant hate groups such as Floridians for Immigration Enforcement guided the bill, citing numerous correspondence between the organization and staff members of State Senator Joe Gruters, who sponsored the bill.
The case began after the city of South Miami, the Florida Immigration Coalition, and other organizations filed a lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis in order to void the law. The plaintiffs’ witnesses testified that more people were victims of domestic violence because they were afraid of being deported if they involved the police. Others said undocumented immigrants did not access social services or healthcare clinics because of the same fear.
According to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and federal data on ICE arrests, which was presented by the plaintiffs, approximately 73 percent of ICE arrests in Florida between 2015 and 2018 involved individuals with no criminal history or a record of minor offenses.
On the other hand, only 0.4 percent of these arrests involved individuals with serious criminal offenses, such as sexual assault and murder. Therefore, the bill sponsors’ claim that the law would improve public safety and reduce crime rates are not supported by statistical data, despite the increase in undocumented immigration (Hubbs 1-2).
Anti-Mandate Law Protecting Workers and Children’s Parents
Today [November 18, 2021], Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Florida Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson to sign legislation that will protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and protect parents' rights to make healthcare decisions for students. The bills were passed through a Special Session of the Florida Legislature and are effective upon the Governor's signature. The legislation signed today is the strongest pro-freedom, anti-mandate action taken by any state in the nation.
✓ Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited.
✓ Employers who violate these employee health protections will be fined.
✓ Government entities may not require COVID-19 vaccinations of anyone, including employees.
✓ Educational institutions may not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated.
✓ School districts may not have school face mask policies.
✓ School districts may not quarantine healthy students.
✓ Students and parents may sue violating school districts and recover costs and attorney's fees (Florida 1-2).
“Don’t Say Gay” Bill
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation on Monday [March 2022] that prohibits classroom instruction and discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school grades, a law that opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay.”
“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, said from a classroom at a charter school in Spring Hill, Fla., north of Tampa.
The law, titled “Parental Rights in Education,” has drawn national criticism from L.G.B.T.Q. organizations that fear it will have a chilling effect among teachers and young students.
Workers at Disney, one of the state’s major employers and corporate political donors, staged walkouts in protest after the bill passed the Legislature, even after the company’s chief executive had apologized to employees for not taking a stronger stand against the legislation and paused contributions to political campaigns. On Monday, Disney released a statement condemning the new law and urging lawmakers to repeal it or the courts to strike it down.
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“DeSantis is attempting to censor and exclude an entire community of people from our public schools for his own political gain,” State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat and the state’s first openly gay Latino lawmaker, said in a statement. “This law doesn’t solve any problem that exists.”
The uproar did little to move the governor or lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature, who spent much of their annual session passing legislation to put Florida at the forefront of the nation’s culture wars, including a 15-week abortion ban, while avoiding pressing issues such as the state’s lack of affordable housing and shaky insurance market.
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“If those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’ rights, I wear that like a badge of honor,” he [DeSantis] said at the bill signing. “I don’t care what corporate media outlets say, I don’t care what Hollywood says, I don’t care what big corporations say. Here I stand. I’m not backing down” (Mazzei 1).
Hospital Visitation Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a COVID-19-linked bill requiring health care centers to allow in-person visitations, as the Republican announced he approved dozens of other measures passed during this year’s legislative session.
…
The visitation bill requires that health care facilities, including nursing homes, allow in-person visits during end-of-life situations and in most other cases.
DeSantis and other state health officials said the measure was inspired by hospitals limiting visits during the coronavirus pandemic (Associated “DeSantis” 1).
No CRT in the Classroom Bill
Florida lawmakers on Thursday [March 2022] passed a bill that would limit how educators discuss certain racial issues in classrooms.
The bill, known as HB 7/Individual Freedom, was passed by the Senate along party lines Thursday and now goes to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was expected to sign it into law.
DeSantis and Republican lawmakers in the state have pushed for legislation to prevent Critical Race Theory instruction in schools, with the governor proposing a "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" last year to take aim against CRT in schools. The acronym stands for "Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees."
Proponents said the bill simply states that teachers and businesses can't force students and employees to feel they are to blame for racial injustices in America's past.
Opponents said the legislation was designed to create racial division and would have a chilling effect on the discussion of injustices past and present.
The bill reads in part, "A person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex."
Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. It was developed during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what scholars viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society (Florida Senate 1).
Anti-Abortion Law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Thursday [April 2022] a Mississippi-style anti-abortion measure that bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy without exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
The bill, which goes into effect July 1, does allow exemptions in cases where a pregnancy is "serious risk" to the mother or a fatal fetal abnormality is detected if two physicians confirm the diagnosis in writing.
…
Previously, Florida had allowed abortion through the second trimester of a pregnancy, making it one of the most permissive states for abortion in the southeast. Abortion advocates said many women from neighboring states often traveled to Florida for the procedure, meaning changes to Florida's law could be felt all throughout the region.
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"We are here today to defend those who can't defend themselves," DeSantis said Thursday on a stage surrounded by several female lawmakers, anti-abortion advocates and children. "This will represent the most significant protections for life that we have seen in a generation."
The signing of the bill comes days after a Tallahassee circuit court judge ruled that Florida can require a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion, ending a seven-year legal battle over another contentious anti-abortion measure (Contorno 1-2).
DeSantis Wants Stronger Gerrymander Bill
Republican legislative leaders in Florida say they're going to give up trying to redraw the state's new map of congressional districts and instead consider one offered by Gov. Ron DeSantis during a special session next week [April 2022].
DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential aspirant, has been pushing a map that's considered more advantageous to his party.
The announcement on Monday by state Senate President Wilton Simpson and House Speaker Chris Sprowls came two weeks after DeSantis vetoed a map that had been approved by the legislature.
...
Florida is one of just three states with more than one congressional district that hasn't yet finalized its new map, according to FiveThirtyEight.
The state could prove crucial to determining control of the U.S. House.
Thanks to massive population growth, Florida gained a congressional seat as a result of the last U.S. census, for a total of 28 districts (Hernandez 1).
Stop Woke Act
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Friday that aims to regulate how schools and businesses address race and gender, the state’s latest effort to restrict education about those topics.
The law, which has become known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” prohibits workplace training or school instruction that teaches that individuals are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously”; that people are privileged or oppressed based on race, gender, or national origin; or that a person “bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” over actions committed in the past by members of the same race, gender, or national origin. The law says such trainings or lessons amount to discrimination.
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“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” DeSantis said in a statement on Friday [April 22, 2022]. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”
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“This dangerous law is part of a nationwide trend to whitewash history and chill free speech in classrooms and workplaces,” Amy Turkel, interim executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement. “It will infringe on teachers’ and employers’ First Amendment rights and chill their ability to use concepts like systemic racism and gender discrimination to teach about and discuss important American history.”
…
… it prohibits lessons or trainings in schools and workplaces that teach that individuals “should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion,” an apparent reference to affirmative action policies, which traditionally benefit Black and Latino students or employees in an effort to offset centuries of racial discrimination. They may also not advance the idea that concepts like merit or racial colorblindness “were created by members of a particular race, color, sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex, or national origin” (Reilly 1-2).
Works cited:
Associated Press. “A Judge Has Blocked the 'Anti-Riot' Law Passed in Florida after George Floyd Protests.” NPR, September 9, 2021. Net. https://www.npr.org/2021/09/09/103568...
Associated Press. “DeSantis Signs Hospital Visitation Bill, Other Legislation.” Local 10, April 8, 2022. Net. https://www.local10.com/news/florida/...
Contorno, Steve. “DeSantis Signs Florida's 15-Week Abortion Ban into Law.” CNN, April 14, 2022. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politi...
Edsall, Thomas B. ‘”We Want People That Are Going To Fight the Left,’ Says the Man Out-Trumping Trump.” New York Times, March 16, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/op...
Florida Health. “ ICYMI- Governor Ron Desantis Signs Legislation to Protect Florida Jobs.” Florida Health, November 18, 2021. Net. https://www.floridahealth.gov/newsroo...
“Florida Senate Passes Race Education Bill, Goes to DeSantis for Signature.” NBCMiami, March 10, 2022. Net. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/f...
“Florida Students Must Register Their Political Views with the State.” Democracy Docket, June 23, 2021. Net. https://www.democracydocket.com/alert...
Hernandez, Joe. “Florida Lawmakers Let DeSantis Draw a Congressional Map after He Vetoed the Last One.” NPR, April 12, 2022. Net. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/109229...
Hubbs Law Firm. “Federal Judge Rules Florida's SB 168 Was Racially Motivated.” Hubbs Law, October 15, 2021. Net. https://www.hubbslawfirm.com/blog/202...
Mazzei, Patricia. “DeSantis Signs Florida Bill that Opponents Call ‘Don’t Say Gay’.” New York Times, March 28, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/us...
Oshin, Olafimhan. “DeSantis Signs Law Mandating Daily Moment of Silence in Florida Schools.” The Hill, June 15, 2021. Net. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-wa...
Reilly, Katie. “Florida’s Governor Just Signed the 'Stop Woke Act.’ Here’s What It Means for Schools and Businesses.” Time, April 22, 2022. Net. https://time.com/6168753/florida-stop...
May 22, 2022
Amoralists -- Ron DeSantis -- Part Two -- The Governor
President Trump delivered an urgent warning to his staunchest supporters in Florida Wednesday night at a pulsating political rally: Don’t let Ron DeSantis lose the governor’s race next week. Not with Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election plans potentially hinging on the country’s biggest presidential battleground state.
“This is my state also,” Mr. Trump reminded them, alluding to his golf properties and winter home in Palm Beach and his one-point victory in 2016.
That Mr. DeSantis is the Republican nominee for governor is a testament to Mr. Trump’s strong endorsement and popularity with conservatives. That Mr. Trump’s support has not been enough to make Mr. DeSantis the favorite on Tuesday — in one of the most high-profile and symbolically important races in the country — is evidence not only of the president’s shaky footing with independents, but also of Mr. DeSantis’s shortcomings as a candidate, political strategists from both parties say.
Mr. Trump has expended more political capital on Mr. DeSantis than on most other candidates this year, so the president would inevitably own a loss. Neither party is counting out Mr. DeSantis, but he is slightly trailing Andrew Gillum, the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, in most public polls; the president has scheduled another rally on Saturday in Pensacola.
What seemed a winnable race for Republicans against Mr. Gillum, an outspoken progressive who supports impeaching Mr. Trump, has instead become neck-and-neck, with the charismatic Democrat drawing far larger crowds than Mr. DeSantis, a telegenic Fox News regular who has proved uneven on the trail.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, what has separated the two candidates most is how each has dealt with issues of race and identity. Mr. Gillum, who would become Florida’s first African-American governor, has talked about both matters at length; Mr. DeSantis, who is white, has struggled to address questions about his past political associations with racists and xenophobes.
Mr. DeSantis and his team never prepared to run against Mr. Gillum; they thought they would face one of the more traditional, centrist Democrats running in the primary. The Republican fumbled early on with how to criticize his unexpected opponent and how to deal with a contender who, more than other Democrats who ran for governor, knew how to make moments go viral.
One reason Mr. DeSantis may have stumbled is where he had come from: the conservative cocoon of the political right, where his rise to national prominence — lifted by stoking fears of terrorism — went little noticed because Mr. DeSantis was only a congressman in a reliably Republican seat. (He resigned after winning the August primary.)
Over nearly three terms in office, Mr. DeSantis, a 40-year-old Yale and Harvard graduate and former Navy prosecutor, became a familiar face on Fox, doing hits from Capitol Hill and flying to New York to appear from the network’s flagship studio. He attended conferences billed as conservative gatherings where he made his name known in political circles that mattered.
Thrust into a marquee race in a purple state, however, Mr. DeSantis floundered.
In a Fox interview the day after the Aug. 28 primary, he said electing Mr. Gillum, 39, could “monkey this up,” which Democrats denounced as a racist dog whistle. (Mr. DeSantis denied that.) News reports exposed how far-right extremists were among the organizers and attendees of some of the conferences he frequented. A white supremacist group targeted Mr. Gillum with offensive robocalls. A campaign contributor apologized for referring to former President Barack Obama with a racist slur, but Mr. DeSantis declined to return his donation.
Mr. DeSantis managed to regroup from that rough start. But the controversies have cast a shadow over his campaign.
During the candidates’ last debate, Mr. DeSantis angrily rejected a question about his ties to a conservative author, David Horowitz, who has made incendiary statements.
“Are you going to play the McCarthy-ite game?” Mr. DeSantis asked, suggesting he was being found guilty by association. “How the hell am I supposed to know every single statement someone makes?”
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Mr. DeSantis has pounded Mr. Gillum over a continuing FBI investigation into possible corruption in Tallahassee’s community redevelopment agency, and over inappropriate gifts Mr. Gillum appears to have accepted during several trips with a lobbyist friend. Mr. Trump has gone as far as to label Mr. Gillum, without evidence, a “thief.” On Thursday, the Gillum campaign was also dealing with criticism after the conservative undercover journalism operation, Project Veritas, released a video in which a Gillum volunteer calls Florida “a cracker” state. (The campaign has cut ties with the volunteer.)
Mr. Gillum and his supporters have tried to turn those accusations of corruption — as well as claims by Mr. DeSantis that Mr. Gillum is anti-police — against Mr. DeSantis and Republicans, saying the attacks are fueled by racism against a successful black politician. Mr. DeSantis’s campaign has countered that resorting to accusations of racism is a way for Mr. Gillum to avoid scrutiny on his lobbyist dealings.
Mr. DeSantis first outlined his conservative ideology in a 2011 book that turned him into a popular speaker at Florida Tea Party and Republican gatherings. The book, “Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama,” borrowed from the title of Barack Obama’s 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” Mr. DeSantis dwelled on socialist and radical mentors in Mr. Obama’s life, arguing that, under their influence, the former president steered the country on a path divergent from what the founding fathers intended.
His anti-Obama message appeared to resonate with some Fox viewers. By mid-2012, even before his first election, he was a guest on Sean Hannity’s show; by the time he got to Washington the next year, Mr. DeSantis had bypassed the obscurity of most rank-and-file freshman members of Congress.
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Since 2013, Mr. DeSantis has appeared at four conferences sponsored by Mr. Horowitz — which was first reported by The Washington Post — and had praised his organization as one that “shoots straight, tells the American people the truth and is standing up for the right thing.” He has continued to defend his speeches there, noting that the keynote address at one of the gatherings was given by a Medal of Honor recipient.
When Mr. Trump recently tweeted that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” had joined a large caravan of Central Americans heading to the United States, he was repeating an idea advanced on Capitol Hill in 2016 by Mr. DeSantis, who called a hearing to discuss the threat posed by Islamic terrorists crossing the Mexican border
(Mazzei and Saul 5).
Determined to show his independence in his first months in office, he [De Santis] appointed a chief science officer and pledged billions for the Everglades.
He pardoned four wrongfully accused Black men. He lifted a ban on medical marijuana in smokable form.
He was hardly a moderate: Mr. DeSantis also gutted a voter-approved measure meant to restore felons’ right to vote. He allowed some teachers to carry guns in schools. He banned so-called sanctuary cities in a state where there were none.
But the mix pleased voters, and his approval ratings surged. Might the man who had shown his diaper-age daughter building a wall in campaign ad actually be a pragmatist?
Then came the pandemic.
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Mr. DeSantis centralized power in his office early in the pandemic, ceding little of the spotlight to public health officials. The state Department of Health’s weekly Covid-19 recaps are titled “Updates on Florida’s Vaccination Efforts Under Governor DeSantis’s Leadership.”
Mr. DeSantis’s slowness in locking down the state last year [2020] hurt his approval ratings. So did the deadly summer surge of the virus. But then, far earlier than most other governors, he pledged that schools would open in the fall and life would start returning to normal.
“His policies were contrarian, and he was defiant,” said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster who has tracked Mr. DeSantis’s popularity and saw it rebound beginning last summer. “The more he stands his ground, the more he speaks his mind, the more the affinity grows for him.”
His critics see the governor as stubborn and unwilling to hear dissent.
“The governor we have today is the governor we anticipated after the election,” said Nikki Fried, Florida’s agriculture commissioner and the only Democrat elected statewide, who looks likely to run against Mr. DeSantis.
“He surprised everybody in 2019,” she added, “but obviously that is not truly who he is.”
In some ways, Mr. DeSantis has filled the void left by Mr. Trump, minus the tweets. He remains a Fox News regular. He counts among his scientific advisers Dr. Scott W. Atlas, the former Trump adviser who has promoted dubious theories.
And the governor’s favorite foes are the “corporate media,” against whom he has scored political points.
His recent tangle with “60 Minutes” centered on the extent to which political connections have helped white, wealthy Floridians get vaccinated.
Local news outlets have chronicled how vaccine access has been slower for Black, Latino and poorer communities. Some pop-up vaccination sites were opened in neighborhoods that had many older residents — and that also had ties to DeSantis campaign donors.
But “60 Minutes” focused on how Publix supermarket pharmacies received doses and left out relevant details, including an extended response from the governor at a news conference.
On Wednesday, in Mr. DeSantis’s words, he “hit them back right between the eyes,” accusing “60 Minutes” of pursuing a malicious narrative (Maxxei 6).
Referred to as “DeathSantis” and mocked for allowing “Florida Morons” to pack state beaches, Mr. DeSantis faced national scorn for his resistance to shutdowns. Last fall [2020], he lifted all restrictions, keeping schools open for in-person learning and forbidding local officials from shutting down businesses or fining people for not wearing masks.
“I see, in many parts of our country, a sad state of affairs: schools closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed,” Mr. DeSantis said, offering a rousing defense of his pandemic response at the opening of Florida’s legislative session this week. “While so many other states kept locking people down, Florida lifted people up.”
The same could be said about Mr. DeSantis’s political ambitions.
For Republicans, loyalty to the former president and his pet issues has become the ultimate litmus test. Mr. DeSantis checked all the boxes: fighting with the media, questioning scientific experts, embracing baseless claims of election fraud and railing against liberals.
Conservatives rewarded the governor for his fealty. His approval rating rose above water in recent weeks, with some polling of Republicans showing Mr. DeSantis with higher ratings than Mr. Trump. He finished first in a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend covering a field of potential presidential candidates that did not include Mr. Trump, fueling chatter about a 2024 bid (Lerer 1).
Mr. DeSantis passed conservative red-meat legislation like voting reform and an “anti-riot” law (a federal judge recently blocked enforcement of it) and picked fights with proponents of mask and vaccine mandates, Big Tech, the media and even some Florida cruise lines.
Mr. DeSantis’s moves were not a complete surprise. In our partisan political atmosphere, there’s a rationale for firing up your base to maximize turnout. Since 2018, the proportion of registered Republicans in Florida has inched up and moved closer to Democrats’ share. As Steve Schale, a Florida election expert, recently noted, “Sometime before the end of this year, there will be more Republicans registered in Florida than Democrats” — which, he said, has never happened before.
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Mr. DeSantis’s approval numbers have … [now] declined. A late August [2021] Morning Consult poll showed him down to 48 percent approval from 54 percent in late June — with the biggest shift coming from independents.
Another survey of the governor’s approval from Quinnipiac now stands 12 points lower than it did in 2019. And while he opposed vaccine mandates for cruise ships — a significant industry in the state, with a lot of Republican customers — over 60 percent of Floridians supported them (Mair 1).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday [December 2020] told a private gathering of political donors and corporate executives that he has urged President Donald Trump to “fight on” to overturn November’s election results.
In wide-ranging remarks made in person behind closed doors at a meeting of the Associated Industries of Florida, DeSantis dismissed the risks of the coronavirus, contradicted science and targeted U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He also defended Trump’s attempt to fight the results of the election.
“I told the president to fight on,” DeSantis told the group gathered at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes resort hotel in Orlando, according to a recording of the speech obtained by POLITICO. “In reality, none of this stuff has succeeded yet. Time is running out.”
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DeSantis defended his response to the coronavirus pandemic, during which he has resisted imposing state-level restrictions on gatherings and mask-wearing. Florida has reported more than 1 million cases as of this week.
“We have, I think, really saved the livelihoods of millions and millions of students, parents, workers, business owners by approaching this in an evidence-based way and a way that focused on facts not fear, and in a way that was more moderate,” said DeSantis.
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DeSantis also took shots at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its “ridiculous” studies on the Covid-19 outbreak, which he said were more about “affirming” the positions of “bureaucrats” than science.
He questioned the need for contract tracing, saying most people are either infected in their homes or medical authorities can’t figure out the source of infections.
People can engage in most outdoor activities, including sports, because the virus doesn’t spread at such events, DeSantis told the group. He insisted that Trump’s huge rallies did not contribute to the spread of Covid-19, countering a Stanford University study released in late October that traced 30,000 cases and hundreds of deaths to Trump rallies (Dixon 1).
An exchange in August 2021 is a typical example of how DeSantis interacts with the press — with a combination of bluster and grievance modeled on Donald Trump, his political mentor and potential rival.
The Delta variant of the coronavirus had just arrived, and a question about the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state set him off. There was plenty of room in Florida’s hospitals, he explained.
Then, with a jerky, almost robotic forward-chopping motion, he gestured at the reporters gathered in front of him. “I think it’s important to point out because obviously media does hysteria,” he said. “You try to fearmonger. You try to do this stuff.”
Awkward and ineloquent as the moment was, it was vintage DeSantis — a frequently underestimated politician who has made the media his focal point and foil throughout his rapid rise. The clash, not the case numbers, which averaged nearly 25,000 a day in Florida at the peak of the Delta surge, led that day’s headlines.
…
Former aides say that DeSantis views the press as just another extension of the political process — a tool to weaponize or use for his own benefit. …
…
The mainstream press, which DeSantis invariably describes with epithets like “the corporate media” or ‘the Acela media,” tends to get brass-knuckle treatment — when it gets access to him at all.
…
His former aides as well as his critics describe his approach to the media as methodical and ruthless, in contrast to Trump’s haphazard, seat-of-the-pants approach.
“He has studied what has worked and left behind what doesn’t,” said David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who has contemplated running against him for governor. “He’s very good at maximizing the Trump benefit without bringing along the liabilities” (Hounshell and Askarinam 1-4).
