When it comes to corruption in the State of Florida, there is no criminal more guilty than Governor Ron DeSantis, and his wife Casey DeSantis, who stole $10 Million from the poorest of Floridians.
The Hope Florida scandal that has enveloped the DeSantis’ throughout the last year has reached a new fevered pitch as CBS News Miami has leaked the entire grand jury presentment against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his wife, First Lady Casey DeSantis.
The leaks reveal damning evidence that the grand jury found evidence of severe, and even potentially criminal conduct by the First Family as it pertains to the Centene settlement, in which their appointed officials illegally steered $10 Million into Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida charity.
Now the DeSantis’ are trying to cover up the information by suing those attempting to expose this information before the midterm elections.
We will examine the depth of the DeSantis’ treachery as it pertains to their theft of $10 Million later within the article, but first, let’s look at DeSantis’ own statements on the matter.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis have been clear over the last year. Each time the couple has been asked publicly about the ‘Hope Florida’ scandal, in which DeSantis and his wife skimmed $10 Million from taxpayers through their own appointed officials and a Medicaid settlement, they have vehemently denied wrongdoing.
At times, the Governor has even gone as far as to attack those who dare to ask questions about the scandal. During a press conference in February, DeSantis attacked a reporter for asking questions about the allegations that he and his wife had taken $10 Million from the poorest Floridians, handing it to Casey DeSantis’ own Hope Florida charity, in a settlement with Centene.
DeSantis scolded the reporter, “Political lies!” he said.
“We said at the beginning. It was a political op, it was a hoax, and we’re at this point, clearly that was true. Our agencies acted in ways that were legally sound and appropriate. That’s the fact. The fact that you wouldn’t have even opened one with DOJ, there was no basis to even do it, I think that’s really telling. It was all a political scam. There was a political agenda,” DeSantis added.
Thanks to CBS News Miami, we now know just how much Ron DeSantis was really lying about the Hope Florida scandal, and the depths to which he and his wife sunk in order to divert money from needy Floridians to their own political causes. We also have new information on how the scam played out, who helped orchestrate the theft, and who allowed it to happen.
Not only did Ron DeSantis orchestrate a criminal scheme to swindle poor Floridians out of money for their healthcare. He also lied about it, in public, for over a year. Now, because of the leaks, his lies have been exposed.
What Is The Hope Florida Scandal?
Casey DeSantis’ “Hope Florida” charity received a $10 million payout as part of a 2022 settlement with the state’s largest Medicaid provider at the behest of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) - in a clear conflict of interest.
The money was moved into Hope Florida from the AHCA as part of a $67 million settlement between the AHCA and Medicaid provider Centene regarding alleged overpayments made to pharmacy benefit managers.
$57 million of this settlement money went back to the taxpayers while $10 million went to Casey DeSantis’ nonprofit, as compelled by the AHCA in the documentation. The AHCA denies that this payout involved “the expenditure of state funds” in a peculiar and deceptive claim designed to dispel legitimate inquiry into the developing scandal.
“There was no civil action and this settlement did not require the expenditure of state funds, so no notice was required,” AHCA Deputy Chief of Staff Mallory McManus said in an email to Politico. “This was a pre-suit settlement in AHCA’s favor that was directed, in part, to the direct support organization which serves a population of individuals traditionally served by AHCA.”
McManus is a DeSantis hack using weasel words to obfuscate the facts of the matter. The settlement money was clearly meant to go to the people, and yet it ended up in the coffers of Hope Florida. If the AHCA thought this money should be dispersed to nonprofits, why was this money not dispersed to different public health nonprofits? Why was it not evenly distributed between different nonprofits engaged in this sort of work? The answer, of course, is due to political connections.
The state has been tight-lipped about divulging any further details about the settlement and which parties were involved, only adding to the intrigue and sending signals that the DeSantis family has much to hide. New reports indicate that the $10 million may have been funneled into the coffers of an anti-cannabis campaign supported by Hope Florida’s partners at the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
Records show that Hope Florida gave a $5 million grant to the Florida Chamber’s ‘Secure Florida’s Future’ front group and an additional $5 million grant to the ‘Save our Society from Drugs’ organization after receiving the controversial settlement. Both of those organizations then funneled substantial sums of money, close to the amount they received from Hope Florida, to the Keep Florida Clean committee to defeat Amendment 3, a measure to legalize cannabis in Florida, in the 2024 election.
DeSantis even publicly referred to the $10 Million as the ‘cherry on top’ of the deal with Centene.
