‘Lame Duck Ron lays an egg’: Watchdog group, GOP lawmaker bash Gov. DeSantis on Special Session

After a Special Session on immigration that saw Republican state lawmakers openly defy (and insult) Gov. Ron DeSantis, a watchdog group that has long been on the Governor’s case is adding to the pile-on.

In a press note titled “Lame Duck Ron lays an egg,” DeSantis Watch ridiculed the “Top Gov” for his inability to corral GOP legislators behind his preferred bills, which Senate and House leaders swapped Monday for a measure named after President Donald Trump.

Desantis is less than two years from terming out of office. After a dismal performance in the 2024 presidential race, the Governor is on a “desperate search for national relevance,” DeSantis Watch Communications Director Anders Croy said before criticizing Republican policymakers for prioritizing headlines over relief for Floridians.

“While the state’s lame duck Governor was laying an egg … Republican leaders in Florida were also laser focused on their own political ambitions rather than lowering our costs, raising our wages, and keeping our communities safe,” Croy said in a statement before turning his attention to DeSantis’ numerous media appearances since Monday.

“As Ron DeSantis spends his waning time in office powdering his face for TV hits and trying out different podcast mics, Floridians deserve leadership that addresses the real issues facing working families and seniors, not the parade of political stunts he seems intent on marching in. If the Governor wants to look tough and actually do his job, maybe he could focus some of his remaining energy on standing up to the property insurance corporations price gouging Floridians out of their homes instead of staging tryouts for a weekend desk at Newsmax.”

Croy is hardly the first to call DeSantis a “lame duck,” a phrase often used to describe politicians nearing the end of their term whose successor has been or will be elected soon, thus giving them less influence with other politicians. The term isn’t entirely negative; lame ducks, because they’re already leaving office, are freer to make controversial decisions without fear of reprisal, as was the case with Joe Biden’s fleet of pardons before he left the Oval Office this month.

Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras, a staunch Trump supporter, lobbed the descriptor at DeSantis on Tuesday. His comments came shortly before the Legislature passed the TRUMP Act, a harsh package of anti-illegal immigration measures Desantis has since threatened to veto.

“The voters of (Florida) overwhelmingly elected a Republican Supermajority legislature to support the policies of (Donald Trump), not those of a lame-duck governor grasping for political relevancy after losing his presidential primary,” Porras wrote on X.

In a follow-up post, he added, “I encourage all the DeSantis fake and paid-for bot accounts to contribute to this tweet. It only proves why we may need to investigate his budget more closely!”

By “fake and paid for bots,” Porras was likely referring to a mixture of X accounts, including AI-run “bot” accounts, accounts run by anonymous users with aliases like Max Nordau, who replied to Porras’ post by sharing the lawmaker’s office phone numbers, and current and former staffers like Christina Pushaw, who worked at the Governor’s Office and on DeSantis’ presidential team.

Pushaw responded to the post, too, with an oft-used suggestion that Porras “Cope harder.”

“How are ‘fake and paid bot accounts’ able to call your office?” she asked.

It is anyone’s guess what Pushaw was suggesting Porras cope with. He supported the TRUMP Act, which passed, not the DeSantis-backed immigration bills, which the Legislature unceremoniously jettisoned before restoring $56 million in support services the Governor vetoed last year.