Susie Wiles, a Republican consultant who helped guide the last month of DeSantis’s 2018 campaign for governor, described the candidate as a “workhorse.”
“It’s like watching an actor who can film the whole scene in one take,” Wiles told The Miami Herald. “He can gobble up a whole issue in one briefing, and when I saw that on my second day, I thought, ‘This is a whole different kind of thing.’” Wiles added, “If he doesn’t have a photographic memory, it’s close” (Edsall 2).
Republican politics have become oppositional politics: Deny the science, demean the media, own the libs. Conservatives are less defined by what they are for than by what they are against.
…
… at the peak of their intransigence and callousness, his [Trump’s] party catastrophically mishandled the pandemic. They refused to follow the science or act with caution. And, because of their reflexive opposition to the facts, untold numbers of people who didn’t have to die did.
…
Perhaps no politician has taken the reins from Trump with more vigor — and disastrous effects — than Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a man who thinks he could be the next Republican president. But to supplant the last leader of his party, he has to out-Trump Trump.
To accomplish this meteoric rise, he needed to do two things. First, become the darling of the Trump freedom fighters, fighting for the right to get sick and die. And second, he has to be the opposite of the establishment, in this case Joe Biden and his administration. If Biden swerves left, DeSantis must swerve right, even if the hospitals in his state are overrun and the funeral parlors reach capacity.
As The Times reported on Wednesday [August 2021]: “More people in Florida are catching the coronavirus, being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic.” The Times continued, “This week, 227 virus deaths were being reported each day in Florida, on average, as of Tuesday, a record for the state and by far the most in the United States right now.”
The citizens of Florida do not even support DeSantis’s politically calculated pandemic positions. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week [August 2021] found that “six in 10 Floridians support requiring masks in schools,” and “61 percent say recent rise in Covid-19 cases in Florida was preventable.”
But there are two things more important to DeSantis than those numbers. First, a different Quinnipiac poll found that regardless of how few Floridians approve of his performance, his approval rating is still higher than Biden’s in the state.
Second, DeSantis is playing to an electorate beyond the panhandle. As long as he is still mentioned in the same breath as Biden, even if the coverage is negative, he is playing well among Republicans. As long as he is fighting Washington and Democrats and experts, it doesn’t matter to entrenched Republicans that he’s not fighting the plague.
Some bodies must be sacrificed to appease the gods of partisan resistance.
To keep the spotlight, DeSantis is employing many of the same tricks as Trump: fighting with the media about coverage, deflecting blame onto Biden and convincing his followers that folding to facts is the same as forfeiting freedoms.
As DeSantis said in early August [2021], “We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state.” He continued, “And I can tell you: Florida, we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose to make their own decisions.”
Yes, Florida, DeSantis is allowing you to choose death so that he can have a greater political life (Blow 1-2).
… he has championed a smorgasbord of policies — some of dubious constitutionality — seemingly designed to make progressives’ heads explode. In recent months, he has signed legislation curtailing voting access, cracking down on protesters and punishing social media firms for deplatforming political candidates. … He pushed to ban the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. He issued an executive order, and later signed legislation, barring businesses and government agencies from requiring vaccine passports.
Recent polls show Mr. DeSantis with solid job approval numbers heading into his 2022 re-election race — a position strengthened by his ability to rake in piles of campaign cash from his nationwide network of donors. He is a familiar face on Fox News and Fox Business.
…
… the pro-Democratic group Remove Ron has produced an ad with this theme, taunting the former president for being overtaken by a “rookie congressman” who was a “nobody” until Mr. Trump “made him governor of America’s third largest state.” The ad mocks, “Ron must think you’re past your prime or that you’re a loser, Donald,” before warning that if Mr. DeSantis wins re-election in 2022, neither he nor Florida will have any more use for Mr. Trump. “The clock is ticking, Donald. What are you going to do about it” (Cottle 1-2).
Works cited:
Blow, Charles M. “Ron DeSantis, How Many Covid Deaths Are Enough?” New York Times, August 29, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/op...
Cottle, Michelle. “Can One Florida Man Wrest Control of the G.O.P. from Another?” New York Times, July 2, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/op...
Dixon, Matt. “DeSantis Tells Trump To 'Fight On,' Takes Aim at Science and Has Beef with John Roberts.” Politico, December 3, 2020. Net. https://www.politico.com/states/flori...
Edsall, Thomas B. ‘”We Want People That Are Going To Fight the Left,’ Says the Man Out-Trumping Trump.” New York Times, March 16, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/op...
Hounshell, Blake and Askarinam, Leah. “DeSantis and the Media: (Not) a Love Story.” New York Times, January 31. 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us...
Lerer, Lisa. “DeSantis Is Ascendant and Cuomo Is Faltering.” New York Times, updated April 10, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/us...
Mair, Liz. “Ron DeSantis Was a Slam Dunk. Until He Wasn’t.” New York Times, September 24, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/op...
Mazzei, Patricia. “Could Ron DeSantis Be Trump’s G.O.P. Heir? He’s Certainly Trying.” New York Times, updated August 15, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us...
Mazzei, Patricia and Saul, Stephanie. “Ron DeSantis, a Trump Ally, Struggles in Florida as Racial Flare-Ups Come to Fore.” New York Times. November 1, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us...
“This is my state also,” Mr. Trump reminded them, alluding to his golf properties and winter home in Palm Beach and his one-point victory in 2016.
That Mr. DeSantis is the Republican nominee for governor is a testament to Mr. Trump’s strong endorsement and popularity with conservatives. That Mr. Trump’s support has not been enough to make Mr. DeSantis the favorite on Tuesday — in one of the most high-profile and symbolically important races in the country — is evidence not only of the president’s shaky footing with independents, but also of Mr. DeSantis’s shortcomings as a candidate, political strategists from both parties say.
Mr. Trump has expended more political capital on Mr. DeSantis than on most other candidates this year, so the president would inevitably own a loss. Neither party is counting out Mr. DeSantis, but he is slightly trailing Andrew Gillum, the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, in most public polls; the president has scheduled another rally on Saturday in Pensacola.
What seemed a winnable race for Republicans against Mr. Gillum, an outspoken progressive who supports impeaching Mr. Trump, has instead become neck-and-neck, with the charismatic Democrat drawing far larger crowds than Mr. DeSantis, a telegenic Fox News regular who has proved uneven on the trail.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, what has separated the two candidates most is how each has dealt with issues of race and identity. Mr. Gillum, who would become Florida’s first African-American governor, has talked about both matters at length; Mr. DeSantis, who is white, has struggled to address questions about his past political associations with racists and xenophobes.
Mr. DeSantis and his team never prepared to run against Mr. Gillum; they thought they would face one of the more traditional, centrist Democrats running in the primary. The Republican fumbled early on with how to criticize his unexpected opponent and how to deal with a contender who, more than other Democrats who ran for governor, knew how to make moments go viral.
One reason Mr. DeSantis may have stumbled is where he had come from: the conservative cocoon of the political right, where his rise to national prominence — lifted by stoking fears of terrorism — went little noticed because Mr. DeSantis was only a congressman in a reliably Republican seat. (He resigned after winning the August primary.)
Over nearly three terms in office, Mr. DeSantis, a 40-year-old Yale and Harvard graduate and former Navy prosecutor, became a familiar face on Fox, doing hits from Capitol Hill and flying to New York to appear from the network’s flagship studio. He attended conferences billed as conservative gatherings where he made his name known in political circles that mattered.
Thrust into a marquee race in a purple state, however, Mr. DeSantis floundered.
In a Fox interview the day after the Aug. 28 primary, he said electing Mr. Gillum, 39, could “monkey this up,” which Democrats denounced as a racist dog whistle. (Mr. DeSantis denied that.) News reports exposed how far-right extremists were among the organizers and attendees of some of the conferences he frequented. A white supremacist group targeted Mr. Gillum with offensive robocalls. A campaign contributor apologized for referring to former President Barack Obama with a racist slur, but Mr. DeSantis declined to return his donation.
Mr. DeSantis managed to regroup from that rough start. But the controversies have cast a shadow over his campaign.
During the candidates’ last debate, Mr. DeSantis angrily rejected a question about his ties to a conservative author, David Horowitz, who has made incendiary statements.
“Are you going to play the McCarthy-ite game?” Mr. DeSantis asked, suggesting he was being found guilty by association. “How the hell am I supposed to know every single statement someone makes?”
…
Mr. DeSantis has pounded Mr. Gillum over a continuing FBI investigation into possible corruption in Tallahassee’s community redevelopment agency, and over inappropriate gifts Mr. Gillum appears to have accepted during several trips with a lobbyist friend. Mr. Trump has gone as far as to label Mr. Gillum, without evidence, a “thief.” On Thursday, the Gillum campaign was also dealing with criticism after the conservative undercover journalism operation, Project Veritas, released a video in which a Gillum volunteer calls Florida “a cracker” state. (The campaign has cut ties with the volunteer.)
Mr. Gillum and his supporters have tried to turn those accusations of corruption — as well as claims by Mr. DeSantis that Mr. Gillum is anti-police — against Mr. DeSantis and Republicans, saying the attacks are fueled by racism against a successful black politician. Mr. DeSantis’s campaign has countered that resorting to accusations of racism is a way for Mr. Gillum to avoid scrutiny on his lobbyist dealings.
Mr. DeSantis first outlined his conservative ideology in a 2011 book that turned him into a popular speaker at Florida Tea Party and Republican gatherings. The book, “Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama,” borrowed from the title of Barack Obama’s 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” Mr. DeSantis dwelled on socialist and radical mentors in Mr. Obama’s life, arguing that, under their influence, the former president steered the country on a path divergent from what the founding fathers intended.
His anti-Obama message appeared to resonate with some Fox viewers. By mid-2012, even before his first election, he was a guest on Sean Hannity’s show; by the time he got to Washington the next year, Mr. DeSantis had bypassed the obscurity of most rank-and-file freshman members of Congress.
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Since 2013, Mr. DeSantis has appeared at four conferences sponsored by Mr. Horowitz — which was first reported by The Washington Post — and had praised his organization as one that “shoots straight, tells the American people the truth and is standing up for the right thing.” He has continued to defend his speeches there, noting that the keynote address at one of the gatherings was given by a Medal of Honor recipient.
When Mr. Trump recently tweeted that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” had joined a large caravan of Central Americans heading to the United States, he was repeating an idea advanced on Capitol Hill in 2016 by Mr. DeSantis, who called a hearing to discuss the threat posed by Islamic terrorists crossing the Mexican border
(Mazzei and Saul 5).
Determined to show his independence in his first months in office, he [De Santis] appointed a chief science officer and pledged billions for the Everglades.
He pardoned four wrongfully accused Black men. He lifted a ban on medical marijuana in smokable form.
He was hardly a moderate: Mr. DeSantis also gutted a voter-approved measure meant to restore felons’ right to vote. He allowed some teachers to carry guns in schools. He banned so-called sanctuary cities in a state where there were none.
But the mix pleased voters, and his approval ratings surged. Might the man who had shown his diaper-age daughter building a wall in campaign ad actually be a pragmatist?
Then came the pandemic.
…
Mr. DeSantis centralized power in his office early in the pandemic, ceding little of the spotlight to public health officials. The state Department of Health’s weekly Covid-19 recaps are titled “Updates on Florida’s Vaccination Efforts Under Governor DeSantis’s Leadership.”
Mr. DeSantis’s slowness in locking down the state last year [2020] hurt his approval ratings. So did the deadly summer surge of the virus. But then, far earlier than most other governors, he pledged that schools would open in the fall and life would start returning to normal.
“His policies were contrarian, and he was defiant,” said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster who has tracked Mr. DeSantis’s popularity and saw it rebound beginning last summer. “The more he stands his ground, the more he speaks his mind, the more the affinity grows for him.”
His critics see the governor as stubborn and unwilling to hear dissent.
“The governor we have today is the governor we anticipated after the election,” said Nikki Fried, Florida’s agriculture commissioner and the only Democrat elected statewide, who looks likely to run against Mr. DeSantis.
“He surprised everybody in 2019,” she added, “but obviously that is not truly who he is.”
In some ways, Mr. DeSantis has filled the void left by Mr. Trump, minus the tweets. He remains a Fox News regular. He counts among his scientific advisers Dr. Scott W. Atlas, the former Trump adviser who has promoted dubious theories.
And the governor’s favorite foes are the “corporate media,” against whom he has scored political points.
His recent tangle with “60 Minutes” centered on the extent to which political connections have helped white, wealthy Floridians get vaccinated.
Local news outlets have chronicled how vaccine access has been slower for Black, Latino and poorer communities. Some pop-up vaccination sites were opened in neighborhoods that had many older residents — and that also had ties to DeSantis campaign donors.
But “60 Minutes” focused on how Publix supermarket pharmacies received doses and left out relevant details, including an extended response from the governor at a news conference.
On Wednesday, in Mr. DeSantis’s words, he “hit them back right between the eyes,” accusing “60 Minutes” of pursuing a malicious narrative (Maxxei 6).
Referred to as “DeathSantis” and mocked for allowing “Florida Morons” to pack state beaches, Mr. DeSantis faced national scorn for his resistance to shutdowns. Last fall [2020], he lifted all restrictions, keeping schools open for in-person learning and forbidding local officials from shutting down businesses or fining people for not wearing masks.
“I see, in many parts of our country, a sad state of affairs: schools closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed,” Mr. DeSantis said, offering a rousing defense of his pandemic response at the opening of Florida’s legislative session this week. “While so many other states kept locking people down, Florida lifted people up.”
The same could be said about Mr. DeSantis’s political ambitions.
For Republicans, loyalty to the former president and his pet issues has become the ultimate litmus test. Mr. DeSantis checked all the boxes: fighting with the media, questioning scientific experts, embracing baseless claims of election fraud and railing against liberals.
Conservatives rewarded the governor for his fealty. His approval rating rose above water in recent weeks, with some polling of Republicans showing Mr. DeSantis with higher ratings than Mr. Trump. He finished first in a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend covering a field of potential presidential candidates that did not include Mr. Trump, fueling chatter about a 2024 bid (Lerer 1).
Mr. DeSantis passed conservative red-meat legislation like voting reform and an “anti-riot” law (a federal judge recently blocked enforcement of it) and picked fights with proponents of mask and vaccine mandates, Big Tech, the media and even some Florida cruise lines.
Mr. DeSantis’s moves were not a complete surprise. In our partisan political atmosphere, there’s a rationale for firing up your base to maximize turnout. Since 2018, the proportion of registered Republicans in Florida has inched up and moved closer to Democrats’ share. As Steve Schale, a Florida election expert, recently noted, “Sometime before the end of this year, there will be more Republicans registered in Florida than Democrats” — which, he said, has never happened before.
…
Mr. DeSantis’s approval numbers have … [now] declined. A late August [2021] Morning Consult poll showed him down to 48 percent approval from 54 percent in late June — with the biggest shift coming from independents.
Another survey of the governor’s approval from Quinnipiac now stands 12 points lower than it did in 2019. And while he opposed vaccine mandates for cruise ships — a significant industry in the state, with a lot of Republican customers — over 60 percent of Floridians supported them (Mair 1).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday [December 2020] told a private gathering of political donors and corporate executives that he has urged President Donald Trump to “fight on” to overturn November’s election results.
In wide-ranging remarks made in person behind closed doors at a meeting of the Associated Industries of Florida, DeSantis dismissed the risks of the coronavirus, contradicted science and targeted U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He also defended Trump’s attempt to fight the results of the election.
“I told the president to fight on,” DeSantis told the group gathered at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes resort hotel in Orlando, according to a recording of the speech obtained by POLITICO. “In reality, none of this stuff has succeeded yet. Time is running out.”
…
DeSantis defended his response to the coronavirus pandemic, during which he has resisted imposing state-level restrictions on gatherings and mask-wearing. Florida has reported more than 1 million cases as of this week.
“We have, I think, really saved the livelihoods of millions and millions of students, parents, workers, business owners by approaching this in an evidence-based way and a way that focused on facts not fear, and in a way that was more moderate,” said DeSantis.
…
DeSantis also took shots at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its “ridiculous” studies on the Covid-19 outbreak, which he said were more about “affirming” the positions of “bureaucrats” than science.
He questioned the need for contract tracing, saying most people are either infected in their homes or medical authorities can’t figure out the source of infections.
People can engage in most outdoor activities, including sports, because the virus doesn’t spread at such events, DeSantis told the group. He insisted that Trump’s huge rallies did not contribute to the spread of Covid-19, countering a Stanford University study released in late October that traced 30,000 cases and hundreds of deaths to Trump rallies (Dixon 1).
An exchange in August 2021 is a typical example of how DeSantis interacts with the press — with a combination of bluster and grievance modeled on Donald Trump, his political mentor and potential rival.
The Delta variant of the coronavirus had just arrived, and a question about the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state set him off. There was plenty of room in Florida’s hospitals, he explained.
Then, with a jerky, almost robotic forward-chopping motion, he gestured at the reporters gathered in front of him. “I think it’s important to point out because obviously media does hysteria,” he said. “You try to fearmonger. You try to do this stuff.”
Awkward and ineloquent as the moment was, it was vintage DeSantis — a frequently underestimated politician who has made the media his focal point and foil throughout his rapid rise. The clash, not the case numbers, which averaged nearly 25,000 a day in Florida at the peak of the Delta surge, led that day’s headlines.
…
Former aides say that DeSantis views the press as just another extension of the political process — a tool to weaponize or use for his own benefit. …
…
The mainstream press, which DeSantis invariably describes with epithets like “the corporate media” or ‘the Acela media,” tends to get brass-knuckle treatment — when it gets access to him at all.
…
His former aides as well as his critics describe his approach to the media as methodical and ruthless, in contrast to Trump’s haphazard, seat-of-the-pants approach.
“He has studied what has worked and left behind what doesn’t,” said David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who has contemplated running against him for governor. “He’s very good at maximizing the Trump benefit without bringing along the liabilities” (Hounshell and Askarinam 1-4).
Susie Wiles, a Republican consultant who helped guide the last month of DeSantis’s 2018 campaign for governor, described the candidate as a “workhorse.”
“It’s like watching an actor who can film the whole scene in one take,” Wiles told The Miami Herald. “He can gobble up a whole issue in one briefing, and when I saw that on my second day, I thought, ‘This is a whole different kind of thing.’” Wiles added, “If he doesn’t have a photographic memory, it’s close” (Edsall 2).
Republican politics have become oppositional politics: Deny the science, demean the media, own the libs. Conservatives are less defined by what they are for than by what they are against.
…
… at the peak of their intransigence and callousness, his [Trump’s] party catastrophically mishandled the pandemic. They refused to follow the science or act with caution. And, because of their reflexive opposition to the facts, untold numbers of people who didn’t have to die did.
…
Perhaps no politician has taken the reins from Trump with more vigor — and disastrous effects — than Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a man who thinks he could be the next Republican president. But to supplant the last leader of his party, he has to out-Trump Trump.
To accomplish this meteoric rise, he needed to do two things. First, become the darling of the Trump freedom fighters, fighting for the right to get sick and die. And second, he has to be the opposite of the establishment, in this case Joe Biden and his administration. If Biden swerves left, DeSantis must swerve right, even if the hospitals in his state are overrun and the funeral parlors reach capacity.
As The Times reported on Wednesday [August 2021]: “More people in Florida are catching the coronavirus, being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic.” The Times continued, “This week, 227 virus deaths were being reported each day in Florida, on average, as of Tuesday, a record for the state and by far the most in the United States right now.”
The citizens of Florida do not even support DeSantis’s politically calculated pandemic positions. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week [August 2021] found that “six in 10 Floridians support requiring masks in schools,” and “61 percent say recent rise in Covid-19 cases in Florida was preventable.”
But there are two things more important to DeSantis than those numbers. First, a different Quinnipiac poll found that regardless of how few Floridians approve of his performance, his approval rating is still higher than Biden’s in the state.
Second, DeSantis is playing to an electorate beyond the panhandle. As long as he is still mentioned in the same breath as Biden, even if the coverage is negative, he is playing well among Republicans. As long as he is fighting Washington and Democrats and experts, it doesn’t matter to entrenched Republicans that he’s not fighting the plague.
Some bodies must be sacrificed to appease the gods of partisan resistance.
To keep the spotlight, DeSantis is employing many of the same tricks as Trump: fighting with the media about coverage, deflecting blame onto Biden and convincing his followers that folding to facts is the same as forfeiting freedoms.
As DeSantis said in early August [2021], “We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state.” He continued, “And I can tell you: Florida, we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose to make their own decisions.”
Yes, Florida, DeSantis is allowing you to choose death so that he can have a greater political life (Blow 1-2).
… he has championed a smorgasbord of policies — some of dubious constitutionality — seemingly designed to make progressives’ heads explode. In recent months, he has signed legislation curtailing voting access, cracking down on protesters and punishing social media firms for deplatforming political candidates. … He pushed to ban the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. He issued an executive order, and later signed legislation, barring businesses and government agencies from requiring vaccine passports.
Recent polls show Mr. DeSantis with solid job approval numbers heading into his 2022 re-election race — a position strengthened by his ability to rake in piles of campaign cash from his nationwide network of donors. He is a familiar face on Fox News and Fox Business.
…
… the pro-Democratic group Remove Ron has produced an ad with this theme, taunting the former president for being overtaken by a “rookie congressman” who was a “nobody” until Mr. Trump “made him governor of America’s third largest state.” The ad mocks, “Ron must think you’re past your prime or that you’re a loser, Donald,” before warning that if Mr. DeSantis wins re-election in 2022, neither he nor Florida will have any more use for Mr. Trump. “The clock is ticking, Donald. What are you going to do about it” (Cottle 1-2).
Works cited:
Blow, Charles M. “Ron DeSantis, How Many Covid Deaths Are Enough?” New York Times, August 29, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/op...
Cottle, Michelle. “Can One Florida Man Wrest Control of the G.O.P. from Another?” New York Times, July 2, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/op...
Dixon, Matt. “DeSantis Tells Trump To 'Fight On,' Takes Aim at Science and Has Beef with John Roberts.” Politico, December 3, 2020. Net. https://www.politico.com/states/flori...
Edsall, Thomas B. ‘”We Want People That Are Going To Fight the Left,’ Says the Man Out-Trumping Trump.” New York Times, March 16, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/op...
