A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis was two time zones away from the Sunshine State Sunday night. The Florida Governor was in Phoenix rallying for U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters and Arizona gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake, under the auspices of a Turning Point USA “Unite to Win” rally tour appearance.
Masters and Lake, acolytes of Donald Trump, have questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election, a fact that did not escape national observers.
However, there was little focus on stolen elections, with rhetoric tailored toward party unity. And by the end, DeSantis was promising to send National Guard members to stand guard at the Mexican border in cooperation with Lake, if she were elected Governor.
Lake, upon introducing DeSantis, didn’t focus on 2020 so much as extolling DeSantis as being in Trump’s mode and saying being called “DeSantis of the West” was a major compliment.
“He’s got BDE. I call it Big DeSantis Energy. He’s got the same kind of BDE President Trump has,” Lake said, introducing DeSantis as a Governor who brought “Trump strength” to Florida.
DeSantis emerged to the “Real American” theme song of former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, a new flourish, asserting that Election Day would see Republicans “fight back.”
Florida will “get the election wave” started, with said wave going across the country and electing Lake and Masters, he predicted.
DeSantis urged for Arizonans, post-Primary, to “be united against the Democrats,” and said that the Republican Governors Association and the National Republican Senatorial Committee need to be “all in” for this election.
“Once areas go left, buckle your seat belt. It’s not going to be an easy ride. I don’t want to see that happen in Arizona,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis forecast cooperation with Lake on border policy enforcement.
“If you’re willing to put people at the border,” DeSantis said he told Lake, “I’m willing to send National Guard to help.”
From there, the Governor played the post-pandemic rhetorical greatest hits, from Faucian dystopia to the Free State of Florida and “the woke mind virus.”
The material rocked the crowd in Arizona as DeSantis extolled “the need for strong Governors.”
“What we did in Florida was we really led the nation,” DeSantis said, saying “international media” and “establishment Republicans” chided him for moves like opening beaches during the COVID-19 wave of summer 2020.
DeSantis also mocked President Joe Biden’s bouts with coronavirus: “How many times did he test positive for COVID?”
“Hopefully we don’t have a case of Long Biden,” DeSantis joked.
The zingers weren’t done for the President.
“Jimmy Carter was a better President than Biden,” DeSantis said, more seriously.
DeSantis stumping for Trump’s endorsed candidates comes as the former President is central to the news cycle. Trump continues to manage perception of the FBI search and retrieval of materials at Mar-a-Lago Trump purloined and took to Florida.
DeSantis went to bat for Trump over a half hour into the speech, claiming that agencies have been “weaponized” and Hillary Clinton wasn’t subject to such indignities “when she had a rogue server and she was laundering classified information.”
The Governor tweeted a denunciation of the search from his political account, rather than his official handle last week.
“The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves,” DeSantis wrote.
Polling has shown DeSantis as popular in Arizona, the first choice for the GOP nomination if Trump does not run in 2024. In the last year and a half, speculation has abounded about DeSantis potentially running against Trump, but here he seemed to be very much in a support role of the larger Trump agenda.
Democrats, meanwhile, denounced DeSantis’ latest political trip ahead of time.
“Between begging billionaires for donations and campaigning for extremist candidates across the country, it’s clear that Ron DeSantis isn’t thinking about Florida right now. His only focus is his own ambition, even if it means leaving Floridians behind,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Travis Reuther.
10 comments
Joan C Swenson
August 15, 2022 at 3:46 am
So very glad to see some energy in our party, instead of just Trump all the time. Bless you all!!!
rustie
August 15, 2022 at 8:07 am
I wish that Rona would just move out of State, Arizona seems like a good fit for that whack job. Great job on fixing the Florida real property insurance market Rona! Under your “leadership” Florida is just one big storm away from an insurance meltdown. The so-called fix, Citizen’s Socialist Property Insurance, is writing all the high risk policies that smart money won’t touch; and once the big storm hits, every other policyholder in Florida will be “taxed’ to pay the claims of those dummies who choose to live in harm’s way. Just how is that consistent with a traditional Republican Party “free market” approach and one of “limited government?” It’s NOT. Rona is a shape-shifter; he only says what is convenient to the audience at the time and place. Example, he was all “back the Blue” until the FBI executed a valid search warrant at the Tramp Estate – now he’s all for throwing the FBI under the bus and running the FBI over repeatedly. Another example, he touts how “free” Florida is; yet, he is all for denying a woman’s right to privacy and to make her own medical choices. Rona DeSatan is an anti-American, anti-freedom radical who does not deserve to be in ANY elected office. He should move out of Florida and STFU.
Heather Thompson
August 15, 2022 at 10:15 am
No. Maybe you should leave… if Ron leaves.. he will be going to Washington DC to the White House.
John Chambers
August 15, 2022 at 10:19 am
Take your own advice, honey. We don’t need or want that fascist in Florida or running the country. We’ve all seen how leaders like this end up, 1945 Germany.
Mr. Haney
August 15, 2022 at 3:52 pm
You’re obviously not too bright. Americans don’t like dictators who take advantage of people like you who live in fear.
Jerry
August 15, 2022 at 10:18 pm
You liberals have been promoting fear for more than 2 years now for a virus that for vast majority of us is no worse than a bad cold. But we are supposed to lockdown, shut down our small businesses while the major corporations make billions in profits, everyone forced to wear masks, and forced to take experimental injections.
But Republicans are the tyrants?
Joe Corsin
August 16, 2022 at 12:05 am
@HT: You don’t know ye tits from ye silly gash. Cave man conservatism is not the future of humanity. Seek help for abuse and possible intellectual disability 😆
Earl Pitts American
August 15, 2022 at 8:47 am
Good morning F. P. editorial staff,
You will be getting a call this morning from someone you cant say no to regarding this Gancarski artical.
You will be asked to take it down because it shows Trump and Desantis clearly already working together this far out from the Presidental election.
The problem is it goes against the current leftist narrative of pitting Trump and Desantis against each other in order to perhaps goad Trump to announce he’s running again prior to the midterms in order to gin up enough Trump hate to save a few congerssional seats from going red. Just giving Peter a heads up pull the artical Peter ASAP.
You are welcome.
Thank you F. P. editorial staff (Peter dont beat them up too bad for going off narative).
Earl Pitts American
Mr. Haney
August 15, 2022 at 3:54 pm
Sure comrade, it’s the leftists who nominate Republicans.
Be a hero, don’t vote
Just a comment
August 15, 2022 at 5:25 pm
Florida is the master plan for havoc and t too and who dug into the river in Arizona and all that well water
Comments are closed.