Ashley Moody addresses Senate opening, Rick Scott’s leadership bid

Image via Fox News.

Florida’s Attorney General could be moving up given the expected appointment of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to the Secretary of State position.

But if Ashley Moody wants the potential appointment from Gov. Ron DeSantis, she’s stopping short of declaring definite interest, at least publicly.

During an interview on “Fox & Friends First,” the Plant City Republican was coy in deflecting the question of the day.

Asked what her “priorities would be as Senator,” Moody redirected the question, reframing it as what her priorities are “right now.”

“Last Tuesday, the American people said, ‘We are back. We are ready to take the government back on behalf of the people and really upend some of these agencies who had their own priorities in mind, these bureaucrats,'” Moody explained.

“So you’re going to have to have people in these high offices working with Donald Trump, even leaders in the Senate, like Rick Scott, who have a history of getting things done. I think his tagline has always been, ‘Let’s get to work.’ They can drill down into the morass of these bureaucracies and make sure that we’re doing these hard U-turns that we need to do in this country to get us back on the right path.”

The interviewer then asked Moody if she wanted the job as Senator.

Again, she stopped short of declaring direct interest, before tacitly teasing the possibility of a move to federal office.

“I have my hands full here as Attorney General and I’m incredibly focused on this job working on behalf of Floridians, making sure I’m protecting the autonomy of the state and pushing Washington out of our business and holding them accountable,” Moody said.

“Of course, I have loved being in leadership, working with President Trump, working with Gov. DeSantis, and I hope to continue working on behalf of Floridians,” Moody said.

Though Moody obviously won’t be positioned to weigh in on Wednesday’s Senate Majority Leader vote that determines how impactful Scott will be in the Senate the next six years, she further endorsed him as a change agent.

“He has a history, like I said, of getting things done. And President Trump, he has been given a mandate and the people want change,” Moody argued.

“The status quo is no longer acceptable in this country, especially in these agencies. You have had people come into these agencies for decades, set up a structure. We move people in as the agency heads, but they can’t get a lot done because they won’t get in and dig in and disrupt the foundation.”

To that end, she believes “the President is going to need a Congress that works with him to allow these leaders to change policy, (to) really disrupt how things have been done … returning these agencies to agencies of the people. Again, last Tuesday showed us that the American people do not like the direction this country is going in. And you’ve got to have strong leadership in all branches of government to make sure we return this country in the hands of its true owners, the American people, not the squatters, the bureaucrats in our agencies that have taken over in Washington.”

Several dominoes need to fall before Moody heads to the Senate, including the formalizing of Rubio’s appointment to Secretary of State and DeSantis’ ultimate decision. Potential candidates range from Republican National Committee Chair Lara Trump to DeSantis’ Chief of Staff James Uthmeier, as well as Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.

DeSantis is in Italy through Friday on a trade mission, so even if Rubio is picked to run the State Department formally before that trip is over, the Governor’s decision may not be immediate.