Hounshell, Blake and Askarinam, Leah. “DeSantis and the Media: (Not) a Love Story.” New York Times, January 31. 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us...
Lerer, Lisa. “DeSantis Is Ascendant and Cuomo Is Faltering.” New York Times, updated April 10, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/us...
Mair, Liz. “Ron DeSantis Was a Slam Dunk. Until He Wasn’t.” New York Times, September 24, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/op...
Mazzei, Patricia. “Could Ron DeSantis Be Trump’s G.O.P. Heir? He’s Certainly Trying.” New York Times, updated August 15, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us...
Mazzei, Patricia and Saul, Stephanie. “Ron DeSantis, a Trump Ally, Struggles in Florida as Racial Flare-Ups Come to Fore.” New York Times. November 1, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us...
May 19, 2022
Amoralists -- Ron DeSantis -- Part One -- Not Yet Governor
DeSantis was born on September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Karen (nee Rogers) and Ronald Daniel DeSantis. He is of Italian descent, as his great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather were from Italy. His great-great-grandfather Salvatore Storti immigrated to the United States in 1904, eventually settling in Pennsylvania. His great-great-grandmother Luigia Colucci moved to the U.S. to be with her husband in 1917.
DeSantis's mother was a nurse and his father installed Nielsen TV rating boxes. His family moved to Orlando, Florida, before relocating to Dunedin, Florida, when he was six years old. … He was a member of the Little League team from Dunedin National that made it to the 1991 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
DeSantis attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and Dunedin High School, graduating in 1997. He then attended Yale University. DeSantis was captain of Yale's varsity baseball team and joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity … (Ron 2).
At Dunedin High School, classmates knew him as a super jock and a brilliant student.
At Yale, the baseball coach barely hesitated naming the former team captain when an interviewer in 2002 asked if he ever managed someone of presidential material.
…
Yale baseball coach John Stuper says he stood out on the field (a four-year starting outfielder and .313 hitter, compared to .230 for another former Yale team captain, George H.W. Bush), and off. Among the many privileged Yalies, DeSantis worked as an electrician's assistant, baseball camp coach, and other odd jobs to cover expenses.
"You look at his transcript his last two years, there wasn't a B on it. How he could work 20 hours a week at baseball, probably that many hours a week at various jobs and still kill it in the classroom like he did is pretty amazing," said Stuper (Smith and Leary 4).
“You don’t need three years for law school,” [Governor] DeSantis, a Harvard Law product, said in Naples Friday …
“Some of these degrees you see. You know, I went to law school; you don’t need three years for law school,” DeSantis divulged. “I mean, seriously, you don’t. You could do it probably in one. Definitely in two. You don’t need three.”
“It’s a waste,” DeSantis continued. “And there’s other degrees where they make you do more years than you need to. We don’t want them toiling for no reason. Get the skills and go out there and put them to use” (Gancarski 1).
At Harvard [Law School], DeSantis began to earn notice in conservative circles through involvement with the Federalist Society, an influential network of lawyers.
"I certainly became introduced to him through that, and I suspect a lot of other people did, too," said Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the group in Washington.
Leo said DeSantis has a rare ability — he likened him to ardent conservative Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Mike Lee of Utah — to boil down complex, esoteric conservative principles and capture broad public attention.
A cum laude Harvard Law degree is a ticket to virtually any job. DeSantis chose military service, joining the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps while at Harvard.
"You gravitate toward a handful of people and a handful of people end up taking leadership roles. Ron was one of those," said Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, DeSantis' roommate at Naval Justice School in Rhode Island and a Republican candidate for governor there.
DeSantis worked at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, where he met his wife, local television host Casey Black. (They have a daughter and another child on the way.) He served at the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in 2007, he volunteered for and won a coveted and highly competitive assignment with SEAL Team One, deploying to Iraq.
Helping advise the SEALS on rules of engagement, such as when to shoot and whether to go into certain areas, DeSantis deployed to Fallujah as part of the troop surge. He earned a Bronze Star (meritorious service), usually reserved for senior officers.
Outside of his Federalist Society activities, friends say DeSantis' conservatism and interest in politics rarely surfaced in high school, college or his military career. He has said it rose from a lifelong passion for history and studying the Founding Fathers.
The tea party movement was exploding as DeSantis left active duty, and he turned his attention to a political career (Smith and Leary 5).
After exploring a run for state House, DeSantis in early 2012 pivoted to an open congressional seat in the Jacksonville area, joining a crowded Republican primary with better-known candidates.
But DeSantis had powerful factors in his favor: the military record, Ivy League connections and conservative bona fides from a book he wrote in 2011, Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama. The book excoriates the president [Obama] as a European-style leftist abandoning the principles of the founding fathers.
DeSantis hawked the self-published book at tea party gatherings, while contacts from Yale and Harvard provided early fundraising.
"He came to my attention because he's a Yalie," said Joseph Fogg, a 1968 graduate who led financial firms and now lives in Naples. Fogg hosted early fundraisers for DeSantis, impressed by his strong views about Obama. "Those of us on the conservative side of the ledger were looking for some bright young people that would be taking the country in a different direction."
…
Another Yale connection, former DeSantis roommate Nick Sinatra, provided inroads to Trump. Sinatra worked on Carl Paladino's 2010 gubernatorial campaign in New York alongside Roger Stone, who composed a tweet that Trump fired off on March 20, 2012: "Ron DeSantis, Iraq vet, Navy hero, bronze star, Yale, Harvard Law, running for Congress in Fla. Very impressive."
It was Fox News — advertising, not appearances — that brought DeSantis from obscurity in his first campaign. His team gambled on heavy advertising while DeSantis began to walk neighborhoods and introduce himself to voters.
It began to pay off in polls, and that summer DeSantis was taken to Washington for a round of meetings with conservative groups, including FreedomWorks, Heritage Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Club for Growth.
Crucial to that endeavor was Daniel Faraci, a Washington lobbyist and campaign consultant who helped prep DeSantis and pitched the candidate as rock solid ideologically.
During a sit-down with the Club for Growth, DeSantis impressed with a command of the Bill of Rights and the issues. The book helped, too. "Right off the bat he was scoring positive points with us," said Andy Roth, a club vice president. "It was a no-brainer that we endorsed him and then, as they say, the rest is history."
The first FedEx full of checks provided resources to buy more ads, including attacks on primary rivals, who complained they were misleading or false. The club's wealthy members kicked in more than $100,000 and have since contributed $500,000 to DeSantis' campaigns.
He won the GOP primary by 16 percentage points and easily dispatched a Democrat in the general election (Smith and Leary 4,6-7).
The most memorable part of Mr. DeSantis’s six years in Congress might be the platform they gave him to heighten his profile on Fox News, where he frequently represented the hard-line Freedom Caucus. Later, he would staunchly defend Mr. Trump over the Russia investigation.
“He was a policy wonk with an ability to really identify a few areas within his committees, responsibilities which he knew would give him the political opportunity to get on television,” said Scott Parkinson, who was Mr. DeSantis’s chief of staff in 2018. Mr. DeSantis was appearing on cable TV multiple times a day, Mr. Parkinson recalled.
Mr. DeSantis often slept in his office and walked the Capitol halls wearing headphones, avoiding unwanted interactions. He made few friends and struck other lawmakers as aloof.
A brief Senate run in 2016 proved critical: It exposed him to a national network of wealthy donors he would later tap in his long-shot bid for governor (Mazzei 4).
Much of Mr. DeSantis’s attention in Congress was on terrorism. From his perch as chairman of a national security subcommittee, he delivered attention-grabbing statements that stoked fear of Muslims. Following the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, for example, he speculated that there were “thousands” of potential terrorists on federal watch lists in Florida.
“He’s willing to tolerate and even utilize prejudice to advance his agenda,” said Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Florida Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil-liberties organization (Mazzie and Saul 5).
On January 29, 2014, DeSantis introduced into the House the Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014 (H.R. 3973; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the United States Department of Justice to report to the United States Congress whenever any federal agency refrains from enforcing laws or regulations for any reason. In the report, the government would have to explain why it had decided not to enforce that law. DeSantis spoke in favor of the bill, arguing that "President Obama has not only failed to uphold several of our nation's laws, he has vowed to continue to do so in order to enact his unpopular agenda... The American people deserve to know exactly which laws the Obama administration is refusing to enforce and why."
In 2013, DeSantis signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.
On August 24, 2017, DeSantis added a rider to the proposed fiscal 2018 spending bill package that would end funding for the 2017 Special Counsel investigation "or for the investigation under that order of matters occurring before June 2015" (the month Trump announced he was running for president) 180 days after passage of the bill. The amendment would counter a bipartisan bill authored by two Democratic and two Republican U.S. Senators that was meant to limit the president's power to fire the special counsel. The DeSantis amendment would potentially cut off funding for the investigation by November 2017. It was also a response to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's statement that the DOJ, "...doesn't conduct fishing expeditions." Rep. DeSantis said that the May 17, 2017 DOJ order "didn't identify a crime to be investigated and practically invites a fishing expedition."
DeSantis opposed the Iran nuclear deal framework, calling it "a bad deal that will significantly degrade our national security." DeSantis said "the Iran deal gives Ayatollah Khamenei exactly what he wants: billions of dollars in sanctions relief, validation of the Iranian nuclear program, and the ability to stymie inspections."
During a line of questioning, DeSantis told Secretary of State John Kerry that the executive branch had a legal obligation to provide Congress with the details behind any side deals made between world leaders and Iran. DeSantis accused President Barack Obama of giving better treatment of Cuba's Raul Castro and Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei than of Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 2015, DeSantis introduced the Guantanamo Bay Recidivism Prevention Act, which would cut off foreign aid to countries that receive detainees if they show back up on the terrorism recidivism list. DeSantis opposed President Obama's plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, saying "Bringing hardened terrorists to the U.S. homeland harms our national security."
Regarding the formal restart of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, DeSantis said "Raising the Cuban flag in the United States is a slap in the face to those who have experienced the brutality of the Castro regime."
In 2013, DeSantis introduced the Palestinian Accountability Act, which would halt U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until it formally recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and cuts off all ties with the terror group Hamas.
In 2016, DeSantis co-introduced the Non-Discrimination of Israel in Labeling Act, which will defend the right of Israeli producers to label products manufactured in the West Bank as “Israel,” “Made in Israel,” or “Product of Israel.” DeSantis believes that the U.S. Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
DeSantis is opposed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has called for the "full and complete repeal" of the act.
DeSantis was a critic of President Obama's immigration policies; he opposed Obama's deferred action programs (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA)) and accused him of failing to enforce immigration laws. DeSantis opposes "sanctuary cities." He is a co-sponsor of the Establishing Mandatory Minimums for Illegal Reentry Act of 2015, also known as Kate's Law, which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to increase penalties applicable to aliens who unlawfully reenter the United States after being removed.
DeSantis opted not to receive his congressional pension, and he filed a measure that would eliminate pensions for members of Congress. After introducing the End Pensions in Congress Act, DeSantis said "The Founding Fathers envisioned elected officials as part of a servant class, yet Washington has evolved into a ruling class culture." DeSantis supports a constitutional amendment to impose term limits for members of Congress, so that Representatives would be limited to three terms and senators to two terms.
He sponsored the Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014, which would direct the United States Department of Justice to report to the United States Congress whenever any federal agency refrains from enforcing laws or regulations for any reason. Speaking about the bill, DeSantis said "You can not have rule of law when people don’t know what the law is." The bill passed the U.S. House in March 2014.
DeSantis introduced a proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution that would provide that "Congress shall make no law respecting the citizens of the United States that does not also apply to the Senators and Representatives."
DeSantis has said that the debate in Washington, D.C. over how to reduce the deficit should shift emphasis from tax increases to curtailing spending and triggering economic growth. DeSantis supports a “no budget no pay” policy for Congress to encourage the passage of a budget. He believes the Federal Reserve System should be audited.
…
DeSantis opposes abortion and has denounced Planned Parenthood.
DeSantis was endorsed by the socially conservative Family Research Council Action PAC in 2015. DeSantis agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., saying "This case does not concern the availability or legality of contraceptives, and individuals can obtain and use these as they see fit. The question is simply whether the government can force the owners of Hobby Lobby to pay for abortifacients in violation of their faith."
DeSantis opposes gun control. He received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association.
DeSantis opposes federal education programs such as No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top, saying that education policy should be made at the local level.
...
DeSantis proposed an amendment that would halt funding for Mueller’s 2017 Special Counsel investigation probe six months after the amendment’s passage. In addition, this provision also would prohibit Mueller from investigating matters that occurred before June 2015, when Trump launched his presidential campaign (Ron 5-7).
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) today proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to impose term limits on members of Congress. The amendment would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms.
“D.C. is broken,” said Sen. Cruz. “The American people resoundingly agreed on Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump has committed to putting government back to work for the American people. It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions.”
Cruz continued: “The time is now for Congress, with the overwhelming support of the American people, to submit this constitutional amendment to the states for speedy ratification. With control of a decisive majority of the states, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, we have a responsibility to answer the voters’ call-to-action. We must deliver.”
“Term limits are the first step towards reforming Capitol Hill,” said Rep. DeSantis. “Eliminating the political elite and infusing Washington with new blood will restore the citizen legislature that our Founding Fathers envisioned. The American people have called for increased accountability and we must deliver. Senator Cruz has been instrumental in efforts to hold Congress accountable, and I look forward to working with him to implement term limits.”
…
In December, Sen. Cruz and Rep. DeSantis published an op-ed in the Washington Post announcing their intention to introduce a term limits amendment in the 115th Congress (Ted Cruz 1).
Works cited:
Gancarski, A. G. “Ron DeSantis Says Three Years of Law School Is a ‘waste’.” Florida Politics, October 15, 2021. Net. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/...
Mazzei, Patricia and Saul, Stephanie. “Ron DeSantis, a Trump Ally, Struggles in Florida as Racial Flare-Ups Come to Fore.” New York Times. November 1, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us...
Mazzei, Patricia. “G.O.P. Heir? He’s Certainly Trying.” New York Times, updated August 15, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us...
“Ron DeSantis.” Wikipedia. Net. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_DeS...
“Ron DeSantis.” Military Wikipedia. Net. https://military-history.fandom.com/w...
Smith, Adam C. and Leary, Alex. “Ron DeSantis: Capitol Hill Loner, Fox News Fixture, Trump Favorite in Florida Governor’s Race.” Tampa Bay Times, updated February 10, 2018. Net. https://www.tampabay.com/florida-poli...
Ted Cruz. “Sen. Cruz and Rep. DeSantis Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Impose Term Limits on Members of Congress.” cruz.senate.gov, January 3, 2017. Net. https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/...
DeSantis's mother was a nurse and his father installed Nielsen TV rating boxes. His family moved to Orlando, Florida, before relocating to Dunedin, Florida, when he was six years old. … He was a member of the Little League team from Dunedin National that made it to the 1991 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
DeSantis attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and Dunedin High School, graduating in 1997. He then attended Yale University. DeSantis was captain of Yale's varsity baseball team and joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity … (Ron 2).
At Dunedin High School, classmates knew him as a super jock and a brilliant student.
At Yale, the baseball coach barely hesitated naming the former team captain when an interviewer in 2002 asked if he ever managed someone of presidential material.
…
Yale baseball coach John Stuper says he stood out on the field (a four-year starting outfielder and .313 hitter, compared to .230 for another former Yale team captain, George H.W. Bush), and off. Among the many privileged Yalies, DeSantis worked as an electrician's assistant, baseball camp coach, and other odd jobs to cover expenses.
"You look at his transcript his last two years, there wasn't a B on it. How he could work 20 hours a week at baseball, probably that many hours a week at various jobs and still kill it in the classroom like he did is pretty amazing," said Stuper (Smith and Leary 4).
“You don’t need three years for law school,” [Governor] DeSantis, a Harvard Law product, said in Naples Friday …
“Some of these degrees you see. You know, I went to law school; you don’t need three years for law school,” DeSantis divulged. “I mean, seriously, you don’t. You could do it probably in one. Definitely in two. You don’t need three.”
“It’s a waste,” DeSantis continued. “And there’s other degrees where they make you do more years than you need to. We don’t want them toiling for no reason. Get the skills and go out there and put them to use” (Gancarski 1).
At Harvard [Law School], DeSantis began to earn notice in conservative circles through involvement with the Federalist Society, an influential network of lawyers.
"I certainly became introduced to him through that, and I suspect a lot of other people did, too," said Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the group in Washington.
Leo said DeSantis has a rare ability — he likened him to ardent conservative Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Mike Lee of Utah — to boil down complex, esoteric conservative principles and capture broad public attention.
A cum laude Harvard Law degree is a ticket to virtually any job. DeSantis chose military service, joining the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps while at Harvard.
"You gravitate toward a handful of people and a handful of people end up taking leadership roles. Ron was one of those," said Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, DeSantis' roommate at Naval Justice School in Rhode Island and a Republican candidate for governor there.
DeSantis worked at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, where he met his wife, local television host Casey Black. (They have a daughter and another child on the way.) He served at the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in 2007, he volunteered for and won a coveted and highly competitive assignment with SEAL Team One, deploying to Iraq.
Helping advise the SEALS on rules of engagement, such as when to shoot and whether to go into certain areas, DeSantis deployed to Fallujah as part of the troop surge. He earned a Bronze Star (meritorious service), usually reserved for senior officers.
Outside of his Federalist Society activities, friends say DeSantis' conservatism and interest in politics rarely surfaced in high school, college or his military career. He has said it rose from a lifelong passion for history and studying the Founding Fathers.
The tea party movement was exploding as DeSantis left active duty, and he turned his attention to a political career (Smith and Leary 5).
After exploring a run for state House, DeSantis in early 2012 pivoted to an open congressional seat in the Jacksonville area, joining a crowded Republican primary with better-known candidates.
But DeSantis had powerful factors in his favor: the military record, Ivy League connections and conservative bona fides from a book he wrote in 2011, Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama. The book excoriates the president [Obama] as a European-style leftist abandoning the principles of the founding fathers.
DeSantis hawked the self-published book at tea party gatherings, while contacts from Yale and Harvard provided early fundraising.
"He came to my attention because he's a Yalie," said Joseph Fogg, a 1968 graduate who led financial firms and now lives in Naples. Fogg hosted early fundraisers for DeSantis, impressed by his strong views about Obama. "Those of us on the conservative side of the ledger were looking for some bright young people that would be taking the country in a different direction."
…
Another Yale connection, former DeSantis roommate Nick Sinatra, provided inroads to Trump. Sinatra worked on Carl Paladino's 2010 gubernatorial campaign in New York alongside Roger Stone, who composed a tweet that Trump fired off on March 20, 2012: "Ron DeSantis, Iraq vet, Navy hero, bronze star, Yale, Harvard Law, running for Congress in Fla. Very impressive."
It was Fox News — advertising, not appearances — that brought DeSantis from obscurity in his first campaign. His team gambled on heavy advertising while DeSantis began to walk neighborhoods and introduce himself to voters.
It began to pay off in polls, and that summer DeSantis was taken to Washington for a round of meetings with conservative groups, including FreedomWorks, Heritage Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Club for Growth.
Crucial to that endeavor was Daniel Faraci, a Washington lobbyist and campaign consultant who helped prep DeSantis and pitched the candidate as rock solid ideologically.
During a sit-down with the Club for Growth, DeSantis impressed with a command of the Bill of Rights and the issues. The book helped, too. "Right off the bat he was scoring positive points with us," said Andy Roth, a club vice president. "It was a no-brainer that we endorsed him and then, as they say, the rest is history."
The first FedEx full of checks provided resources to buy more ads, including attacks on primary rivals, who complained they were misleading or false. The club's wealthy members kicked in more than $100,000 and have since contributed $500,000 to DeSantis' campaigns.
He won the GOP primary by 16 percentage points and easily dispatched a Democrat in the general election (Smith and Leary 4,6-7).
The most memorable part of Mr. DeSantis’s six years in Congress might be the platform they gave him to heighten his profile on Fox News, where he frequently represented the hard-line Freedom Caucus. Later, he would staunchly defend Mr. Trump over the Russia investigation.
“He was a policy wonk with an ability to really identify a few areas within his committees, responsibilities which he knew would give him the political opportunity to get on television,” said Scott Parkinson, who was Mr. DeSantis’s chief of staff in 2018. Mr. DeSantis was appearing on cable TV multiple times a day, Mr. Parkinson recalled.
Mr. DeSantis often slept in his office and walked the Capitol halls wearing headphones, avoiding unwanted interactions. He made few friends and struck other lawmakers as aloof.
A brief Senate run in 2016 proved critical: It exposed him to a national network of wealthy donors he would later tap in his long-shot bid for governor (Mazzei 4).
Much of Mr. DeSantis’s attention in Congress was on terrorism. From his perch as chairman of a national security subcommittee, he delivered attention-grabbing statements that stoked fear of Muslims. Following the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, for example, he speculated that there were “thousands” of potential terrorists on federal watch lists in Florida.
“He’s willing to tolerate and even utilize prejudice to advance his agenda,” said Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Florida Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil-liberties organization (Mazzie and Saul 5).
On January 29, 2014, DeSantis introduced into the House the Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014 (H.R. 3973; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the United States Department of Justice to report to the United States Congress whenever any federal agency refrains from enforcing laws or regulations for any reason. In the report, the government would have to explain why it had decided not to enforce that law. DeSantis spoke in favor of the bill, arguing that "President Obama has not only failed to uphold several of our nation's laws, he has vowed to continue to do so in order to enact his unpopular agenda... The American people deserve to know exactly which laws the Obama administration is refusing to enforce and why."
In 2013, DeSantis signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.
On August 24, 2017, DeSantis added a rider to the proposed fiscal 2018 spending bill package that would end funding for the 2017 Special Counsel investigation "or for the investigation under that order of matters occurring before June 2015" (the month Trump announced he was running for president) 180 days after passage of the bill. The amendment would counter a bipartisan bill authored by two Democratic and two Republican U.S. Senators that was meant to limit the president's power to fire the special counsel. The DeSantis amendment would potentially cut off funding for the investigation by November 2017. It was also a response to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's statement that the DOJ, "...doesn't conduct fishing expeditions." Rep. DeSantis said that the May 17, 2017 DOJ order "didn't identify a crime to be investigated and practically invites a fishing expedition."
