Ron DeSantis leans into 6-week abortion ban, constitutional carry at Heritage Foundation

Florida’s Governor is continuing his heavy travel schedule, offering familiar remarks along the way, with two notable exceptions.

At long last, the Governor referenced the six-week abortion ban and constitutional carry legislation, two gifts to the right wing likely to be major issues in the 2024 presidential race.

“We recently signed the Heartbeat Bill to Protect Life. We’ve signed constitutional carry, because you shouldn’t need a permission slip to exercise your Second Amendment freedoms,” DeSantis said.

Ron DeSantis made the remarks at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Celebration on Friday, in yet another out-of-state speech ahead of a likely run for President.

Otherwise, the remarks struck many of the same themes his other speeches around the country have, with the same language used elsewhere, with a few exceptions for the conservative influencer crowd in Washington.

DeSantis called Florida the “beating heart of the conservative movement in the United States,” inviting Heritage to relocate.

“Florida is the state where our shared ideas and values actually become reality,” DeSantis contended. “We reject the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years. In Florida, we know there is no substitute for victory.”

Other than those flourishes, the address was heavy on the usual.

DeSantis trotted out well-worn denunciations of “Fauci-ism,” the media, the idea that “gender is a choice,” The Walt Disney Co., DEI (“discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination,” as DeSantis called it), the “‘woke’ mind virus” and “cultural Marxism,” environmental, social, and corporate governance, the Black Lives Matter “riots,” and local governments “defunding the police.”

“Don’t tell me that babies are born racist. Don’t tell me that men can get pregnant,” DeSantis said, trumpeting the “war on woke'” to polite applause.

As he has in recent days, DeSantis also pledged that Florida would hold “normal school” where “students are not forced to pick pronouns in our schools.”

“We didn’t do that until about five days ago,” the Governor quipped.

DeSantis also addressed the combination of cowboy boots and suits during Q&A, contextualizing a sartorial choice that has added some height to the Governor’s stature in recent months.

“When I was in the Navy … you had the normal dress with your khaki uniform, cowboy boots were authorized, and that’s one of the times I got into it.”

DeSantis’ remarks earned real-time denunciation from the Democratic National Committee’s “War Room.”

“Ron DeSantis is speaking at a Heritage Foundation summit today. His appearance is no surprise. DeSantis’ MAGA agenda mirrors Heritage’s extreme priorities: banning abortion, gutting Social Security and Medicare, and protecting billionaires from paying their fair share in taxes,” the Democratic rapid response organ tweeted.

“For the first time (and only at a D.C.-area conservative summit where he wouldn’t face Floridians’ fury), DeSantis bragged about his six-week ban on abortion — before most people know they’re pregnant,” snarked American Bridge.