Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis (photo, left), who wants to be president, suspended Tampa’s twice-elected Democratic prosecutor on Thursday, August 4, 2022, “for pledging not to enforce the state’s new 15-week abortion ban and for supporting gender-affirming treatments for minors” (see story here).
“I don’t think the people of Hillsborough County want to have an agenda that is basically woke, where you’re deciding that your view of social justice means certain laws shouldn’t be enforced,” DeSantis said in a news conference, flanked by sheriffs and police chiefs.
Why a news conference? Because he’s running for re-election, and soon will run for president. This is political theater.
And yes, he actually said that with a straight face. The Ron DeSantis who ordered Florida schools “not to follow federal guidelines that protect transgender youth” (see story here). The DeSantis who defied federal mask mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic. (If you’re curious, as of August 5, 2022, Florida’s Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 population are double Washington’s, 363 vs. 179, see data here.)
And I wonder what DeSantis would say to Loren Culp, a Republican gadfly who made his name in Washington State politics by refusing to enforce a new gun safety law (see article here)? Wanna bet nothing?
More than almost any other Republican, DeSantis is pure partisan politics, and oozes hypocrisy. When America elects its next president, it can and should do better.