DeSantis opposed the Iran nuclear deal framework, calling it "a bad deal that will significantly degrade our national security." DeSantis said "the Iran deal gives Ayatollah Khamenei exactly what he wants: billions of dollars in sanctions relief, validation of the Iranian nuclear program, and the ability to stymie inspections."
During a line of questioning, DeSantis told Secretary of State John Kerry that the executive branch had a legal obligation to provide Congress with the details behind any side deals made between world leaders and Iran. DeSantis accused President Barack Obama of giving better treatment of Cuba's Raul Castro and Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei than of Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 2015, DeSantis introduced the Guantanamo Bay Recidivism Prevention Act, which would cut off foreign aid to countries that receive detainees if they show back up on the terrorism recidivism list. DeSantis opposed President Obama's plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, saying "Bringing hardened terrorists to the U.S. homeland harms our national security."
Regarding the formal restart of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, DeSantis said "Raising the Cuban flag in the United States is a slap in the face to those who have experienced the brutality of the Castro regime."
In 2013, DeSantis introduced the Palestinian Accountability Act, which would halt U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until it formally recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and cuts off all ties with the terror group Hamas.
In 2016, DeSantis co-introduced the Non-Discrimination of Israel in Labeling Act, which will defend the right of Israeli producers to label products manufactured in the West Bank as “Israel,” “Made in Israel,” or “Product of Israel.” DeSantis believes that the U.S. Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
DeSantis is opposed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has called for the "full and complete repeal" of the act.
DeSantis was a critic of President Obama's immigration policies; he opposed Obama's deferred action programs (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA)) and accused him of failing to enforce immigration laws. DeSantis opposes "sanctuary cities." He is a co-sponsor of the Establishing Mandatory Minimums for Illegal Reentry Act of 2015, also known as Kate's Law, which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to increase penalties applicable to aliens who unlawfully reenter the United States after being removed.
DeSantis opted not to receive his congressional pension, and he filed a measure that would eliminate pensions for members of Congress. After introducing the End Pensions in Congress Act, DeSantis said "The Founding Fathers envisioned elected officials as part of a servant class, yet Washington has evolved into a ruling class culture." DeSantis supports a constitutional amendment to impose term limits for members of Congress, so that Representatives would be limited to three terms and senators to two terms.
He sponsored the Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014, which would direct the United States Department of Justice to report to the United States Congress whenever any federal agency refrains from enforcing laws or regulations for any reason. Speaking about the bill, DeSantis said "You can not have rule of law when people don’t know what the law is." The bill passed the U.S. House in March 2014.
DeSantis introduced a proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution that would provide that "Congress shall make no law respecting the citizens of the United States that does not also apply to the Senators and Representatives."
DeSantis has said that the debate in Washington, D.C. over how to reduce the deficit should shift emphasis from tax increases to curtailing spending and triggering economic growth. DeSantis supports a “no budget no pay” policy for Congress to encourage the passage of a budget. He believes the Federal Reserve System should be audited.
…
DeSantis opposes abortion and has denounced Planned Parenthood.
DeSantis was endorsed by the socially conservative Family Research Council Action PAC in 2015. DeSantis agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., saying "This case does not concern the availability or legality of contraceptives, and individuals can obtain and use these as they see fit. The question is simply whether the government can force the owners of Hobby Lobby to pay for abortifacients in violation of their faith."
DeSantis opposes gun control. He received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association.
DeSantis opposes federal education programs such as No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top, saying that education policy should be made at the local level.
...
DeSantis proposed an amendment that would halt funding for Mueller’s 2017 Special Counsel investigation probe six months after the amendment’s passage. In addition, this provision also would prohibit Mueller from investigating matters that occurred before June 2015, when Trump launched his presidential campaign (Ron 5-7).
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) today proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to impose term limits on members of Congress. The amendment would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms.
“D.C. is broken,” said Sen. Cruz. “The American people resoundingly agreed on Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump has committed to putting government back to work for the American people. It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions.”
Cruz continued: “The time is now for Congress, with the overwhelming support of the American people, to submit this constitutional amendment to the states for speedy ratification. With control of a decisive majority of the states, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, we have a responsibility to answer the voters’ call-to-action. We must deliver.”
“Term limits are the first step towards reforming Capitol Hill,” said Rep. DeSantis. “Eliminating the political elite and infusing Washington with new blood will restore the citizen legislature that our Founding Fathers envisioned. The American people have called for increased accountability and we must deliver. Senator Cruz has been instrumental in efforts to hold Congress accountable, and I look forward to working with him to implement term limits.”
…
In December, Sen. Cruz and Rep. DeSantis published an op-ed in the Washington Post announcing their intention to introduce a term limits amendment in the 115th Congress (Ted Cruz 1).
Works cited:
Gancarski, A. G. “Ron DeSantis Says Three Years of Law School Is a ‘waste’.” Florida Politics, October 15, 2021. Net. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/...
Mazzei, Patricia and Saul, Stephanie. “Ron DeSantis, a Trump Ally, Struggles in Florida as Racial Flare-Ups Come to Fore.” New York Times. November 1, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us...
Mazzei, Patricia. “G.O.P. Heir? He’s Certainly Trying.” New York Times, updated August 15, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us...
“Ron DeSantis.” Wikipedia. Net. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_DeS...
“Ron DeSantis.” Military Wikipedia. Net. https://military-history.fandom.com/w...
Smith, Adam C. and Leary, Alex. “Ron DeSantis: Capitol Hill Loner, Fox News Fixture, Trump Favorite in Florida Governor’s Race.” Tampa Bay Times, updated February 10, 2018. Net. https://www.tampabay.com/florida-poli...
Ted Cruz. “Sen. Cruz and Rep. DeSantis Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Impose Term Limits on Members of Congress.” cruz.senate.gov, January 3, 2017. Net. https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/...
May 15, 2022
Amoralists -- Jim Jordan -- Part Five -- "It's intentional"
President Joe Biden has already ordered significant changes to US immigration policy. But he has not issued an order that Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan claims he did.
Jordan said on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday [January 2021] that Biden issued a new order to release "all" undocumented immigrants. Similarly, Jordan said in a Monday interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Biden "has decided he's going to release 14,000 illegals." Fourteen thousand is the approximate number of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention around the country.
Jordan's source for these assertions was a viral article on conservative website Breitbart News – which has been shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook alone -- about an email sent on Thursday morning by an ICE official in Houston.
The email included the words "release them all, immediately." But Breitbart and then Jordan took the words way out of context.
Facts First: Neither Biden nor his administration has ordered the release of everybody in ICE detention; ICE confirmed to CNN that the viral claim is inaccurate. The Department of Justice said in a Monday court filing that certain immigrants recently released by ICE in Texas were people particularly vulnerable to harm from Covid-19, who have special pandemic-era protections under a court order from last year. The "release them all, immediately" directive in Houston -- which was rescinded in another internal email the next day -- was about these high-risk detainees in particular, an ICE official said in yet another internal email.
We don't have the full story about what happened with these Texas releases or with the email exchange. But it's already clear that there is no basis for the claim that Biden has mandated a mass release of every single person in ICE facilities across the US.
ICE said in a statement that it "continues to make custody determinations on a case by case basis." An ICE official who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity confirmed explicitly that there is no Biden order to release everyone.
A spokesman for Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
…
The Thursday email that sparked the controversy was written by an "assistant officer in charge" of enforcement and removal operations in ICE's Houston field office, whose name was redacted in the Justice Department court filing. The email said that they needed to stop removing immigrants from the country by midnight -- Biden's administration had ordered a 100-day deportation freeze to take effect no later than Friday -- and then continued: "Check the HRD at 1300hrs for new review decisions. Release them all, immediately."
Contrary to the Breitbart article, that did not mean that all undocumented immigrants around the country, or even at any Houston facility, were to be released immediately.
Rather, according to another internal email released by the Justice Department in court, "HRD means High risk detainees" -- specifically, detainees at high risk for Covid-19.
This Friday email, written by an ICE assistant director whose name was also redacted, explained that the high-risk detainees "are Fraihat cases." Faour Abdallah Fraihat is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that led a judge to order ICE last year to identify, monitor, and consider the release of detainees at elevated risk of severe harm from the coronavirus.
The Friday email said that ICE had been keeping some high-risk people in detention because "their removal was imminent." After Biden's freeze prevented these imminent deportations, however, ICE had to decide whether to keep the people in detention or let them go within the US. (Releasing people from detention does not mean they will never be deported.) (Dale 102).
House Republicans are planning to use an oversight hearing next week to attack the Biden administration on its immigration policies, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times that offers a road map for how the G.O.P. intends to further weaponize an issue that is already a main thrust of their midterm campaign message against Democrats.
The detailed, 60-page guidance memo includes misleading and provocative talking points that seek to portray migrants and refugees as perpetrators of gruesome crimes, especially those involving sexual assault, echoing the language that former President Donald J. Trump used to denigrate immigrants. It also argues that the Biden administration has been lax on illegal immigration, seeking to put Democrats on the defensive on the issue.
It comes as Democrats are growing increasingly concerned that President Biden’s immigration policies, including the recent decision to lift pandemic-era border restrictions next month, could pose a political liability for them ahead of the midterm elections.
The memo — which is marked “CONFIDENTIAL — FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY” — repeatedly insinuates that immigrants could be sex offenders, highlighting a handful of arrests at the southwestern border and of Afghan evacuees. It also misrepresents a Biden administration policy designed to humanely enforce immigration laws as one that would bar law enforcement from surveilling sex offenders near schoolyards.
Studies show that the estimated 40 million immigrants living in the United States commit crimes at rates far lower than native-born Americans.
Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, is set to testify Thursday [April 28, 2022] for the first time in front of the House Judiciary Committee, just as the administration is bracing itself for a surge of migrants expected to make asylum claims at the border in late May. That is when a public health rule limiting border crossings because of the pandemic, known as Title 42, is scheduled to be lifted, unleashing a two-year backlog of claims on top of the high volume of migrants who typically come to the southwestern border in the spring.
The memo for Republicans, prepared by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking member on the committee, details how the right plans to use the hearing to portray Democrats as pushing “far-left policies” that seek to abolish all immigration enforcement and even “encourage” illegal immigration.
While Mr. Jordan’s memo was circulated confidentially among Republicans, he posted on Twitter that he planned to grill Mr. Mayorkas on Title 42 and other immigration issues (Karni and Broadwater 1-2).
For the past two years, the federal government has turned away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, including those who are seeking asylum, using a public emergency health order known as Title 42. It was launched by the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic and continued under the Biden administration.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that it plans to end Title 42 on May 23 because COVID-19 cases have decreased and vaccines are widely available. But that date is now in question because of Republican-led lawsuits aimed at keeping the policy in place.
What started as an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 across the border has turned into a fierce debate over whether Title 42 should be continued as an immigration tool to block migrants from claiming asylum.
…
According to The New York Times, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, had pushed the idea to invoke Title 42 at the U.S.-Mexico border as early as 2018, long before COVID-19 emerged.
…
[If Title 42 is rescinded] rather than sending migrants directly to Mexico, immigration officials will process migrants arriving and determine if they have a credible asylum case or whether they qualify for any other immigration benefits that allow them to enter the country. If not, immigration agents will hold the migrants and deport them to their home countries.
Some asylum-seekers will be placed in the Migrant Protection Protocols, another Trump-era policy that forces migrants to wait in Mexico as their immigration cases make their way through U.S. courts. The Biden administration has sought to scrap the program, known as “remain in Mexico,” only to have a federal judge order it to be reinstated following a lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments on whether the White House has the right to end it and is expected to issue a ruling this year (Garcia 1-2).
The … program, known commonly as Remain in Mexico and formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols, applies to people who left a third country and traveled through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. After the policy was put in place at the beginning of 2019, tens of thousands of people waited in unsanitary tent encampments for immigration hearings. There have been widespread reports of sexual assault, kidnapping and torture.
Soon after he took office, President Biden sought to end the program. Texas and Missouri sued, and lower courts have reinstated it, ruling that federal immigration laws require returning immigrants who arrive by land and who cannot be [returned] be detained while their cases are heard (Liptak 1).
Many of the attack lines previewed in the memo are not new. Rather, they appear to be pulled from the same political playbook that Republicans have used in recent election cycles. In 2018, Mr. Trump embraced a dark, anti-immigrant message to energize conservative voters ahead of the midterm elections, raising concerns about caravans of migrants he claimed were dangerous making their trek to the southern border. The method yielded mixed results: Democrats retook control of the House that year, while Republicans gained seats in the Senate.
But Republicans have continued to hammer on an issue that not only instills fear but has the added appeal for them of causing a split within the Democratic Party. According to Mr. Jordan’s memo, he plans to accuse the administration of prioritizing “illegal aliens over American citizens” by ending Title 42.
More than 100 mostly progressive Democrats have demanded that Mr. Biden lift the border restrictions, which they say his administration has used to abuse Black migrants, while centrist Democrats, including nearly a dozen in the Senate, have called for the restriction to stay in place.
White House officials have noted that ending the restriction simply means reverting to a standard immigration processing system that has been in place across multiple administrations. They have also pointed out that the result will be that more people are deported.
Still, the decision to end the pandemic-era border restrictions has sown worry among many Democratic lawmakers running for re-election in competitive districts. They have warned the administration that a surge in border crossings could feed voter anxiety in their districts about crime and chaos at the border.
Progressive Democrats counter that any effort to further extend the restrictions could depress turnout among Latino voters. In a recent poll conducted by the Immigration Hub, about 20 percent of Latino respondents said that immigration was the issue that would decide their vote.
…
Mr. Jordan’s document … suggests that just months after Republicans joined Democrats in pushing for legislation to help rush to the United States thousands of Afghans who were facing retribution for having helped American troops, the G.O.P. is demonizing such refugees (Karni and Broadwater 2-3).
Representative Jim Jordan accused on Thursday the Biden administration of 'deliberately' and 'intentionally' causing the southern border crisis as Republicans tore into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for being 'out of touch' and a 'traitor.'
The House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member said during his opening statement that Mayorkas will face questions on why he implemented policies that led to the chaos.
'It's intentional, it has to be,' Jordan said at the top of his remarks to the body on Thursday morning.
'The chaos on our southern border is not an accident,' the Ohio Republican congressman continued. 'It's deliberate, it's on purpose, it's by design.'
'President Biden on Day One said there'll be a moratorium on deportations, he ended Remain in Mexico, he terminated agreements with Northern Triangle countries and he stopped building the wall,' Jordan rattled off. 'Those policies, done intentionally, have led to all kinds of bad outcomes.'
He said: 'Americans want legal immigration. President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas want illegal immigration. They want illegal migrants to come, stay and never go home. Now, the secretary won't say that. In fact, he says everything's just fine. He said it yesterday in two congressional hearings. He said it last September. Quote, 'The border is secure,' he told us.'
Mayorkas appeared before the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday to justify the administration's request for $97.3 billion for the department's budget in Fiscal Year 2023.
He said the money would go toward investing in meeting the 'the shifting field landscape' at the border and on other national security fronts – like from domestic and foreign terrorism and cyber attacks.
During those hearings, Mayorkas was lambasted by Republicans after he said the administration is 'effectively managing' the situation at the southern border.
In March alone, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered 221,303 migrants crossing the southern border. This figure is the highest in more than two-decades and the biggest spike since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
The previous high was in July 2021, when CBP encountered 213,593 migrants.
Colorado Republican Representative Ken Buck told Mayorkas during the Judiciary hearing on Wednesday: 'My constituents want you impeached because they believe you've committed treason.'
…
Two months after the highest crossings of 2021, Mayorkas insisted that the border was secure and said that the administration was carrying out its plan at the southern crossings.
'Mr. Secretary, if over 200,000 a month and all of the ramifications that has with drugs coming into the country and other people coming into the country because our agents are so focused on that – if that's a secure border, then you are completely, completely out of touch with the American people,' Jordan charged.
'We have a secretary of Homeland Security who is intentionally, deliberately, in a premeditated fashion executing a plan, his words, executing a plan to overwhelm our country with millions and millions of illegal migrants,' he added.
'Executing a plan that causes all kinds of harm to people who make the journey, executing a plan that results in record levels of fentanyl and other drugs entering our nation, executing a plan that stresses our border agents, stresses our education and healthcare system, stresses out nation.'
'All done intentionally,' he concluded.
Jordan then played a three-and-a-half-minute video montage that ended with two slides reading: 'Every town is a border town' and 'The Biden administration owes you answers.'
The video featured news reports from local stations, Fox News and NewsNation that showed migrants dying trying to cross the border, terrorists making it through the barriers, U.S. border agents dying in the line of duty and a slew of drugs intercepted from smugglers (Caralle 1-2).
Works cited:
Caralle, Katlyn. “Republicans Tear into 'Out of Touch' DHS Secretary Mayorkas for 'DELIBERATELY Trying To Overwhelm the US with Millions of Illegal Migrants', Accuse Him of 'Treason' and Ask: 'Are You Ashamed of What You Have Done to This Country?'.” Daily Mail.com, April 28, 2022. Net. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
Dale, Daniel. “Fact check: Jim Jordan Falsely Claims Biden Ordered the Release of All Undocumented Immigrants.” CNN, January 28, 2021. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/27/politi...
Garcia, Uriel J. “Here’s What You Need To Know about Title 42, the Pandemic-Era Policy That Quickly Sends Migrants to Mexico.” Texas Tribune, April 29, 2022. Net. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/...
Karni, Annie and Broadwater, Luke. “G.O.P. Memo Shows Road Map for Attacking Democrats on Immigration.” New York Times, April 21, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us...
Liptak, Adam. “Supreme Court Struggles over Biden’s Bid To End ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program.” New York Times, April 26, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/us...
Jordan said on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday [January 2021] that Biden issued a new order to release "all" undocumented immigrants. Similarly, Jordan said in a Monday interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Biden "has decided he's going to release 14,000 illegals." Fourteen thousand is the approximate number of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention around the country.
Jordan's source for these assertions was a viral article on conservative website Breitbart News – which has been shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook alone -- about an email sent on Thursday morning by an ICE official in Houston.
The email included the words "release them all, immediately." But Breitbart and then Jordan took the words way out of context.
Facts First: Neither Biden nor his administration has ordered the release of everybody in ICE detention; ICE confirmed to CNN that the viral claim is inaccurate. The Department of Justice said in a Monday court filing that certain immigrants recently released by ICE in Texas were people particularly vulnerable to harm from Covid-19, who have special pandemic-era protections under a court order from last year. The "release them all, immediately" directive in Houston -- which was rescinded in another internal email the next day -- was about these high-risk detainees in particular, an ICE official said in yet another internal email.
We don't have the full story about what happened with these Texas releases or with the email exchange. But it's already clear that there is no basis for the claim that Biden has mandated a mass release of every single person in ICE facilities across the US.
ICE said in a statement that it "continues to make custody determinations on a case by case basis." An ICE official who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity confirmed explicitly that there is no Biden order to release everyone.
A spokesman for Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
…
The Thursday email that sparked the controversy was written by an "assistant officer in charge" of enforcement and removal operations in ICE's Houston field office, whose name was redacted in the Justice Department court filing. The email said that they needed to stop removing immigrants from the country by midnight -- Biden's administration had ordered a 100-day deportation freeze to take effect no later than Friday -- and then continued: "Check the HRD at 1300hrs for new review decisions. Release them all, immediately."
Contrary to the Breitbart article, that did not mean that all undocumented immigrants around the country, or even at any Houston facility, were to be released immediately.
Rather, according to another internal email released by the Justice Department in court, "HRD means High risk detainees" -- specifically, detainees at high risk for Covid-19.
This Friday email, written by an ICE assistant director whose name was also redacted, explained that the high-risk detainees "are Fraihat cases." Faour Abdallah Fraihat is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that led a judge to order ICE last year to identify, monitor, and consider the release of detainees at elevated risk of severe harm from the coronavirus.
The Friday email said that ICE had been keeping some high-risk people in detention because "their removal was imminent." After Biden's freeze prevented these imminent deportations, however, ICE had to decide whether to keep the people in detention or let them go within the US. (Releasing people from detention does not mean they will never be deported.) (Dale 102).
House Republicans are planning to use an oversight hearing next week to attack the Biden administration on its immigration policies, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times that offers a road map for how the G.O.P. intends to further weaponize an issue that is already a main thrust of their midterm campaign message against Democrats.
The detailed, 60-page guidance memo includes misleading and provocative talking points that seek to portray migrants and refugees as perpetrators of gruesome crimes, especially those involving sexual assault, echoing the language that former President Donald J. Trump used to denigrate immigrants. It also argues that the Biden administration has been lax on illegal immigration, seeking to put Democrats on the defensive on the issue.
It comes as Democrats are growing increasingly concerned that President Biden’s immigration policies, including the recent decision to lift pandemic-era border restrictions next month, could pose a political liability for them ahead of the midterm elections.
The memo — which is marked “CONFIDENTIAL — FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY” — repeatedly insinuates that immigrants could be sex offenders, highlighting a handful of arrests at the southwestern border and of Afghan evacuees. It also misrepresents a Biden administration policy designed to humanely enforce immigration laws as one that would bar law enforcement from surveilling sex offenders near schoolyards.
Studies show that the estimated 40 million immigrants living in the United States commit crimes at rates far lower than native-born Americans.
Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, is set to testify Thursday [April 28, 2022] for the first time in front of the House Judiciary Committee, just as the administration is bracing itself for a surge of migrants expected to make asylum claims at the border in late May. That is when a public health rule limiting border crossings because of the pandemic, known as Title 42, is scheduled to be lifted, unleashing a two-year backlog of claims on top of the high volume of migrants who typically come to the southwestern border in the spring.
The memo for Republicans, prepared by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking member on the committee, details how the right plans to use the hearing to portray Democrats as pushing “far-left policies” that seek to abolish all immigration enforcement and even “encourage” illegal immigration.
While Mr. Jordan’s memo was circulated confidentially among Republicans, he posted on Twitter that he planned to grill Mr. Mayorkas on Title 42 and other immigration issues (Karni and Broadwater 1-2).
For the past two years, the federal government has turned away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, including those who are seeking asylum, using a public emergency health order known as Title 42. It was launched by the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic and continued under the Biden administration.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that it plans to end Title 42 on May 23 because COVID-19 cases have decreased and vaccines are widely available. But that date is now in question because of Republican-led lawsuits aimed at keeping the policy in place.