“When you do settlements, you can try to get as much money as you can, but this was in addition to what they were getting. This is kind of like a cherry on top where they agreed to make an additional contribution, and so we were served well by what ACHA did,” DeSantis said during a news conference.
Grand Jury Finds DeSantis Administration Directly Stole Money From Florida’s Poorest Residents
Lost in the reporting on the Hope Florida scandal is the omission by the grand jury that Ron DeSantis and his thugs stole $10 Million directly from the poorest Floridians, endangering their access the basic healthcare.
Centene’s settlement was based on Medicaid funds, and the grand jury found that all, not some, of the funds negotiated in the $67 Million+ settlement belonged to the defrauded Florida Medicaid recipients.
As stated previously, DeSantis had previously referred to the $10 Million portion pushed to Hope Florida as a ‘cherry on top’ of an overall Medicaid settlement. The court thoroughly debunked this argument, which was presented by several DeSantis officials.
“Hence this money was part of the damages Centene owned to Florida’s taxpayers,” the jury found.
DeSantis Appointee Jason Weida Hid Stolen $10 Million From State Legislature
The jury went further, concluding that the decision to reduce that portion of the settlement to exactly $10 million was done to circumvent a state law requiring any settlements above that threshold be directed to the general revenue fund controlled by state lawmakers.
Not only did DeSantis and his goons steal $10 Million, but they stole the exact amount necessary to evade any accountability in the process.
Once a settlement reaches a certain threshold, just over $10 Million, the state legislature has say over where the funds are diverted. Weida and DeSantis carefully crafted the payment to Hope Florida to evade this law, and ultimately accountability.
The official specifically named in this portion of the grand jury presentment is Jason Weida, former secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration and one of four state officials who signed the settlement.
It also pointed to his decision to reimburse the federal government’s share of recovered Medicaid funds based on the full $67 million settlement.
DeSantis’ Deputy Chief Of Staff Katie Strickland ‘Fails To Remember’ Multiple Meetings With Centene On Settlement
The grand jury made several revelations that implicate Ron DeSantis and Casey DeSantis, as well as many of the officials he has surrounded himself with in the State government. It heard testimony from many DeSantis officials, including Katie Strickland, DeSantis’ Deputy Chief of Staff.
Strickland oversaw the health care agencies working with Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida initiative, including the Agency for Health Care Administration which negotiated the deal with Centene.
Though Casey DeSantis had no official chief of staff, Strickland effectively served in that role. In 2022, Strickland attended at least three meetings about Centene, including one with the CEO of the company’s Florida subsidiary. She was intricately involved in the negotiations.
The grand jury, however, found Strickland to be completely “uninformative” and “not credible.”
Strickland, who served as DeSantis’ Deputy Chief of Staff, and the person that would be closest to serving as Casey DeSantis’ Chief of Staff, according to the leaked documents refused to reveal basic information about her contacts with Centene.
Why did Strickland refuse to speak on the meetings she had in 2022 with Centene? It seems obvious. With her placement overseeing the AHCA, and directly meeting with Centene multiple times in 2022, she would have been intricately involved in the innerworkings of this deal, yet she ‘couldn’t remember’ enough to provide information.
Grand Jury Wanted Criminal Charges, But ‘Amnesia’ Stood In The Way
Within the leaked resentment it is revealed that the ‘general amnesia’ of DeSantis officials including Strickland, Weida, and others was the only impediment standing in the way of criminal indictments in the Hope Florida scandal.
Isn’t that convenient?
“While we can’t prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes,” jury members wrote.
In addition to finding the money being used for political purposes, the grand jury also found that Hope Florida ‘mischaracterized’ how it used the diverted money once it was officially received.
It also found a pattern of diverted funds being misappropriated throughout state government, not just as it pertains to this specific settlement with Centene.
The DeSantis administration diverted at least $36.2 million in taxpayer resources originally earmarked for healthcare, child welfare, opioid recovery, and aid to vulnerable Floridians, including children, to fund advertising campaigns against various state wide 2024 ballot measures the Governor opposed.
Critics, including Republican State Rep. Alex Andrade of Pensacola, have alleged rampant corruption, money laundering, and misuse of public funds.
Now let’s take a look at evidence against Hope Florida that was revealed during a Florida Legislature hearing last year.
