Ron DeSantis says 'newcomers' to Florida are often bad boaters

'They'll buy these boats and don't know necessarily how to run them right.'

Should newcomers to Florida learn to boat? Ron DeSantis suggests so, and that those lessons should happen sooner than later for some recent transplants.

The Governor said Tuesday that one difference between longtime Floridians and those new to the Sunshine State can be found in how they operate boats.

“Newcomers,” per the Governor, have a bit of a learning curve before they navigate the state’s waterways with the aplomb of longtime residents, who apparently are more skilled navigators.

“What are you going to learn to do? Like some, you can learn to golf,” DeSantis quipped. “But a lot of them learn to boat and fish.”

“The problem is, they’ll buy these boats and don’t know necessarily how to run them right, yet,” DeSantis added, enjoying his own comic riff. “And so you’ll know who the newcomers are. And these boat captains are like, ‘Yeah, that person just moved here and I’ve got to teach them a little bit.'”

“They’ll learn, that’s fine,” DeSantis added.

DeSantis made the remarks about boaters as part of a larger contemplation of people who moved to Florida during the pandemic, and much of his side material was familiar, such as a reference to the state as a “refuge of sanity in a world gone mad,” and an increasingly familiar Cold War canard.

“They would tell me they would come from these lockdown jurisdictions and they land in Florida, and say this is what it must be like going from East Berlin to West Berlin,” DeSantis said.

The Governor made the comments Tuesday in Jupiter while he was accepting a re-election endorsement from the Everglades Trust. The group endorsed him in 2018, and has been a staunch supporter of his environmental agenda.

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18 comments

Fat Cammack
September 6, 2022 at 5:29 pm

Vote for me. Take a ride on my big boat babydoll. I’ll get naked and we can eat fried chicken together. After I’m worked up it’s quite possible I’ll do you a bare assed face scrub. Teach you all a good lesson about the GOP 🍩💋
- AJ
  September 6, 2022 at 5:37 pm
  
  LOL!!! My hero. 🤣🤣🤣 This dip💩 has got to go.
- Hope
  September 6, 2022 at 8:13 pm
  
  You need a brain scrub.🤕
  - Fat Cammack
    September 6, 2022 at 8:48 pm
    
    You need a brain period..
PeterH
September 6, 2022 at 5:30 pm

Hey DeSantis…. stay laser focused on controlling deadly driving on the Florida turnpike and 95!
Dee
September 6, 2022 at 6:36 pm

I really am lost for words! With the crime rate, homelessness, homeowners insurance crisis; no rent control and these are his concerns; New boaters! I do not understand anyone who supports this bull in a china shop!
TJC
September 6, 2022 at 6:38 pm

That was kind of the writer to characterize DeSantis’s delivery as “enjoying his own comic riff,” when in fact it was not funny and he was being an ass. As usual.
Ocean Joe
September 6, 2022 at 7:13 pm

“They would tell me they would come from these lockdown jurisdictions and they land in Florida, and say this is what it must be like going from East Berlin to West Berlin,” DeSantis said.

Who told him that, Christina Pushaw coming back from her job as a foreign agent? That’s as hokey as Biden telling us what his dad told him as a kid, or Trump’s “people are saying” nonsense.
Don’t Look Up
September 6, 2022 at 7:36 pm

Young people and women are registering to vote in large numbers …. up 20% in some states. Florida’s young women need to pay attention. DeSantis is silent on abortion laws but you can count on a plethora of draconian “Handmaid’s Tale” laws coming in the days after the election if you allow DeSantis to win in 2020.

VOTE REPUBLICANS OUT OF OFFICE!
Frankie M.
September 6, 2022 at 8:38 pm

This is why we can’t have nice things.
marylou
September 6, 2022 at 11:03 pm

RonDuh, tell us about your abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest— or being 10 year olds. And, your plan for a 100%, no exceptions ban after the election. Make sure everyone knows how proud you are of denying contraceptives to poor women. How many kids named Ronnie?? Go on, brag about agreeing with Rubio that a woman should have to get written permission from a man to have an abortion. It’s been a 50 year dream for Republicans.
Hey! Hey! You should be dancing! Yeah! Cheers! Yay!!
Jack Forrestal
September 7, 2022 at 12:10 am

I moved from the blue lockdown state of WA and tyrant gov Jay Inslee. It truly is like going from East Berlin to West Berlin. I visited WA state again again a couple weeks back and a lot of people are still wearing masks and social distancing.

Happy to be in the free state of Florida, with the great Gov. Ron DeSantis keeping Florida open and free!

Women determined to commit infanticide of their unborn children have lots of blue states to choose from to slaughter their unborn offspring. Some of those states are offering to cover the costs for such women.

People with businesses, well, it’s a lot harder to just up and move your family business to another state because of ridiculous and ineffective lockdown policies. Thank GOD for the great Gov. Ron DeSantis having a large pair of steelies and keeping Florida open. True leadership!
- marylou
  September 7, 2022 at 2:02 pm
  
  Freedom to practice your own religion—not force it on other people! Keep your sperm to yourself and it won’t be a problem for you! But good idea– a fine 1st time it gets out of its place, 2nd infraction gets you a vasectomy, 3rd? just say you won’t be having that pesky problem again! And if a woman needs an abortion, you get a zygoteslaughter sentence since you knew the risks!
  And, those “such women” didn’t self-impregnate, but I encourage you to go give it a try!
  Vote for Crist to keep Ron DeSanctimonious out of women’s bodies.
Bill
September 7, 2022 at 7:53 am

I had to laugh yesterday when roni was standing near Fort Myers beach taking credit for the incredible job he’s done with water quality when Lovers Key (literally 5 or 6 miles down the road) has been closed since last week because of the bad water quality. Never let facts stand in the way of a good story I guess.
Lee Roller
September 7, 2022 at 11:18 am

I look suspiciously at anything that frames an “us” and “them” dynamic.

Even it it’s not overtly threatening, it is a perspective of division.

Who would’ve expected such a thing from Greasy Ron?
I am what I am
September 7, 2022 at 3:59 pm

At 33 million a mile new commers he should have known the water was bad traffic and elbow to elbow looking trashy boating
- I am what I am
  September 7, 2022 at 4:08 pm
  
  Plus the way it is going mandatory insurance’s for dents and bends
WBB
September 8, 2022 at 1:41 pm

Is this guy for real?? He’s making an issue about new boaters while he’s trying to run Disney out of the state, telling the teachers how and what to teach, getting rid of elected officials without cause, setting womens’ rights back 50 years, and has a state imploding because of homeowners insurance??? Yep, new boaters is right at the top of MY list of things to be concerned about……