What started as an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 across the border has turned into a fierce debate over whether Title 42 should be continued as an immigration tool to block migrants from claiming asylum.
…
According to The New York Times, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, had pushed the idea to invoke Title 42 at the U.S.-Mexico border as early as 2018, long before COVID-19 emerged.
…
[If Title 42 is rescinded] rather than sending migrants directly to Mexico, immigration officials will process migrants arriving and determine if they have a credible asylum case or whether they qualify for any other immigration benefits that allow them to enter the country. If not, immigration agents will hold the migrants and deport them to their home countries.
Some asylum-seekers will be placed in the Migrant Protection Protocols, another Trump-era policy that forces migrants to wait in Mexico as their immigration cases make their way through U.S. courts. The Biden administration has sought to scrap the program, known as “remain in Mexico,” only to have a federal judge order it to be reinstated following a lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments on whether the White House has the right to end it and is expected to issue a ruling this year (Garcia 1-2).
The … program, known commonly as Remain in Mexico and formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols, applies to people who left a third country and traveled through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. After the policy was put in place at the beginning of 2019, tens of thousands of people waited in unsanitary tent encampments for immigration hearings. There have been widespread reports of sexual assault, kidnapping and torture.
Soon after he took office, President Biden sought to end the program. Texas and Missouri sued, and lower courts have reinstated it, ruling that federal immigration laws require returning immigrants who arrive by land and who cannot be [returned] be detained while their cases are heard (Liptak 1).
Many of the attack lines previewed in the memo are not new. Rather, they appear to be pulled from the same political playbook that Republicans have used in recent election cycles. In 2018, Mr. Trump embraced a dark, anti-immigrant message to energize conservative voters ahead of the midterm elections, raising concerns about caravans of migrants he claimed were dangerous making their trek to the southern border. The method yielded mixed results: Democrats retook control of the House that year, while Republicans gained seats in the Senate.
But Republicans have continued to hammer on an issue that not only instills fear but has the added appeal for them of causing a split within the Democratic Party. According to Mr. Jordan’s memo, he plans to accuse the administration of prioritizing “illegal aliens over American citizens” by ending Title 42.
More than 100 mostly progressive Democrats have demanded that Mr. Biden lift the border restrictions, which they say his administration has used to abuse Black migrants, while centrist Democrats, including nearly a dozen in the Senate, have called for the restriction to stay in place.
White House officials have noted that ending the restriction simply means reverting to a standard immigration processing system that has been in place across multiple administrations. They have also pointed out that the result will be that more people are deported.
Still, the decision to end the pandemic-era border restrictions has sown worry among many Democratic lawmakers running for re-election in competitive districts. They have warned the administration that a surge in border crossings could feed voter anxiety in their districts about crime and chaos at the border.
Progressive Democrats counter that any effort to further extend the restrictions could depress turnout among Latino voters. In a recent poll conducted by the Immigration Hub, about 20 percent of Latino respondents said that immigration was the issue that would decide their vote.
…
Mr. Jordan’s document … suggests that just months after Republicans joined Democrats in pushing for legislation to help rush to the United States thousands of Afghans who were facing retribution for having helped American troops, the G.O.P. is demonizing such refugees (Karni and Broadwater 2-3).
Representative Jim Jordan accused on Thursday the Biden administration of 'deliberately' and 'intentionally' causing the southern border crisis as Republicans tore into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for being 'out of touch' and a 'traitor.'
The House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member said during his opening statement that Mayorkas will face questions on why he implemented policies that led to the chaos.
'It's intentional, it has to be,' Jordan said at the top of his remarks to the body on Thursday morning.
'The chaos on our southern border is not an accident,' the Ohio Republican congressman continued. 'It's deliberate, it's on purpose, it's by design.'
'President Biden on Day One said there'll be a moratorium on deportations, he ended Remain in Mexico, he terminated agreements with Northern Triangle countries and he stopped building the wall,' Jordan rattled off. 'Those policies, done intentionally, have led to all kinds of bad outcomes.'
He said: 'Americans want legal immigration. President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas want illegal immigration. They want illegal migrants to come, stay and never go home. Now, the secretary won't say that. In fact, he says everything's just fine. He said it yesterday in two congressional hearings. He said it last September. Quote, 'The border is secure,' he told us.'
Mayorkas appeared before the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday to justify the administration's request for $97.3 billion for the department's budget in Fiscal Year 2023.
He said the money would go toward investing in meeting the 'the shifting field landscape' at the border and on other national security fronts – like from domestic and foreign terrorism and cyber attacks.
During those hearings, Mayorkas was lambasted by Republicans after he said the administration is 'effectively managing' the situation at the southern border.
In March alone, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered 221,303 migrants crossing the southern border. This figure is the highest in more than two-decades and the biggest spike since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
The previous high was in July 2021, when CBP encountered 213,593 migrants.
Colorado Republican Representative Ken Buck told Mayorkas during the Judiciary hearing on Wednesday: 'My constituents want you impeached because they believe you've committed treason.'
…
Two months after the highest crossings of 2021, Mayorkas insisted that the border was secure and said that the administration was carrying out its plan at the southern crossings.
'Mr. Secretary, if over 200,000 a month and all of the ramifications that has with drugs coming into the country and other people coming into the country because our agents are so focused on that – if that's a secure border, then you are completely, completely out of touch with the American people,' Jordan charged.
'We have a secretary of Homeland Security who is intentionally, deliberately, in a premeditated fashion executing a plan, his words, executing a plan to overwhelm our country with millions and millions of illegal migrants,' he added.
'Executing a plan that causes all kinds of harm to people who make the journey, executing a plan that results in record levels of fentanyl and other drugs entering our nation, executing a plan that stresses our border agents, stresses our education and healthcare system, stresses out nation.'
'All done intentionally,' he concluded.
Jordan then played a three-and-a-half-minute video montage that ended with two slides reading: 'Every town is a border town' and 'The Biden administration owes you answers.'
The video featured news reports from local stations, Fox News and NewsNation that showed migrants dying trying to cross the border, terrorists making it through the barriers, U.S. border agents dying in the line of duty and a slew of drugs intercepted from smugglers (Caralle 1-2).
Works cited:
Caralle, Katlyn. “Republicans Tear into 'Out of Touch' DHS Secretary Mayorkas for 'DELIBERATELY Trying To Overwhelm the US with Millions of Illegal Migrants', Accuse Him of 'Treason' and Ask: 'Are You Ashamed of What You Have Done to This Country?'.” Daily Mail.com, April 28, 2022. Net. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
Dale, Daniel. “Fact check: Jim Jordan Falsely Claims Biden Ordered the Release of All Undocumented Immigrants.” CNN, January 28, 2021. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/27/politi...
Garcia, Uriel J. “Here’s What You Need To Know about Title 42, the Pandemic-Era Policy That Quickly Sends Migrants to Mexico.” Texas Tribune, April 29, 2022. Net. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/...
Karni, Annie and Broadwater, Luke. “G.O.P. Memo Shows Road Map for Attacking Democrats on Immigration.” New York Times, April 21, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us...
Liptak, Adam. “Supreme Court Struggles over Biden’s Bid To End ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program.” New York Times, April 26, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/us...
May 12, 2022
Amoralists -- Jim Jordan -- Part Four -- January 6
Over the course of the past year, congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has engaged in a systematic effort to cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He also led efforts to create an image in the minds of Trump supporters of Jan. 6 as the “ultimate date of significance” (his words, repeated several times). He helped spearhead the effort to oppose certification of the election in Congress. He has continued to promote the “Big Lie” even after the events on Jan. 6 and subsequent FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warnings that this conspiracy is propelling domestic violent extremists.
What follows is a comprehensive Timeline of Rep. Jordan’s public statements (in Congress, in public, on social media, and in media interviews) and his known activities related to the presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The following fifteen highlights are from the Timeline below.
Congressman Jordan took the following actions:
1. Suggested Democrats will try to steal the election (starting Aug. 22, 2020)
2. Suggested and directly alleged the election was stolen (starting Nov. 5, 2020)
3. Endorsed Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell’s call to investigate Dominion and Smartmatic (starting Nov. 15, 2020)
4. Called for immediate congressional investigations of alleged election fraud (starting Nov. 18, 2020)
5. Endorsed state legislators’ picking their own electors (starting Dec. 7, 2020)
6. Said Trump should not concede (starting Dec. 7, 2020)
7. Started public call to object to certification on Jan. 6 (starting Dec. 13, 2020)
8. Supported call for “special counsel” to investigate alleged election fraud (starting Dec. 10, 2020)
9. Called Jan. 6 the “ultimate date of significance” (Dec. 16, 2020)
10. Met with President Trump and small group of House Republicans to coordinate plans to object to certification on January 6 (Dec. 21, 2020)
11. Raised Trump supporters’ expectations by saying he hoped a majority of Congress will object on January 6 (Jan. 5, 2021)
12. Helped lead the effort to vote against certification on January 6 (starting Dec. 13, 2020)
13. Called for Trump supporters to remain peaceful, but does not say to disperse (Jan. 6, 2021 3:02 PM)
14. Made false claims about Speaker Pelosi and security preparations for January 6 (starting Feb. 15, 2021)
15. Revealed for the first time that he spoke with President Trump on Jan. 6 (July 28, 2021)
This course of conduct arguably sets Rep. Jordan apart from every other Republican member of Congress who supported the Big Lie, voted to object to the certification of the election, or engaged in other related activities.
Jordan’s impact on broadcast and social media is extraordinary. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, as well as Newsmax and OAN, and advanced false claims about the election on all three networks. Of the 147 Republican members of Congress who opposed the certification of the election, Jordan was “the most prolific Fox guest,” according to an analysis by Media Matters, a non-profit organization that monitors conservative misinformation. He fielded close to 10% of all appearances by those GOP members since January 6. And while Jordan lost nearly 150,000 Twitter followers in a post-January purge of accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy, the most of any Republican lawmaker, he retains more than 2 million followers. Many of his tweets have been shared more than 10,000 times and liked over 50,000 times.
On or before Jan. 4, President Donald Trump reportedly decided to award Rep. Jordan the Medal of Freedom. On Jan. 11, Jordan received his Medal of Freedom at the White House in a ceremony with no media present (Hendrix, Tonckens, Venkatachalam 1-2).
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan slammed the “double standards” of Democrats on Wednesday morning as the House moves to impeach President Trump for a second time — noting their own efforts to undermine the 2016 election.
In a fiery speech on the House floor, Jordan (R-Ohio), an ardent Trump confidante, noted that many of the Democrats leading the impeachment charge objected to Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.
…
The president is accused of inciting an insurrection when thousands of his supporters stormed Congress last Wednesday to interrupt a vote certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, leaving five people dead.
Several Republican lawmakers objected to Biden’s victory in key swing states and called for a commission to be established to investigate election fraud, something Jordan is still pushing for.
…
“Americans are tired of the double standard. They are so tired of it,” he said.
“Democrats objected to more states in 2016 than Republicans did last week, but somehow we’re wrong?” he went on, noting that Democrats had spent four years investigating Trump but refused to look at an election that millions of people had doubts about.
McGovern immediately pushed back on Jordan, claiming that their 2016 protest vote was intended to “raise concerns about what all of our intelligence agencies had stated clearly that Russia interfered in our election.”
“What the gentleman fails to acknowledge is that we all acknowledged that Donald Trump was the president the day after the election,” McGovern said.
“Hillary Clinton conceded the day after the election and none of us pushed conspiracy theories like some of my friends on the other side of the aisle and has the president that somehow the president won in a landslide. Give me a break,” he went on (Bowden 1).
Donald J. Trump on Wednesday became the first American president to be impeached twice, as 10 members of his party joined with Democrats in the House to charge him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in egging on a violent mob that stormed the Capitol last week.
Reconvening in a building now heavily militarized against threats from pro-Trump activists and adorned with bunting for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., lawmakers voted 232 to 197 to approve a single impeachment. It accused Mr. Trump of “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in his quest to overturn the election results, and called for him to be removed and disqualified from ever holding public office again.
…
In the House, Democrats and Republicans who supported his ouster made no attempt to hide their fury at Mr. Trump, who was said to have enjoyed watching the attack play out on television as lawmakers pleaded for help. …
…
After four years of nearly unquestioning alliance with him, few Republicans defended Mr. Trump’s actions outright. Those who did resorted to a familiar set of false equivalencies, pointing to racial justice protests last summer that turned violent and accusations that Democrats had mistreated the president and were trying to stifle the 74 million Americans who voted for him.
“It’s always been about getting the president, no matter what,” Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, shot across the room at Democrats. “It’s an obsession — an obsession that has now broadened. It’s not just about impeachment anymore, it’s about canceling, as I’ve said. Canceling the president and anyone that disagrees with them” (Fandos “Trump” 3).
The House voted mostly along party lines on Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, pushing ahead over near-unanimous Republican opposition with a broad inquiry controlled by Democrats into the deadliest attack on Congress in centuries.
The panel, established at the behest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of a bipartisan independent commission to scrutinize the assault, will investigate what its organizing resolution calls “the facts, circumstances and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack.”
The 13-member panel, which has subpoena power, will have eight members named by the majority party and five with input from Republican, and is meant to examine President Donald J. Trump’s role in inspiring the riot. While the measure creating it does not mention him, it charges the committee with looking at the law enforcement and government response to the storming of the Capitol and “the influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process” (Broadwater “House” 1).
The two House Republicans Speaker Nancy Pelosi barred from a select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol are both staunch defenders of former President Donald J. Trump who backed his efforts to invalidate the election and have opposed investigating the assault on Congress.
Ms. Pelosi said she had decided to disqualify Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks of Indiana because of widespread Democratic dismay about “statements made and actions taken by these members.”
Her decision enraged Republican leaders, who announced that they would boycott the investigation altogether. But Democrats insisted that the pair’s support for the election lies that fueled the deadly attack and their subsequent statements downplaying the violence that occurred that day were disqualifying.
Here is [some] … of what … Jordan] said.
“Americans instinctively know there was something wrong with this election,” Mr. Jordan said, arguing for invalidating electoral votes for Mr. Biden on Jan. 6. “During the campaign, Vice President Biden would do an event and he’d get 50 people at the event. President Trump at just one rally gets 50,000 people.”
Mr. Jordan has repeatedly sought to equate the attack on the Capitol to unrest around last summer’s racial justice protests, and accused Democrats of hypocritically trying to punish Mr. Trump for the riot while refusing to condemn left-wing violence. He signaled that he would use the Jan. 6 investigation to push that narrative.
“I think it’s important to point out that Democrats created this environment, sort of normalizing rioting, normalizing looting, normalizing anarchy, in the summer of 2020, and I think that’s an important piece of information to look into,” Mr. Jordan said this week.
He also said the select committee was a politically motivated effort to harm Mr. Trump, calling it “impeachment Round 3” (Fandos “Why” 1-2).
Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, announced on Sunday that he was refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, joining a growing list of allies of former President Donald J. Trump who have adopted a hostile stance toward the panel’s questions.
In an effort to dig into the role that members of Congress played in trying to undermine the 2020 election, the committee informed Mr. Jordan in December [2021] by Letter that its investigators wanted to question him about his communications related to the run-up to the Capitol riot. Those include Mr. Jordan’s messages with Mr. Trump and his legal team as well as others involved in planning rallies on Jan. 6 and congressional objections to certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.
Mr. Jordan — who in November told the Rules Committee that he had “nothing to hide” regarding the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation — on Sunday denounced the bipartisan panel’s inquiry as among what he called the Democrats’ “partisan witch hunts.”
“It amounts to an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending before the House of Representatives,” Mr. Jordan wrote in a letter to Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the committee. “This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry, violates core constitutional principles and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”
Mr. Jordan was deeply involved in Mr. Trump’s effort to fight the election results, including participating in planning meetings in November 2020 at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and a meeting at the White House in December 2020.
On Jan. 5, Mr. Jordan forwarded to Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, a text message he had received from a lawyer and former Pentagon inspector general outlining a legal strategy to overturn the election.
“On Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence,” the text read.
Mr. Jordan has acknowledged speaking with Mr. Trump on Jan. 6, though he has said he cannot remember how many times they spoke that day or when the calls occurred.
Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the committee, has said that Mr. Jordan is a “material witness” to the events of Jan. 6 (Broadwater “Jim” 2).
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) just had a very telling little meltdown on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” ranting against the makeup of the House Jan. 6 select committee staff. His big concern? The committee has brought in too many former prosecutors. This is not a criminal investigation, he says.
Jordan’s criticism is both irrelevant and ignorant; perhaps, more generously, he’s playing provocateur.
The committee has staffed up with 14 or so ex-prosecutors because: a) the task is vast; b) they have the resources to hire well-trained lawyers who have handled complex federal cases; and c) typical congressional staffers just can’t handle such a colossal undertaking. In other words, Jordan and other Trump World lackeys are facing their worst possible nightmare in the mother of all congressional investigations.
Jordan’s rant comes after his infamous, tongue-tied “hummina, hummina” moment when an Ohio reporter asked him on camera if he had spoken to the president on Jan. 6 “before, during or after the attack on the Capitol.” Jordan’s squirming response suggested that he was afraid the reporter was going to pin him down where Jordan didn’t want to be pinned.
It also comes after a Just Security report from August detailed just how central a role Jordan played in aiding and abetting Trump’s misinformation campaign before and after the election, his lead role in spreading Trump’s “Big Lie,” and his furtive efforts to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president.
…
In recent weeks, details have emerged about what happened leading up to and on Jan. 6. Many are surprised at how clear the picture is becoming. I’m sure that hasn’t been lost on Jordan and other likely culprits in Trump World.
In the weeks ahead, as that picture becomes ever clearer, I expect the decibel level of the squealing to go higher (Kolesnik 1,3).
Works cited:
Bowden, Ebony. “Jim Jordan Slams Dems’ ‘Double Standards’ at Trump Impeachment Vote.” New York Post, January 13, 2021. Net. https://nypost.com/2021/01/13/jim-jor...
Broadwater, Luke. “House Opens Jan. 6 Investigation over Republican Opposition.” New York Times, updated July 27, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/us...
Broadwater, Luke. “Jim Jordan Refuses To Cooperate with Jan. 6 Panel.” New York Times, January 9, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/us...
Fandos, Nicholas. “Trump Impeached for Inciting Insurrection.” New York Times, updated April 22, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us...
Fandos, Nicholas. “Why Jim Banks and Jim Jordan Were Blocked from the Capitol Riot Panel.” New York Times, updated July 27, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/us...
Hendirx, Justin; Tonckens, Nicholas; Venkatachalam, Sruthi. “Timeline: Rep. Jim Jordan, a Systematic Disinformation Campaign, and January 6.” Just Security. August 29, 2021. Net. https://www.justsecurity.org/77852/ti...
Kolesnik, Kris. “The Real Reason Jim Jordan Is Ranting against Jan. 6 Committee Staff.” The Hill, February 15, 2022. Net. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-...
What follows is a comprehensive Timeline of Rep. Jordan’s public statements (in Congress, in public, on social media, and in media interviews) and his known activities related to the presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The following fifteen highlights are from the Timeline below.
Congressman Jordan took the following actions:
1. Suggested Democrats will try to steal the election (starting Aug. 22, 2020)
2. Suggested and directly alleged the election was stolen (starting Nov. 5, 2020)
3. Endorsed Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell’s call to investigate Dominion and Smartmatic (starting Nov. 15, 2020)
4. Called for immediate congressional investigations of alleged election fraud (starting Nov. 18, 2020)
5. Endorsed state legislators’ picking their own electors (starting Dec. 7, 2020)
6. Said Trump should not concede (starting Dec. 7, 2020)
7. Started public call to object to certification on Jan. 6 (starting Dec. 13, 2020)
8. Supported call for “special counsel” to investigate alleged election fraud (starting Dec. 10, 2020)
9. Called Jan. 6 the “ultimate date of significance” (Dec. 16, 2020)
10. Met with President Trump and small group of House Republicans to coordinate plans to object to certification on January 6 (Dec. 21, 2020)
11. Raised Trump supporters’ expectations by saying he hoped a majority of Congress will object on January 6 (Jan. 5, 2021)
12. Helped lead the effort to vote against certification on January 6 (starting Dec. 13, 2020)
13. Called for Trump supporters to remain peaceful, but does not say to disperse (Jan. 6, 2021 3:02 PM)
14. Made false claims about Speaker Pelosi and security preparations for January 6 (starting Feb. 15, 2021)
15. Revealed for the first time that he spoke with President Trump on Jan. 6 (July 28, 2021)
This course of conduct arguably sets Rep. Jordan apart from every other Republican member of Congress who supported the Big Lie, voted to object to the certification of the election, or engaged in other related activities.
Jordan’s impact on broadcast and social media is extraordinary. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, as well as Newsmax and OAN, and advanced false claims about the election on all three networks. Of the 147 Republican members of Congress who opposed the certification of the election, Jordan was “the most prolific Fox guest,” according to an analysis by Media Matters, a non-profit organization that monitors conservative misinformation. He fielded close to 10% of all appearances by those GOP members since January 6. And while Jordan lost nearly 150,000 Twitter followers in a post-January purge of accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy, the most of any Republican lawmaker, he retains more than 2 million followers. Many of his tweets have been shared more than 10,000 times and liked over 50,000 times.
On or before Jan. 4, President Donald Trump reportedly decided to award Rep. Jordan the Medal of Freedom. On Jan. 11, Jordan received his Medal of Freedom at the White House in a ceremony with no media present (Hendrix, Tonckens, Venkatachalam 1-2).
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan slammed the “double standards” of Democrats on Wednesday morning as the House moves to impeach President Trump for a second time — noting their own efforts to undermine the 2016 election.
In a fiery speech on the House floor, Jordan (R-Ohio), an ardent Trump confidante, noted that many of the Democrats leading the impeachment charge objected to Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.
…
The president is accused of inciting an insurrection when thousands of his supporters stormed Congress last Wednesday to interrupt a vote certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, leaving five people dead.
Several Republican lawmakers objected to Biden’s victory in key swing states and called for a commission to be established to investigate election fraud, something Jordan is still pushing for.
…
“Americans are tired of the double standard. They are so tired of it,” he said.
“Democrats objected to more states in 2016 than Republicans did last week, but somehow we’re wrong?” he went on, noting that Democrats had spent four years investigating Trump but refused to look at an election that millions of people had doubts about.
McGovern immediately pushed back on Jordan, claiming that their 2016 protest vote was intended to “raise concerns about what all of our intelligence agencies had stated clearly that Russia interfered in our election.”
“What the gentleman fails to acknowledge is that we all acknowledged that Donald Trump was the president the day after the election,” McGovern said.
“Hillary Clinton conceded the day after the election and none of us pushed conspiracy theories like some of my friends on the other side of the aisle and has the president that somehow the president won in a landslide. Give me a break,” he went on (Bowden 1).
Donald J. Trump on Wednesday became the first American president to be impeached twice, as 10 members of his party joined with Democrats in the House to charge him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in egging on a violent mob that stormed the Capitol last week.
Reconvening in a building now heavily militarized against threats from pro-Trump activists and adorned with bunting for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., lawmakers voted 232 to 197 to approve a single impeachment. It accused Mr. Trump of “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in his quest to overturn the election results, and called for him to be removed and disqualified from ever holding public office again.
…
In the House, Democrats and Republicans who supported his ouster made no attempt to hide their fury at Mr. Trump, who was said to have enjoyed watching the attack play out on television as lawmakers pleaded for help. …
…
After four years of nearly unquestioning alliance with him, few Republicans defended Mr. Trump’s actions outright. Those who did resorted to a familiar set of false equivalencies, pointing to racial justice protests last summer that turned violent and accusations that Democrats had mistreated the president and were trying to stifle the 74 million Americans who voted for him.
“It’s always been about getting the president, no matter what,” Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, shot across the room at Democrats. “It’s an obsession — an obsession that has now broadened. It’s not just about impeachment anymore, it’s about canceling, as I’ve said. Canceling the president and anyone that disagrees with them” (Fandos “Trump” 3).
The House voted mostly along party lines on Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, pushing ahead over near-unanimous Republican opposition with a broad inquiry controlled by Democrats into the deadliest attack on Congress in centuries.
The panel, established at the behest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of a bipartisan independent commission to scrutinize the assault, will investigate what its organizing resolution calls “the facts, circumstances and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack.”
The 13-member panel, which has subpoena power, will have eight members named by the majority party and five with input from Republican, and is meant to examine President Donald J. Trump’s role in inspiring the riot. While the measure creating it does not mention him, it charges the committee with looking at the law enforcement and government response to the storming of the Capitol and “the influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process” (Broadwater “House” 1).
The two House Republicans Speaker Nancy Pelosi barred from a select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol are both staunch defenders of former President Donald J. Trump who backed his efforts to invalidate the election and have opposed investigating the assault on Congress.
Ms. Pelosi said she had decided to disqualify Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks of Indiana because of widespread Democratic dismay about “statements made and actions taken by these members.”
Her decision enraged Republican leaders, who announced that they would boycott the investigation altogether. But Democrats insisted that the pair’s support for the election lies that fueled the deadly attack and their subsequent statements downplaying the violence that occurred that day were disqualifying.
Here is [some] … of what … Jordan] said.
“Americans instinctively know there was something wrong with this election,” Mr. Jordan said, arguing for invalidating electoral votes for Mr. Biden on Jan. 6. “During the campaign, Vice President Biden would do an event and he’d get 50 people at the event. President Trump at just one rally gets 50,000 people.”
Mr. Jordan has repeatedly sought to equate the attack on the Capitol to unrest around last summer’s racial justice protests, and accused Democrats of hypocritically trying to punish Mr. Trump for the riot while refusing to condemn left-wing violence. He signaled that he would use the Jan. 6 investigation to push that narrative.
“I think it’s important to point out that Democrats created this environment, sort of normalizing rioting, normalizing looting, normalizing anarchy, in the summer of 2020, and I think that’s an important piece of information to look into,” Mr. Jordan said this week.
He also said the select committee was a politically motivated effort to harm Mr. Trump, calling it “impeachment Round 3” (Fandos “Why” 1-2).
Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, announced on Sunday that he was refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, joining a growing list of allies of former President Donald J. Trump who have adopted a hostile stance toward the panel’s questions.
In an effort to dig into the role that members of Congress played in trying to undermine the 2020 election, the committee informed Mr. Jordan in December [2021] by Letter that its investigators wanted to question him about his communications related to the run-up to the Capitol riot. Those include Mr. Jordan’s messages with Mr. Trump and his legal team as well as others involved in planning rallies on Jan. 6 and congressional objections to certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.
Mr. Jordan — who in November told the Rules Committee that he had “nothing to hide” regarding the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation — on Sunday denounced the bipartisan panel’s inquiry as among what he called the Democrats’ “partisan witch hunts.”
“It amounts to an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending before the House of Representatives,” Mr. Jordan wrote in a letter to Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the committee. “This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry, violates core constitutional principles and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”
Mr. Jordan was deeply involved in Mr. Trump’s effort to fight the election results, including participating in planning meetings in November 2020 at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and a meeting at the White House in December 2020.
On Jan. 5, Mr. Jordan forwarded to Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, a text message he had received from a lawyer and former Pentagon inspector general outlining a legal strategy to overturn the election.
“On Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence,” the text read.
Mr. Jordan has acknowledged speaking with Mr. Trump on Jan. 6, though he has said he cannot remember how many times they spoke that day or when the calls occurred.
Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the committee, has said that Mr. Jordan is a “material witness” to the events of Jan. 6 (Broadwater “Jim” 2).
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) just had a very telling little meltdown on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” ranting against the makeup of the House Jan. 6 select committee staff. His big concern? The committee has brought in too many former prosecutors. This is not a criminal investigation, he says.
Jordan’s criticism is both irrelevant and ignorant; perhaps, more generously, he’s playing provocateur.
The committee has staffed up with 14 or so ex-prosecutors because: a) the task is vast; b) they have the resources to hire well-trained lawyers who have handled complex federal cases; and c) typical congressional staffers just can’t handle such a colossal undertaking. In other words, Jordan and other Trump World lackeys are facing their worst possible nightmare in the mother of all congressional investigations.
Jordan’s rant comes after his infamous, tongue-tied “hummina, hummina” moment when an Ohio reporter asked him on camera if he had spoken to the president on Jan. 6 “before, during or after the attack on the Capitol.” Jordan’s squirming response suggested that he was afraid the reporter was going to pin him down where Jordan didn’t want to be pinned.
It also comes after a Just Security report from August detailed just how central a role Jordan played in aiding and abetting Trump’s misinformation campaign before and after the election, his lead role in spreading Trump’s “Big Lie,” and his furtive efforts to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president.
…
In recent weeks, details have emerged about what happened leading up to and on Jan. 6. Many are surprised at how clear the picture is becoming. I’m sure that hasn’t been lost on Jordan and other likely culprits in Trump World.
In the weeks ahead, as that picture becomes ever clearer, I expect the decibel level of the squealing to go higher (Kolesnik 1,3).
Works cited:
Bowden, Ebony. “Jim Jordan Slams Dems’ ‘Double Standards’ at Trump Impeachment Vote.” New York Post, January 13, 2021. Net. https://nypost.com/2021/01/13/jim-jor...
Broadwater, Luke. “House Opens Jan. 6 Investigation over Republican Opposition.” New York Times, updated July 27, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/us...
Broadwater, Luke. “Jim Jordan Refuses To Cooperate with Jan. 6 Panel.” New York Times, January 9, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/us...
Fandos, Nicholas. “Trump Impeached for Inciting Insurrection.” New York Times, updated April 22, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us...
Fandos, Nicholas. “Why Jim Banks and Jim Jordan Were Blocked from the Capitol Riot Panel.” New York Times, updated July 27, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/us...
Hendirx, Justin; Tonckens, Nicholas; Venkatachalam, Sruthi. “Timeline: Rep. Jim Jordan, a Systematic Disinformation Campaign, and January 6.” Just Security. August 29, 2021. Net. https://www.justsecurity.org/77852/ti...
Kolesnik, Kris. “The Real Reason Jim Jordan Is Ranting against Jan. 6 Committee Staff.” The Hill, February 15, 2022. Net. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-...
May 8, 2022
Amoralists -- Jim Jordan -- Part Three -- Firebrand Defender
Representative Jim Jordan, a scrappy former wrestler and firebrand founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, has always relished a fight. So it was no surprise this week [November 2019] when, as President Trump’s chief defender in the impeachment inquiry, he interrupted the staid tone of the first public hearing and let it rip.
“And you’re their star witness?” he thundered at William B. Taylor Jr., the top diplomat in Ukraine, after prodding Mr. Taylor on Wednesday to say that he had never met the president, and that his information was secondhand. “You’re their first witness! You’re the guy?! I’ve seen church prayer chains that are easier to understand than this.”
For Mr. Jordan of Ohio, it was both an attention-grabbing moment and a chance to redeem himself with Republican leaders after years of being on the outs. The party is relying on him to frame the narrative Republicans offer to the public as Mr. Trump faces the gravest threat yet to his presidency.
It is one in which the president is a victim, witnesses are trafficking in hearsay at best, and working to undercut the duly elected president at worst, and Mr. Trump’s campaign to press Ukraine to investigate his political rivals was a perfectly appropriate exercise of executive power.
On Friday, Mr. Jordan’s gloves-off style — part pit bull, part rat-a-tat auctioneer — was put to the test when Marie L. Yovanovitch, the ousted ambassador to Ukraine, testified in deeply personal terms about how she felt “threatened” by Mr. Trump after it emerged that he had told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that she was “bad news” and would “go through some things.”
Mr. Jordan, apparently working to avoid appearing to bully her, treaded relatively lightly in addressing Ms. Yovanovitch. He reserved his tart tongue for the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff, who tried to force the Ohio congressman to wrap up his questioning as he blew through the five-minute limit.
“My indulgence is wearing out,” Mr. Schiff said.
“Our indulgence wore out with you a long time ago, Mr. Chairman,” Mr. Jordan shot back. A rumble emerged from the audience, which uttered a collective “Oooooh.”
Mr. Jordan was installed on the intelligence panel at the last minute by Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, so that he could take a prominent role in the public questioning. He and other Republicans on the panel spent part of Thursday in “murder boards” — mock hearings — to prepare.
“It’s just like adding a pinch-hitter or a relief pitcher,” Mr. McCarthy said in an interview.
With polls showing the public deeply split on whether Mr. Trump deserves to be impeached, and views hardening along party lines, Mr. Jordan is unlikely to change any minds. But for now, his presence on the panel is assuaging the Republican base, which is looking for someone tough to go up against Mr. Schiff, Democrat of California, a strait-laced former federal prosecutor.
“I think it is helpful in a setting dominated by Schiff to have somebody who’s willing to be the equivalent of a middle linebacker in football,” said Newt Gingrich, who was speaker during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. “He’s willing to plunge in and make the tough case, and do it in very understandable language.”
…
Reading Mr. Taylor’s own testimony back to him, Mr. Jordan reminded the witness that he had said it was his “clear understanding” that Ukraine would not receive nearly $400 million in military aid from the United States until Mr. Zelensky announced the investigations. That is the essence of Democrats’ case that Mr. Trump abused his power.
“Now with all due respect ambassador, your clear understanding was obviously wrong, because it didn’t happen,” Mr. Jordan said sharply, going on to note that Mr. Zelensky never made such an announcement and that the aid was ultimately released. (He neglected to say that Mr. Trump released it under pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.)
“So I’m wondering, where’d you get this clear understanding?” Mr. Jordan said, wrapping up. Mr. Taylor was unbowed: “As I testified, Mr. Jordan, this came from Mr. Sondland,” he said, referring to Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union and an ally of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Jordan, in a brief interview, said he was simply trying to get at the truth — at least as Republicans see it.
“Our job is to get out the facts, the truth, and let the American people know that the facts are on the president’s side, strongly on the president’s side, and let the American people see what they already know, which is that the process is unfair,” he said. “We will just keep doing that.”
Democrats, both here in Washington and in his home state of Ohio, see Mr. Jordan as bomb-thrower who is more interested in theatrics and obfuscation than substance. Julian Epstein, who served as the Democrats’ lead counsel in the impeachment of Mr. Clinton, called Mr. Jordan a “carnival barker who peddles dopamine to the base.”
Jerry Austin, a Democratic strategist in Ohio, called Mr. Jordan “a colossal jerk,” adding, “He basically is an actor, playing the part of this right-wing conservative congressman that whatever Donald Trump does, he’s defending” (Stolberg 1-3).
If their questioning of the special counsel Robert Mueller last July or the transcripts of the closed-door hearings are any guide, Jordan and his colleagues will engage in grandstanding with speeches that complain about due process and, taking their cue from Trump, portray the whole impeachment effort as a partisan sham – an effort by the deep state, or swamp, to stage “a coup” against the duly elected president.
They have put forward their own list of witnesses they would like to call, including former vice-president Joe Biden’s son Hunter, whose business dealings in Ukraine are the subject of baseless allegations of corruption, and the unnamed whistleblower who first brought Trump’s phone call to national attention.
Kurt Bardella, a political commentator and former spokesman and senior adviser for the House oversight committee from 2009-13, said: “Republicans will try to disrupt the hearings and make motions to subpoena people like Hunter Biden. They’ll do everything they can to stop the proceedings even starting, and to promote conspiracy theories that insulate Trump (Smith 2).
Representative Jim Jordan is one of five Republicans serving on a new House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis — just a few weeks after he testified against it being created.
“This select committee was not established to cast blame on past failures, foreign or domestic, or to search for the virus’s origin,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina) said in his opening statement. “But rather to pursue future success.”
But Clyburn’s message was not well-received by the Republicans on the panel.
Jordan (R, 4th Congressional District), who was named to the group by House Republican leadership, has said the committee shouldn’t exist because Congress already has other forms of oversight (Jordan is the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee).
He’s also claimed this new select committee is politically motivated because Clyburn, who was named chair by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is a prominent supporter of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
…
“It was inadequate testing that precipitated the national shutdown,” Dr. Ashish Jha testified [May 2020]. “We must not make the same mistakes again as we open up our nation.”
Jha, who is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, was singled out by Jordan minutes later.
“It’s a committee designed to go after the president,” Jordan said. "The very first witness, who just a few minutes ago, said it was inadequate testing that initiated the shutdown. I thought the shutdown was initiated to bend the curve to make sure our health care system wasn’t overwhelmed. But we already got a political statement from the very first witness.”
That prompted Jha to then respond.
“Every expert on the left, right and center agrees that we had to shut our economy down because the outbreak got too big,” Jha said. “The outbreak got too big because we didn’t have a testing infrastructure that allowed us to put our arms around the outbreak. And so testing was the fundamental failure that forced our country to shut down.”
…
“I say I’m going to focus on the truth,” Jordan said ... “I’m going to focus on the amazing response we’ve seen from the administration. I’m going to focus on the fact that this president shut down travel from China and all these folks on this committee and Democrats and folks in the media criticized the president for doing it at the time, and it turned out to be a great decision. I’m going to focus on the truth that the World Health Organization took our money and lied to us.”
Jordan did not ask the witnesses any questions during his speaking time.
In various parts of their testimony, the witnesses called for increased testing and contact tracing before the country could safely reopen (Popielarz 1-2).
… If modern society already has plenty of vaccine mandates, and they're widely seen as uncontroversial, what's wrong with defeating a deadly pandemic with one more?
To resolve the incongruity, opponents of Covid-19 vaccine requirements have two choices: They can accept the effective policies, or they can start pushing back against mandates that predate the current crisis. As The Washington Post noted [October 2021], one far-right congressman prefers the latter.
“The clash over mandates is playing out far beyond Texas.... Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), an outspoken conservative, tweeted that "Ohio should ban all vaccine mandates."
… I checked the Ohio Department of Health's website, which features an "immunization summary for school attendance." It's not an especially short list: Before children can attend schools in Ohio, they must be fully immunized against, among other things, polio, measles, hepatitis B, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
This is not a new policy. It's existed for years and it's proven effective. But according to Jordan, the state of Ohio should nevertheless "ban all vaccine mandates" — because whether these requirements work well in preventing the spread of serious illnesses is less important than whether these requirements are ideologically satisfying (Benen 1).
Jim Jordan, who represents Ohio’s highly gerrymandered 4th District in the US House of Representatives, said in an interview on Tuesday that he had Covid "early in the summer" [2021], without giving details.
"I’ve had the virus," he said in response to a question from Spectrum News about whether he had been vaccinated. "I don’t talk about my health status with reporters, but I’ve had the coronavirus and recovered, and actually had that antibody test done, and it showed my antibodies were strong."
…
"I think we’re way past this," he insisted then. "I think the country is ready to move on and we’re done with this, but you guys just keep wanting to talk about it. I have not [been vaccinated], but I have been tested, I don’t know how many umpteen dozens of times" (Dodds 1).
[Here are excerpts from a Frontline interview conducted by Michael Kirk June 16, 2020]
What happened in Minneapolis is a tragedy. It’s just wrong as wrong could be. And those killers deserve swift justice, and Mr. Floyd’s family deserves swift justice for those killers.
The president also understands that peaceful protest is—it’s part of the American experience; it’s part of our First Amendment liberties. And we’re all for it. We’ve all engaged in it. But there is a big difference—and the president was clear about this—there is a big difference between peaceful protests and rioting and violence and mayhem and going after police officers, in some cases killing police officers. Big, big difference.
And the president has, I think, you said in your question or your comments, that the president understands that the vast majority of law enforcement people are good folks and they are risking their lives every day in our communities to protect our communities.
So those are sort of the fundamental principles. And finally the fourth one I would throw in is, the president understands, and so do the American people, that this idea of defunding the police and dismantling and getting rid of police departments is crazy. It is completely crazy.
…
To walk across to a church that just the night before rioters were trying to burn down, to walk across to that church where so many presidents had actually worshiped in, and to show the American people the church is still standing, the leader of our country is standing right here, holding a Bible, holding the Holy Scripture, I thought it was exactly the right thing and the right message to send. ...
…
I think that’s all it is. I think that, you know, there are some who want to make it more than that. But I think it’s a positive message sent to the country at an important time.
Well, you want to go back to some of the policies that I think failed under the Obama administration, you go with Joe Biden. You want someone who will do what they said and get things done, you vote for President Trump. I think it’s really that clear. This president is doing what he said he would do. Joe Biden has switched positions to appease the far left in his party and everything else, and that to me is the clear choice. And again, I think people in Ohio and the Midwest, they see it. They see it just as plain as day. And it’s going to be a big win for the president (Kirk 15-18).
Congressman Jim Jordan, from Ohio’s 4th Congressional District, touted President Trump as the “pro-America candidate” and lambasted Democrats for what’s happening in some U.S. cities.
“The Republican party is the pro-America party. President Trump is the pro-America candidate,” said Jordan, who represents Ohio’s 4th Congressional District, which includes Auglaize, Champaign, Logan, Shelby counties.
“This election is about who can preserve the values, principles, and institutions that Make America Great,” the 56-year-old Congressman from Troy said Monday night [August 2020]. The party planned a mix of virtual and in-person events in North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
“Don’t believe me? Look at what’s happening in America’s cities – all run by Democrats. Crime, violence, mob rule. Democrats refuse to denounce the mob.
“And their response to the chaos? Defund the police, defund border patrol, defund the military. And while they’re doing all of this, they’re also trying to take away your guns.”
The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform listed several decisions made by Democrats that have harmed the nation.
“Democrats won’t let you go to church, but they’ll let you protest,” he said. “Democrats won’t let you go to work, but they’ll let you riot. Democrats won’t let you go to school, but they’ll let you loot.”
The co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus said Trump has fought against what the congressman called the Democrat’s “crazy ideas.”
The president has taken on the swamp, the Democrats, the press, and the Never Trumpers, Jordan said.
“And when you take on the swamp, the swamp fights back. They tried the Russia hoax, the Mueller investigation, and the fake impeachment. But despite this unbelievable opposition, look what this President has accomplished.”
Jordan then listed accomplishments Trump has achieved.
“Taxes cut, regulations reduced, economy growing, lowest unemployment in 50 years, out of the Iran deal, embassy in Jerusalem, hostages home from North Korea, new USMCA agreement, and he’s building the wall, and rebuilding the economy,” Jordan said.
“I love the president’s intensity and his willingness to fight. But what I also appreciate is something most Americans never see – how much he truly cares about people,” Jordan said … (WHIO 1-2).
The final days before Election Day could be some of the most important in the country's history, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, told a crowd of more than 100 Saturday outside the Crawford County Courthouse [October 2020].
"There are moments that really count," the congressman said. "I think we're at one of those moments of real magnitude."
…
"Next to Jesus, the best thing that has happened to this planet is the United States of America," Jordan said.
…
"I wish every American could meet the president," Jordan said. "When you're around him, you can't help but like him. There's a charisma about him. He loves this country."
He said he and Trump had spoken five times in the 13 days prior. It was during those conversations that Jordan said he realized how important it was for voters to show up on Election Day. If they don't, he said America risks being fundamentally destroyed by the Democrat Party.
"The good thing is I think he's going to win," Jordan told the crowd.
The congressman said the political left of America has been radicalized, saying that even sporting events have been infiltrated by socialist ideas that were once left to the opinion pages.
"Now you turn on ESPN and they're giving political commentary," Jordan said.
Voters who choose not to cast a ballot this election should remember that, he said, because if they don't, that radicalization will spread.
"What's at stake is so critically important," Jordan said. "I know you all know that, that's why you're out here on a Saturday morning."
…
"Don't ever, don't ever let anyone tell you this isn't the greatest nation in history," Jordan said. "It's worth fighting for and that's why the next 17 days are so important" (Tuggle 1-2).
Works cited:
Benen, Steve. “Why It Matters that Jim Jordan Wants To 'Ban All Vaccine Mandates'.” MSNBC, October 13, 2021. Net. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...
Dodds, Io. “Republican Vaccine Mandate Opponent Jim Jordan Reveals He Had Covid over the Summer.” Yahoo Sports, November 24, 2021. Net. https://sports.yahoo.com/republican-v...
Kirk, Michael. “Jim Jordan.” Frontline, June 16, 2020. Net. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/in...
Popielarz, Taylor. “Rep. Jim Jordan Expresses Frustrations in First Coronavirus Oversight Hearing.” Spectrum News 1, May 14, 2020. Net. https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus...
Smith, David. Jim Jordan: the Republican in 'Attack Dog Mode' for Impeachment Hearings.” The Guardian, November 13, 2019. Net. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...
Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. “Jordan Brings Pugnacious Style to Impeachment Defense of Trump.” New York Times, November 15, 2019. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us...
Tuggle, Zack. “Jim Jordan: Upcoming Election a Moment of 'Real Magnitude.' Mansfield News Journal, October 19, 2020. Net. https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/...
WHIO Staff. “RNC 2020: U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan Touts President Trump as ‘Pro-America Candidate’.” WHIOTV7, August 24, 2020. Net. https://www.whio.com/home/rnc-2020-us...
“And you’re their star witness?” he thundered at William B. Taylor Jr., the top diplomat in Ukraine, after prodding Mr. Taylor on Wednesday to say that he had never met the president, and that his information was secondhand. “You’re their first witness! You’re the guy?! I’ve seen church prayer chains that are easier to understand than this.”
For Mr. Jordan of Ohio, it was both an attention-grabbing moment and a chance to redeem himself with Republican leaders after years of being on the outs. The party is relying on him to frame the narrative Republicans offer to the public as Mr. Trump faces the gravest threat yet to his presidency.
It is one in which the president is a victim, witnesses are trafficking in hearsay at best, and working to undercut the duly elected president at worst, and Mr. Trump’s campaign to press Ukraine to investigate his political rivals was a perfectly appropriate exercise of executive power.
On Friday, Mr. Jordan’s gloves-off style — part pit bull, part rat-a-tat auctioneer — was put to the test when Marie L. Yovanovitch, the ousted ambassador to Ukraine, testified in deeply personal terms about how she felt “threatened” by Mr. Trump after it emerged that he had told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that she was “bad news” and would “go through some things.”
Mr. Jordan, apparently working to avoid appearing to bully her, treaded relatively lightly in addressing Ms. Yovanovitch. He reserved his tart tongue for the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff, who tried to force the Ohio congressman to wrap up his questioning as he blew through the five-minute limit.
“My indulgence is wearing out,” Mr. Schiff said.
“Our indulgence wore out with you a long time ago, Mr. Chairman,” Mr. Jordan shot back. A rumble emerged from the audience, which uttered a collective “Oooooh.”
Mr. Jordan was installed on the intelligence panel at the last minute by Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, so that he could take a prominent role in the public questioning. He and other Republicans on the panel spent part of Thursday in “murder boards” — mock hearings — to prepare.
“It’s just like adding a pinch-hitter or a relief pitcher,” Mr. McCarthy said in an interview.
With polls showing the public deeply split on whether Mr. Trump deserves to be impeached, and views hardening along party lines, Mr. Jordan is unlikely to change any minds. But for now, his presence on the panel is assuaging the Republican base, which is looking for someone tough to go up against Mr. Schiff, Democrat of California, a strait-laced former federal prosecutor.
“I think it is helpful in a setting dominated by Schiff to have somebody who’s willing to be the equivalent of a middle linebacker in football,” said Newt Gingrich, who was speaker during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. “He’s willing to plunge in and make the tough case, and do it in very understandable language.”
…
Reading Mr. Taylor’s own testimony back to him, Mr. Jordan reminded the witness that he had said it was his “clear understanding” that Ukraine would not receive nearly $400 million in military aid from the United States until Mr. Zelensky announced the investigations. That is the essence of Democrats’ case that Mr. Trump abused his power.
“Now with all due respect ambassador, your clear understanding was obviously wrong, because it didn’t happen,” Mr. Jordan said sharply, going on to note that Mr. Zelensky never made such an announcement and that the aid was ultimately released. (He neglected to say that Mr. Trump released it under pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.)
“So I’m wondering, where’d you get this clear understanding?” Mr. Jordan said, wrapping up. Mr. Taylor was unbowed: “As I testified, Mr. Jordan, this came from Mr. Sondland,” he said, referring to Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union and an ally of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Jordan, in a brief interview, said he was simply trying to get at the truth — at least as Republicans see it.
“Our job is to get out the facts, the truth, and let the American people know that the facts are on the president’s side, strongly on the president’s side, and let the American people see what they already know, which is that the process is unfair,” he said. “We will just keep doing that.”
Democrats, both here in Washington and in his home state of Ohio, see Mr. Jordan as bomb-thrower who is more interested in theatrics and obfuscation than substance. Julian Epstein, who served as the Democrats’ lead counsel in the impeachment of Mr. Clinton, called Mr. Jordan a “carnival barker who peddles dopamine to the base.”
Jerry Austin, a Democratic strategist in Ohio, called Mr. Jordan “a colossal jerk,” adding, “He basically is an actor, playing the part of this right-wing conservative congressman that whatever Donald Trump does, he’s defending” (Stolberg 1-3).
If their questioning of the special counsel Robert Mueller last July or the transcripts of the closed-door hearings are any guide, Jordan and his colleagues will engage in grandstanding with speeches that complain about due process and, taking their cue from Trump, portray the whole impeachment effort as a partisan sham – an effort by the deep state, or swamp, to stage “a coup” against the duly elected president.
They have put forward their own list of witnesses they would like to call, including former vice-president Joe Biden’s son Hunter, whose business dealings in Ukraine are the subject of baseless allegations of corruption, and the unnamed whistleblower who first brought Trump’s phone call to national attention.
Kurt Bardella, a political commentator and former spokesman and senior adviser for the House oversight committee from 2009-13, said: “Republicans will try to disrupt the hearings and make motions to subpoena people like Hunter Biden. They’ll do everything they can to stop the proceedings even starting, and to promote conspiracy theories that insulate Trump (Smith 2).
Representative Jim Jordan is one of five Republicans serving on a new House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis — just a few weeks after he testified against it being created.
“This select committee was not established to cast blame on past failures, foreign or domestic, or to search for the virus’s origin,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina) said in his opening statement. “But rather to pursue future success.”
But Clyburn’s message was not well-received by the Republicans on the panel.
Jordan (R, 4th Congressional District), who was named to the group by House Republican leadership, has said the committee shouldn’t exist because Congress already has other forms of oversight (Jordan is the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee).
He’s also claimed this new select committee is politically motivated because Clyburn, who was named chair by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is a prominent supporter of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
…
“It was inadequate testing that precipitated the national shutdown,” Dr. Ashish Jha testified [May 2020]. “We must not make the same mistakes again as we open up our nation.”
Jha, who is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, was singled out by Jordan minutes later.
“It’s a committee designed to go after the president,” Jordan said. "The very first witness, who just a few minutes ago, said it was inadequate testing that initiated the shutdown. I thought the shutdown was initiated to bend the curve to make sure our health care system wasn’t overwhelmed. But we already got a political statement from the very first witness.”
That prompted Jha to then respond.
“Every expert on the left, right and center agrees that we had to shut our economy down because the outbreak got too big,” Jha said. “The outbreak got too big because we didn’t have a testing infrastructure that allowed us to put our arms around the outbreak. And so testing was the fundamental failure that forced our country to shut down.”
…
“I say I’m going to focus on the truth,” Jordan said ... “I’m going to focus on the amazing response we’ve seen from the administration. I’m going to focus on the fact that this president shut down travel from China and all these folks on this committee and Democrats and folks in the media criticized the president for doing it at the time, and it turned out to be a great decision. I’m going to focus on the truth that the World Health Organization took our money and lied to us.”
Jordan did not ask the witnesses any questions during his speaking time.
In various parts of their testimony, the witnesses called for increased testing and contact tracing before the country could safely reopen (Popielarz 1-2).
… If modern society already has plenty of vaccine mandates, and they're widely seen as uncontroversial, what's wrong with defeating a deadly pandemic with one more?
To resolve the incongruity, opponents of Covid-19 vaccine requirements have two choices: They can accept the effective policies, or they can start pushing back against mandates that predate the current crisis. As The Washington Post noted [October 2021], one far-right congressman prefers the latter.
“The clash over mandates is playing out far beyond Texas.... Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), an outspoken conservative, tweeted that "Ohio should ban all vaccine mandates."
… I checked the Ohio Department of Health's website, which features an "immunization summary for school attendance." It's not an especially short list: Before children can attend schools in Ohio, they must be fully immunized against, among other things, polio, measles, hepatitis B, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
This is not a new policy. It's existed for years and it's proven effective. But according to Jordan, the state of Ohio should nevertheless "ban all vaccine mandates" — because whether these requirements work well in preventing the spread of serious illnesses is less important than whether these requirements are ideologically satisfying (Benen 1).
Jim Jordan, who represents Ohio’s highly gerrymandered 4th District in the US House of Representatives, said in an interview on Tuesday that he had Covid "early in the summer" [2021], without giving details.
"I’ve had the virus," he said in response to a question from Spectrum News about whether he had been vaccinated. "I don’t talk about my health status with reporters, but I’ve had the coronavirus and recovered, and actually had that antibody test done, and it showed my antibodies were strong."
…
"I think we’re way past this," he insisted then. "I think the country is ready to move on and we’re done with this, but you guys just keep wanting to talk about it. I have not [been vaccinated], but I have been tested, I don’t know how many umpteen dozens of times" (Dodds 1).
[Here are excerpts from a Frontline interview conducted by Michael Kirk June 16, 2020]
What happened in Minneapolis is a tragedy. It’s just wrong as wrong could be. And those killers deserve swift justice, and Mr. Floyd’s family deserves swift justice for those killers.
The president also understands that peaceful protest is—it’s part of the American experience; it’s part of our First Amendment liberties. And we’re all for it. We’ve all engaged in it. But there is a big difference—and the president was clear about this—there is a big difference between peaceful protests and rioting and violence and mayhem and going after police officers, in some cases killing police officers. Big, big difference.
And the president has, I think, you said in your question or your comments, that the president understands that the vast majority of law enforcement people are good folks and they are risking their lives every day in our communities to protect our communities.
So those are sort of the fundamental principles. And finally the fourth one I would throw in is, the president understands, and so do the American people, that this idea of defunding the police and dismantling and getting rid of police departments is crazy. It is completely crazy.
…
To walk across to a church that just the night before rioters were trying to burn down, to walk across to that church where so many presidents had actually worshiped in, and to show the American people the church is still standing, the leader of our country is standing right here, holding a Bible, holding the Holy Scripture, I thought it was exactly the right thing and the right message to send. ...
…
I think that’s all it is. I think that, you know, there are some who want to make it more than that. But I think it’s a positive message sent to the country at an important time.
Well, you want to go back to some of the policies that I think failed under the Obama administration, you go with Joe Biden. You want someone who will do what they said and get things done, you vote for President Trump. I think it’s really that clear. This president is doing what he said he would do. Joe Biden has switched positions to appease the far left in his party and everything else, and that to me is the clear choice. And again, I think people in Ohio and the Midwest, they see it. They see it just as plain as day. And it’s going to be a big win for the president (Kirk 15-18).
Congressman Jim Jordan, from Ohio’s 4th Congressional District, touted President Trump as the “pro-America candidate” and lambasted Democrats for what’s happening in some U.S. cities.
“The Republican party is the pro-America party. President Trump is the pro-America candidate,” said Jordan, who represents Ohio’s 4th Congressional District, which includes Auglaize, Champaign, Logan, Shelby counties.
“This election is about who can preserve the values, principles, and institutions that Make America Great,” the 56-year-old Congressman from Troy said Monday night [August 2020]. The party planned a mix of virtual and in-person events in North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
“Don’t believe me? Look at what’s happening in America’s cities – all run by Democrats. Crime, violence, mob rule. Democrats refuse to denounce the mob.
“And their response to the chaos? Defund the police, defund border patrol, defund the military. And while they’re doing all of this, they’re also trying to take away your guns.”
The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform listed several decisions made by Democrats that have harmed the nation.
“Democrats won’t let you go to church, but they’ll let you protest,” he said. “Democrats won’t let you go to work, but they’ll let you riot. Democrats won’t let you go to school, but they’ll let you loot.”
The co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus said Trump has fought against what the congressman called the Democrat’s “crazy ideas.”
The president has taken on the swamp, the Democrats, the press, and the Never Trumpers, Jordan said.
“And when you take on the swamp, the swamp fights back. They tried the Russia hoax, the Mueller investigation, and the fake impeachment. But despite this unbelievable opposition, look what this President has accomplished.”
Jordan then listed accomplishments Trump has achieved.
“Taxes cut, regulations reduced, economy growing, lowest unemployment in 50 years, out of the Iran deal, embassy in Jerusalem, hostages home from North Korea, new USMCA agreement, and he’s building the wall, and rebuilding the economy,” Jordan said.
“I love the president’s intensity and his willingness to fight. But what I also appreciate is something most Americans never see – how much he truly cares about people,” Jordan said … (WHIO 1-2).
The final days before Election Day could be some of the most important in the country's history, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, told a crowd of more than 100 Saturday outside the Crawford County Courthouse [October 2020].
"There are moments that really count," the congressman said. "I think we're at one of those moments of real magnitude."
…
"Next to Jesus, the best thing that has happened to this planet is the United States of America," Jordan said.
…
"I wish every American could meet the president," Jordan said. "When you're around him, you can't help but like him. There's a charisma about him. He loves this country."
He said he and Trump had spoken five times in the 13 days prior. It was during those conversations that Jordan said he realized how important it was for voters to show up on Election Day. If they don't, he said America risks being fundamentally destroyed by the Democrat Party.
"The good thing is I think he's going to win," Jordan told the crowd.
The congressman said the political left of America has been radicalized, saying that even sporting events have been infiltrated by socialist ideas that were once left to the opinion pages.
"Now you turn on ESPN and they're giving political commentary," Jordan said.
Voters who choose not to cast a ballot this election should remember that, he said, because if they don't, that radicalization will spread.
"What's at stake is so critically important," Jordan said. "I know you all know that, that's why you're out here on a Saturday morning."
…
"Don't ever, don't ever let anyone tell you this isn't the greatest nation in history," Jordan said. "It's worth fighting for and that's why the next 17 days are so important" (Tuggle 1-2).
Works cited:
Benen, Steve. “Why It Matters that Jim Jordan Wants To 'Ban All Vaccine Mandates'.” MSNBC, October 13, 2021. Net. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...
Dodds, Io. “Republican Vaccine Mandate Opponent Jim Jordan Reveals He Had Covid over the Summer.” Yahoo Sports, November 24, 2021. Net. https://sports.yahoo.com/republican-v...
Kirk, Michael. “Jim Jordan.” Frontline, June 16, 2020. Net. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/in...
Popielarz, Taylor. “Rep. Jim Jordan Expresses Frustrations in First Coronavirus Oversight Hearing.” Spectrum News 1, May 14, 2020. Net. https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus...
Smith, David. Jim Jordan: the Republican in 'Attack Dog Mode' for Impeachment Hearings.” The Guardian, November 13, 2019. Net. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...
Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. “Jordan Brings Pugnacious Style to Impeachment Defense of Trump.” New York Times, November 15, 2019. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us...
Tuggle, Zack. “Jim Jordan: Upcoming Election a Moment of 'Real Magnitude.' Mansfield News Journal, October 19, 2020. Net. https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/...
WHIO Staff. “RNC 2020: U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan Touts President Trump as ‘Pro-America Candidate’.” WHIOTV7, August 24, 2020. Net. https://www.whio.com/home/rnc-2020-us...
May 5, 2022
Amoralists -- Jim Jordan -- Part Two -- Hear No Evil, See No Evil
Representative Jim Jordan is facing the kind of slowly percolating scandal that would bring down other politicians in other times, as new accusers step forward by the day to say the wrestling coach turned politician was aware of sexual misconduct at Ohio State University but did nothing to stop it.
But like the man Mr. Jordan doggedly supports, President Trump, the Ohio Republican has the kind of stalwart supporters who do not lose faith easily, and they are already defending the conservative powerhouse, saying he is the victim of the same “deep state” conspirators — liberal bureaucrats embedded in the government — who are trying to bring down the president.
Mr. Jordan, a 54-year-old congressman in his sixth term, was defiant Friday night [July 2018] on Fox News, in his first extended response to the emerging charges. He disparaged some of the former college wrestlers who have come forward to say he knew of allegations that the team doctor, Richard H. Strauss, had fondled them. He said he could not explain why other more friendly wrestlers had leveled similar charges.
“I never saw, never heard of, never was told about any kind of abuse,” said Mr. Jordan, whose in-your-face brand of politics has made him the choice for speaker of the House by an array of conservative groups. “If I did I would have dealt with it. A good coach puts the interests of his student-athletes first.”
…
… Mr. Jordan continued to fan conspiracy theories connecting the emergence of the charges to his aggressive questioning last month of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, the man many Trump supporters hold responsible for the Russia investigation.
“I think the timing is suspect when you think about how this whole story came together after the Rosenstein hearing and the speaker’s race,” he said.
…
… the president weighed in with his unqualified support. “Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in Washington,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I believe him 100 percent. No question in my mind.”
Mr. Jordan served as an assistant coach on the Ohio State wrestling team in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during which time Dr. Strauss is accused of showering with athletes and touching them inappropriately. The university announced in April that it had begun investigating the allegations against the doctor, who killed himself in 2005.
Mr. Coleman and four other wrestlers have now said that Mr. Jordan was aware of the abuse but did nothing to stop it. Another former Ohio State wrestler, Mike Schyck, said in an interview on Friday that he and other former team members planned to “collectively say some things together,” adding that the scandal is not about Mr. Jordan.
But even as more wrestlers step forward, Mr. Jordan’s base has mounted a defense. The conservative news media has questioned the motives and truthfulness of his accusers.
One of those accusers, Mike DiSabato, scoffed at suggestions that his motivation in calling out Mr. Jordan was political or part of a personal vendetta.
“There were two choices for Jim when he was asked about this situation: He could have told the truth that he saw it, he was there, he was in the showers and saunas with us,” Mr. DiSabato said. “He could have told the truth and stood with us, or he could have played politics.”
Mr. DiSabato said he was saddened by the congressman’s response.
“I’m sorry, I love Jim Jordan, but he doesn’t get to call me a liar to the entire world,” Mr. DiSabato said. “He doesn’t get to call the victims of systemic sexual abuse liars. He doesn’t get to act like he wasn’t in the sauna with us every day being subject to voyeurism.”
The allegations have cast a cloud over the congressman at a time when he is ascendant. Mr. Jordan has emerged as one of the president’s staunchest defenders, helping to lead a Republican counterinvestigation of F.B.I. and Justice Department officials who are looking into potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russian election interference. A founder of the House Freedom Caucus, Mr. Jordan has also been floated as a possible successor to Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, who has announced he will retire at the end of the year (Edmondson “Defiant” 1-3).
In the past few days, Mr. Jordan has evoked his own reputation as a Trump ally and enemy of the so-called deep state — liberal bureaucrats embedded in the government — reminding his base of where his loyalty lies.
“I stood up to the speaker of the House from my home state, to the I.R.S. and to the F.B.I.,” Mr. Jordan told reporters on Wednesday. “To think that I would not stand up for my athletes is ridiculous” (Edmondson “Unshaken” 3).
In a sign that Representative Jim Jordan is unlikely to shake a sexual misconduct scandal anytime soon, five former wrestlers sued Ohio State University this week [July 2018], accusing university officials of knowing that a team doctor was abusing student athletes and doing nothing to stop him.
One of the lawsuits specifically mentions Mr. Jordan, Republican of Ohio, who served as the wrestling team’s assistant coach in the late 1980s and early 1990s, citing news reports that wrestlers had informed him of the abuse. …
…
Eight wrestlers have come forward and accused Mr. Jordan of turning a blind eye to the abuse of the team physician, Richard H. Strauss, who killed himself in 2005.
Mr. Jordan has maintained that he never saw or heard any reports of misconduct and has attacked some of the former wrestlers who have spoken out against him.
...
The lawsuits, filed on Tuesday, describe abuse that was widespread and often public. Dr. Strauss’s conduct is at the heart of a university investigation spanning 14 different sports teams and more than 150 athletes.
More Ohio State alumni — both former athletes and students — have come forward in recent days to say Mr. Strauss had abused them, Mr. Estey said, either as team doctor or at the university’s student health center. The lawyer said he expected an additional 20 to 25 plaintiffs to sign onto Tuesday’s class action.
Together, the lawsuits say that Ohio State officials received at least three complaints about Mr. Strauss from wrestlers: in 1978, after the captain of the wrestling team told a doctor at the university’s health center that Mr. Strauss had fondled him; in 1993, when a wrestler complained to the team’s head coach, Russ Hellickson; and in 1994, when two wrestlers confronted the university’s athletic director.
The lawsuit also cites a recent interview in which Mr. Hellickson told USA Today that he confronted Mr. Strauss and told him that he was making the athletes “uncomfortable” by showering with them. Mr. Hellickson said the doctor responded that the coach also showered with athletes.
“I said, ‘Not for an hour, Doc,’” Mr. Hellickson said.
Mr. Hellickson has maintained that he did not know Mr. Strauss was abusing athletes, and has defended Mr. Jordan’s role in the matter.
…
One of the lawsuits notes that many of the athletes competing for the university were afraid to complain because the university required that they receive physicals from Dr. Strauss before being allowed to compete. Many of those athletes were receiving scholarships.
The plaintiffs in both lawsuits seek unspecified damages, stating that the wrestlers “were prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing daily activities” and have incurred expenses for medical and psychological treatment as a result of the abuse (Edmondson “Lawsuits” 2-4).
The lawsuits filed on Tuesday describe how the misconduct committed by Dr. Strauss was frequently under the guise of medical treatment ...Regardless of the ailment, one lawsuit states, his treatment “almost always included examination, touching and fondling of their genitalia, and it frequently included digital anal penetration under the guise of checking for hernias.”
The university at the time required that athletes submit to a physical, administered by Dr. Strauss, before being allowed to compete, “which meant that systematic sexual abuse from Dr. Strauss was inevitable,” the lawsuit said.
Wrestlers who have spoken about the abuse have said that the doctor’s conduct during physicals was an open secret in the locker room, with athletes referring to him as “Dr. Jellypaws.”
…
News reports cited in the lawsuit also detail how the facility where wrestlers practiced, Larkins Hall, was home to a “cesspool of deviancy,” in which men affiliated with the university would ogle athletes in the showers.
Stephen Estey, a lawyer representing four former wrestlers who have filed a lawsuit against the university, said on Friday that he was getting “inundated” with calls from people saying they had been abused by Dr. Strauss. He expects that an additional 20 to 25 plaintiffs will join the lawsuit, and that hundreds of former students will eventually come forward (Edmondson “More” 3-4).
Congressional Republicans are playing a dangerous game in their rush to defend Jim Jordan, the Ohio congressman facing accusations that, as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, he ignored athletes’ complaints of sexual abuse by the team doctor.
By attacking Mr. Jordan’s accusers, dismissing the accusers as politically motivated and spinning deep-state conspiracy theories — even as the accusations pile up and Mr. Jordan’s denials grow more dubious — lawmakers are opting for tribal loyalty over concern for the public good. While this kind of blind partisanship may feel like a necessity to Republicans in the age of Donald Trump, it has real potential to come back and bite them on their backsides. Also, it’s morally wrong.
…
Among Mr. Jordan’s early defenders was President Trump. “I don’t believe them,” he said a couple of days into the uproar. “No question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man.”
Congressional Republicans have followed the same script, rejecting the very idea that someone of Mr. Jordan’s character would turn a blind eye to abuse. On Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus voted to officially support Mr. Jordan, its former chairman. The caucus’s current chairman, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, has praised his colleague as “a man of the utmost character, honor, and integrity.”
Representative Steve Scalise, the conference’s chief whip, declared, “I have always known Jim Jordan to be honest, and I’m confident he would stand up for his athletes, just like he’s always stood up for what’s right.” Speaker Paul Ryan too has vouched for Mr. Jordan’s “honesty” and “integrity.” Indeed, the cascade of references to Mr. Jordan’s “honesty” and “integrity” has achieved a Manchurian Candidate-like ubiquity.
If Mr. Jordan was a Democrat, does anyone doubt all these men would be singing a different tune?
Even more troubling are Mr. Jordan’s defenders who have gone on the offense against his accusers. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, tweeting admiringly of Mr. Jordan’s “tremendous integrity,” also expressed “faith” in the American people’s ability to “recognize a baseless smear campaign [when] they see it.” Other members have made dark references to the accusers’ “questionable background,” suggesting that true victims would not have waited so long to come forward, and sneering at the notion that adult men could be victimized in such a fashion. (Seriously? Were these guys napping during the #MeToo horror stories?)
…
… multiple members have noted that the law firm handling the abuse investigation for Ohio State has contracted with a Washington-based firm that previously did work for the Democratic Party on the infamous Steele dossier. (Don’t you see? It all goes back to Hillary!) Following Republicans down that rabbit hole leads only to madness.
Since first denying that he ever had an inkling of any abuse, the congressman has felt moved to draw a distinction between specific reports of misconduct and bawdy chatter.
“Conversations in the locker room are a lot different than someone coming up to you and saying there was some kind of abuse,” he explained to Fox News viewers.
…
The congressman clearly fancies himself a fearless crusader willing to stand up to power. But what we have seen of him in the Trump era paints a different picture, of a man absolutely willing to look the other way when things around the workplace get weird and icky.
During the dark days of the “Access Hollywood” tape, as many Republican officeholders were distancing themselves from the nominee, Mr. Jordan made clear that, while he found such vulgar talk unacceptable, he nonetheless would stand by his man.
And stand by Mr. Trump he has, uttering not one critical peep as this president has engaged in such egregious acts as defending neo-Nazis and separating migrant children from their parents. (Even many of Mr. Trump’s most obsequious apologists choked on that one.) As for Mr. Trump’s habitual lying, Mr. Jordan has not simply averted his gaze; he has publicly claimed — even when confronted with specific examples — never to have heard Mr. Trump utter a falsehood. Never. Not once.
As a powerful congressman in his mid-50s, Mr. Jordan has repeatedly failed to stand up to a president whose morally sketchy behavior he witnesses on a daily basis. Can anyone really discount, with 100 percent certainty, the possibility that a 20-something Jim Jordan might have heard but chosen not to pursue horrifying rumors, or even specific allegations, that could have engulfed his entire university in scandal (Editorial 1-4).
Ohio representative and former Ohio State University wrestling coach Jim Jordan aided and abetted in the university's cover-up of sexual abuse within the program, a former team captain said in front of Ohio State legislators on Wednesday [February 2020].
"Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling, begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for a half-hour," DiSabato said Wednesday. "That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on there."
Adam DiSabato, captain of the team during the early 1990s, told members of the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee that Jordan and other officials ignored former Ohio State doctor Richard Strauss's sexual abuse of wrestlers from 1979 to 1997. DiSabato said that Jordan and other team officials knew about open-shower facilities that facilitated sexual harassment and abuse of team wrestlers.
Jordan has previously denied the allegation.
Wednesday's testimony is a part of a hearing on legislation that would permit survivors of Strauss's abuse to sue the university for damages. Currently, the statute of limitations disallows them from doing so.
A university study found that Strauss abused at least 177 people during his tenure as the wrestling team’s doctor. Strauss was never charged and died by suicide in 2005.
A former Ohio State wrestler told the university's lawyers in 2018 that, “Based on testimony from victim athletes from each of the aforementioned varsity sports, we estimate that Strauss sexually assaulted and/or raped a minimum of 1,500/2,000 athletes at OSU.”
In November 2019, NBC News reported that around 350 men were suing Ohio State, saying they were abused.
DiSabato and his brother, Mike, were among the initial whistleblowers that prompted the university to launch an investigation in 2018.
…
Eight wrestlers have said publicly that Jordan was aware of—and did not do anything to stop—Strauss's systemic abuse.
One former wrestler, Dunyasha Yetts, recounted to NBC News an instance in which he was abused and told Jordan directly.
Another former wrestler, Shawn Dailey, later corroborated the story.
“I remember I had a thumb injury and went into Strauss’ office and he started pulling down my wrestling shorts,” he said. “I’m like, what the f--- are you doing? And I went out and told Russ and Jim what happened. I was not having it. They went in and talked to Strauss.”
Yetts said he and his teammates talked to Jordan numerous times about Strauss.
“For God’s sake, Strauss’s locker was right next to Jordan’s and Jordan even said he’d kill him if he tried anything with him,” Yetts said.
DiSabato has said that Jordan gave out a certificate each year called “King of the Sauna,” to the person with the most clever banter while in the shower—a shower where Strauss allegedly performed the bulk of his sexual abuse. Jordan, DiSabato said, hung out in the sauna daily.
…
Since these allegations surfaced in 2018, Jordan has apparently tried to cover-up the cover-up.
In May 2019, Mike DiSabato stated in a Title IX lawsuit against Ohio State that Jordan's second cousin aimed to "intimidate and retaliate" against him for speaking out publicly.
Later that year, Jordan, his younger brother and another former wrestling coach were accused of witness tampering and intimidation in their attempt to suppress accusations from a former wrestler, according to NBC News (Yang 1-3).
Works cited:
Editorial Board. “Is the G.O.P. Following Jim Jordan over a Cliff?” New York Times, Jily 12, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/op...
Edmondson, Catie. “Jim Jordan Is Defiant as Allegations Mount, and Supporters Point to ‘Deep State’.” New York Times, July 6, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us...
Edmondson, Catie. “More Than 100 Former Ohio State Students Allege Sexual Misconduct.” New York Times, July 20, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us...
Edmondson, Catie. “Two Lawsuits against Ohio State Keep Jim Jordan in the Cross Hairs.” New York Times, July 18, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/us...
Edmondson, Catie. Unshaken by Abuse Scandal, Conservatives Are Sticking with Jim Jordan.” New York Times, Jul 11, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/us...
Yang, Avery. “Ex–Ohio State Wrestler Says Rep. Jim Jordan Asked Him To Deny Abuse Allegations.” Sports Illustrated, February 12, 2020. Net. https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/0...
But like the man Mr. Jordan doggedly supports, President Trump, the Ohio Republican has the kind of stalwart supporters who do not lose faith easily, and they are already defending the conservative powerhouse, saying he is the victim of the same “deep state” conspirators — liberal bureaucrats embedded in the government — who are trying to bring down the president.
Mr. Jordan, a 54-year-old congressman in his sixth term, was defiant Friday night [July 2018] on Fox News, in his first extended response to the emerging charges. He disparaged some of the former college wrestlers who have come forward to say he knew of allegations that the team doctor, Richard H. Strauss, had fondled them. He said he could not explain why other more friendly wrestlers had leveled similar charges.
“I never saw, never heard of, never was told about any kind of abuse,” said Mr. Jordan, whose in-your-face brand of politics has made him the choice for speaker of the House by an array of conservative groups. “If I did I would have dealt with it. A good coach puts the interests of his student-athletes first.”
…
… Mr. Jordan continued to fan conspiracy theories connecting the emergence of the charges to his aggressive questioning last month of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, the man many Trump supporters hold responsible for the Russia investigation.
“I think the timing is suspect when you think about how this whole story came together after the Rosenstein hearing and the speaker’s race,” he said.
…
… the president weighed in with his unqualified support. “Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in Washington,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I believe him 100 percent. No question in my mind.”
Mr. Jordan served as an assistant coach on the Ohio State wrestling team in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during which time Dr. Strauss is accused of showering with athletes and touching them inappropriately. The university announced in April that it had begun investigating the allegations against the doctor, who killed himself in 2005.
Mr. Coleman and four other wrestlers have now said that Mr. Jordan was aware of the abuse but did nothing to stop it. Another former Ohio State wrestler, Mike Schyck, said in an interview on Friday that he and other former team members planned to “collectively say some things together,” adding that the scandal is not about Mr. Jordan.
But even as more wrestlers step forward, Mr. Jordan’s base has mounted a defense. The conservative news media has questioned the motives and truthfulness of his accusers.
One of those accusers, Mike DiSabato, scoffed at suggestions that his motivation in calling out Mr. Jordan was political or part of a personal vendetta.
“There were two choices for Jim when he was asked about this situation: He could have told the truth that he saw it, he was there, he was in the showers and saunas with us,” Mr. DiSabato said. “He could have told the truth and stood with us, or he could have played politics.”
Mr. DiSabato said he was saddened by the congressman’s response.
“I’m sorry, I love Jim Jordan, but he doesn’t get to call me a liar to the entire world,” Mr. DiSabato said. “He doesn’t get to call the victims of systemic sexual abuse liars. He doesn’t get to act like he wasn’t in the sauna with us every day being subject to voyeurism.”
The allegations have cast a cloud over the congressman at a time when he is ascendant. Mr. Jordan has emerged as one of the president’s staunchest defenders, helping to lead a Republican counterinvestigation of F.B.I. and Justice Department officials who are looking into potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russian election interference. A founder of the House Freedom Caucus, Mr. Jordan has also been floated as a possible successor to Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, who has announced he will retire at the end of the year (Edmondson “Defiant” 1-3).
In the past few days, Mr. Jordan has evoked his own reputation as a Trump ally and enemy of the so-called deep state — liberal bureaucrats embedded in the government — reminding his base of where his loyalty lies.
“I stood up to the speaker of the House from my home state, to the I.R.S. and to the F.B.I.,” Mr. Jordan told reporters on Wednesday. “To think that I would not stand up for my athletes is ridiculous” (Edmondson “Unshaken” 3).
In a sign that Representative Jim Jordan is unlikely to shake a sexual misconduct scandal anytime soon, five former wrestlers sued Ohio State University this week [July 2018], accusing university officials of knowing that a team doctor was abusing student athletes and doing nothing to stop him.
One of the lawsuits specifically mentions Mr. Jordan, Republican of Ohio, who served as the wrestling team’s assistant coach in the late 1980s and early 1990s, citing news reports that wrestlers had informed him of the abuse. …
…
Eight wrestlers have come forward and accused Mr. Jordan of turning a blind eye to the abuse of the team physician, Richard H. Strauss, who killed himself in 2005.
Mr. Jordan has maintained that he never saw or heard any reports of misconduct and has attacked some of the former wrestlers who have spoken out against him.
...
The lawsuits, filed on Tuesday, describe abuse that was widespread and often public. Dr. Strauss’s conduct is at the heart of a university investigation spanning 14 different sports teams and more than 150 athletes.
More Ohio State alumni — both former athletes and students — have come forward in recent days to say Mr. Strauss had abused them, Mr. Estey said, either as team doctor or at the university’s student health center. The lawyer said he expected an additional 20 to 25 plaintiffs to sign onto Tuesday’s class action.
Together, the lawsuits say that Ohio State officials received at least three complaints about Mr. Strauss from wrestlers: in 1978, after the captain of the wrestling team told a doctor at the university’s health center that Mr. Strauss had fondled him; in 1993, when a wrestler complained to the team’s head coach, Russ Hellickson; and in 1994, when two wrestlers confronted the university’s athletic director.
The lawsuit also cites a recent interview in which Mr. Hellickson told USA Today that he confronted Mr. Strauss and told him that he was making the athletes “uncomfortable” by showering with them. Mr. Hellickson said the doctor responded that the coach also showered with athletes.
“I said, ‘Not for an hour, Doc,’” Mr. Hellickson said.
Mr. Hellickson has maintained that he did not know Mr. Strauss was abusing athletes, and has defended Mr. Jordan’s role in the matter.
…
One of the lawsuits notes that many of the athletes competing for the university were afraid to complain because the university required that they receive physicals from Dr. Strauss before being allowed to compete. Many of those athletes were receiving scholarships.
The plaintiffs in both lawsuits seek unspecified damages, stating that the wrestlers “were prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing daily activities” and have incurred expenses for medical and psychological treatment as a result of the abuse (Edmondson “Lawsuits” 2-4).
The lawsuits filed on Tuesday describe how the misconduct committed by Dr. Strauss was frequently under the guise of medical treatment ...Regardless of the ailment, one lawsuit states, his treatment “almost always included examination, touching and fondling of their genitalia, and it frequently included digital anal penetration under the guise of checking for hernias.”
The university at the time required that athletes submit to a physical, administered by Dr. Strauss, before being allowed to compete, “which meant that systematic sexual abuse from Dr. Strauss was inevitable,” the lawsuit said.
Wrestlers who have spoken about the abuse have said that the doctor’s conduct during physicals was an open secret in the locker room, with athletes referring to him as “Dr. Jellypaws.”
…
News reports cited in the lawsuit also detail how the facility where wrestlers practiced, Larkins Hall, was home to a “cesspool of deviancy,” in which men affiliated with the university would ogle athletes in the showers.
Stephen Estey, a lawyer representing four former wrestlers who have filed a lawsuit against the university, said on Friday that he was getting “inundated” with calls from people saying they had been abused by Dr. Strauss. He expects that an additional 20 to 25 plaintiffs will join the lawsuit, and that hundreds of former students will eventually come forward (Edmondson “More” 3-4).
Congressional Republicans are playing a dangerous game in their rush to defend Jim Jordan, the Ohio congressman facing accusations that, as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, he ignored athletes’ complaints of sexual abuse by the team doctor.
By attacking Mr. Jordan’s accusers, dismissing the accusers as politically motivated and spinning deep-state conspiracy theories — even as the accusations pile up and Mr. Jordan’s denials grow more dubious — lawmakers are opting for tribal loyalty over concern for the public good. While this kind of blind partisanship may feel like a necessity to Republicans in the age of Donald Trump, it has real potential to come back and bite them on their backsides. Also, it’s morally wrong.
…
Among Mr. Jordan’s early defenders was President Trump. “I don’t believe them,” he said a couple of days into the uproar. “No question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man.”
Congressional Republicans have followed the same script, rejecting the very idea that someone of Mr. Jordan’s character would turn a blind eye to abuse. On Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus voted to officially support Mr. Jordan, its former chairman. The caucus’s current chairman, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, has praised his colleague as “a man of the utmost character, honor, and integrity.”
Representative Steve Scalise, the conference’s chief whip, declared, “I have always known Jim Jordan to be honest, and I’m confident he would stand up for his athletes, just like he’s always stood up for what’s right.” Speaker Paul Ryan too has vouched for Mr. Jordan’s “honesty” and “integrity.” Indeed, the cascade of references to Mr. Jordan’s “honesty” and “integrity” has achieved a Manchurian Candidate-like ubiquity.
If Mr. Jordan was a Democrat, does anyone doubt all these men would be singing a different tune?
Even more troubling are Mr. Jordan’s defenders who have gone on the offense against his accusers. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, tweeting admiringly of Mr. Jordan’s “tremendous integrity,” also expressed “faith” in the American people’s ability to “recognize a baseless smear campaign [when] they see it.” Other members have made dark references to the accusers’ “questionable background,” suggesting that true victims would not have waited so long to come forward, and sneering at the notion that adult men could be victimized in such a fashion. (Seriously? Were these guys napping during the #MeToo horror stories?)
…
… multiple members have noted that the law firm handling the abuse investigation for Ohio State has contracted with a Washington-based firm that previously did work for the Democratic Party on the infamous Steele dossier. (Don’t you see? It all goes back to Hillary!) Following Republicans down that rabbit hole leads only to madness.
Since first denying that he ever had an inkling of any abuse, the congressman has felt moved to draw a distinction between specific reports of misconduct and bawdy chatter.
“Conversations in the locker room are a lot different than someone coming up to you and saying there was some kind of abuse,” he explained to Fox News viewers.
…
The congressman clearly fancies himself a fearless crusader willing to stand up to power. But what we have seen of him in the Trump era paints a different picture, of a man absolutely willing to look the other way when things around the workplace get weird and icky.
During the dark days of the “Access Hollywood” tape, as many Republican officeholders were distancing themselves from the nominee, Mr. Jordan made clear that, while he found such vulgar talk unacceptable, he nonetheless would stand by his man.
And stand by Mr. Trump he has, uttering not one critical peep as this president has engaged in such egregious acts as defending neo-Nazis and separating migrant children from their parents. (Even many of Mr. Trump’s most obsequious apologists choked on that one.) As for Mr. Trump’s habitual lying, Mr. Jordan has not simply averted his gaze; he has publicly claimed — even when confronted with specific examples — never to have heard Mr. Trump utter a falsehood. Never. Not once.
As a powerful congressman in his mid-50s, Mr. Jordan has repeatedly failed to stand up to a president whose morally sketchy behavior he witnesses on a daily basis. Can anyone really discount, with 100 percent certainty, the possibility that a 20-something Jim Jordan might have heard but chosen not to pursue horrifying rumors, or even specific allegations, that could have engulfed his entire university in scandal (Editorial 1-4).
Ohio representative and former Ohio State University wrestling coach Jim Jordan aided and abetted in the university's cover-up of sexual abuse within the program, a former team captain said in front of Ohio State legislators on Wednesday [February 2020].
"Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling, begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for a half-hour," DiSabato said Wednesday. "That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on there."
Adam DiSabato, captain of the team during the early 1990s, told members of the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee that Jordan and other officials ignored former Ohio State doctor Richard Strauss's sexual abuse of wrestlers from 1979 to 1997. DiSabato said that Jordan and other team officials knew about open-shower facilities that facilitated sexual harassment and abuse of team wrestlers.
Jordan has previously denied the allegation.
Wednesday's testimony is a part of a hearing on legislation that would permit survivors of Strauss's abuse to sue the university for damages. Currently, the statute of limitations disallows them from doing so.
A university study found that Strauss abused at least 177 people during his tenure as the wrestling team’s doctor. Strauss was never charged and died by suicide in 2005.
A former Ohio State wrestler told the university's lawyers in 2018 that, “Based on testimony from victim athletes from each of the aforementioned varsity sports, we estimate that Strauss sexually assaulted and/or raped a minimum of 1,500/2,000 athletes at OSU.”
In November 2019, NBC News reported that around 350 men were suing Ohio State, saying they were abused.
DiSabato and his brother, Mike, were among the initial whistleblowers that prompted the university to launch an investigation in 2018.
…
Eight wrestlers have said publicly that Jordan was aware of—and did not do anything to stop—Strauss's systemic abuse.
One former wrestler, Dunyasha Yetts, recounted to NBC News an instance in which he was abused and told Jordan directly.
Another former wrestler, Shawn Dailey, later corroborated the story.
“I remember I had a thumb injury and went into Strauss’ office and he started pulling down my wrestling shorts,” he said. “I’m like, what the f--- are you doing? And I went out and told Russ and Jim what happened. I was not having it. They went in and talked to Strauss.”
Yetts said he and his teammates talked to Jordan numerous times about Strauss.
“For God’s sake, Strauss’s locker was right next to Jordan’s and Jordan even said he’d kill him if he tried anything with him,” Yetts said.
DiSabato has said that Jordan gave out a certificate each year called “King of the Sauna,” to the person with the most clever banter while in the shower—a shower where Strauss allegedly performed the bulk of his sexual abuse. Jordan, DiSabato said, hung out in the sauna daily.
…
Since these allegations surfaced in 2018, Jordan has apparently tried to cover-up the cover-up.
In May 2019, Mike DiSabato stated in a Title IX lawsuit against Ohio State that Jordan's second cousin aimed to "intimidate and retaliate" against him for speaking out publicly.
Later that year, Jordan, his younger brother and another former wrestling coach were accused of witness tampering and intimidation in their attempt to suppress accusations from a former wrestler, according to NBC News (Yang 1-3).
Works cited:
Editorial Board. “Is the G.O.P. Following Jim Jordan over a Cliff?” New York Times, Jily 12, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/op...
Edmondson, Catie. “Jim Jordan Is Defiant as Allegations Mount, and Supporters Point to ‘Deep State’.” New York Times, July 6, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us...
Edmondson, Catie. “More Than 100 Former Ohio State Students Allege Sexual Misconduct.” New York Times, July 20, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us...
Edmondson, Catie. “Two Lawsuits against Ohio State Keep Jim Jordan in the Cross Hairs.” New York Times, July 18, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/us...
Edmondson, Catie. Unshaken by Abuse Scandal, Conservatives Are Sticking with Jim Jordan.” New York Times, Jul 11, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/us...
Yang, Avery. “Ex–Ohio State Wrestler Says Rep. Jim Jordan Asked Him To Deny Abuse Allegations.” Sports Illustrated, February 12, 2020. Net. https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/0...