Florida Legislature Found Ron & Casey’s Hope Florida Failed to File Basic IRS Paperwork
Joshua Hay, the head of the Hope Florida Foundation, testified that the nonprofit, only a few weeks before the hearing, hired accountants to help it. He said the previous accounting of the foundation, which would included the time when the $10 Million settlement was paid by Centene was done by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
“There were lapses in reporting procedures; there are lapses in reporting procedures. And the foundation was not provided with the staffing support necessary to ensure all matters were quickly and appropriately handled,” Hay testified.
Rep. Allison Tant railed against Hope Florida for its failure to obtain basic organization paperwork such as bylaws, saying, “I’m just astonished. I’m astonished that you don’t have bylaws, a budget, meeting minutes.”
Rep. Alex Andrade claimed that he was “stunned” by the organization’s lack of transparency, saying, “I’m more stunned, than anything else, by the responses, the demeanor, the flippancy [toward] the serious questions we have.”
Andrade added, “I have serious concerns about what might be occurring in the post-dating of documentation in the attempt to justify and cover up what actually happened.”
Hope Florida Director Joshua Hay admitted during the Legislature’s hearing that Hope Florida failed to file basic tax documentation, including its IRS 990 form required to legally accept donations. Hay told lawmakers in Tallahassee, “[There was a] misunderstanding on who was responsible for preparing the tax records for the non-profit.”
“In recent weeks, the public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made,” Hay added.
The IRS requires Form 990 to be filed by the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization’s fiscal year ends, and failure to file for three consecutive years can lead to automatic revocation of tax-exempt status.
Considering that Hope Florida has existed since 2021, it would be, under the IRS law, eligible to lose its tax-exempt status for its failure to file.
Hope Florida Doesn’t Even Have Headquarters, State Legislature Finds
It was also revealed in the Florida State legislature hearing that Hope Florida does not have a headquarters or an actual place of operation.
The Hope Florida Foundation was found to lack a dedicated office or building, operating instead in a nebulous capacity without a verifiable headquarters, raising additional questions about the organization’s legitimacy.
Hope Florida Only Gave $500k To Needy Families
Joshua Hay, the Hope Florida Foundation’s chair, testified that the foundation had distributed “north of $10 million” in grants, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
However, lawmakers challenged this, noting that campaign finance records and foundation documents showed only about $500,000 in smaller grants to individuals and organizations, excluding the two $5 million grants to Securing Florida’s Future and Save Our Society from Drugs, which totaled $10 million.
Rep. Marie Woodson hammered Hay over this, asking him, “I’m struggling to understand how you can claim such a large amount of grants when the actual impact on Floridians seems so small. Where is the money really going?”
Rep. Andrade stated about the lack of funds distributed to Floridians, “You’re telling us you’ve granted over $10 million, but when we look at the numbers, it’s clear the vast majority went to two questionable groups, not to helping Floridians.”
The poorest of Florida residents were taken advantage of by their Governor, who directly stole $10 Million from them, illegally diverting the money to charity controlled by his wife, who then funneled the money to support political causes backed by the Governor.
Despite attempting to portray themselves as helping the needy with Hope Florida, all available evidence on the organization portrays it as nothing more than a front for Ron and Casey to divert millions of taxpayer dollars, and to funnel it to the political causes that matter to them most.
It remains to be seen whether or not the DeSantis’ will ever face justice for their clear criminal conduct. The only reason this grand jury failed to produce a criminal indictment is the ‘general amnesia’ no-doubt coordinated by the DeSantis team heading into the trial.
For Americans, this is a shining example of what Ron DeSantis and his family are capable of doing with access to power. No mother is safe, no child is cared for, and the hard-earned tax dollars that are taken from you, the American people, to be used to care for the sick, and elderly, are nowhere near safe when the DeSantis’ are near.
Though the grand jury found that the funds diverted to Hope Florida were misappropriated for political use, they failed to bring criminal indictments. Will the DeSantis’ skirt accountability forever?
The Republican Party of Florida is threatening criminal prosecution of television stations, the Democratic Party and, by the terms of its own legal theory, anyone who repeats a Leon County grand jury’s finding that high-ranking state officials diverted $10 million in the Hope Florida scandal.
The facts here are pretty clear. Ron and Casey DeSantis diverted $10 million in federal Medicaid funds to a Dark money political committee that they used to fund a constitutional statewide amendment campaign. This money was earmarked for the poorest of Floridians, as well as the handicapped. James Uthmeier, then the governor’s Chief of Staff, but now the appointed Attorney General, facilitated the transfer.
Casey DeSantis’ “Hope Florida” charity received a $10 million payout as part of a settlement with the state’s largest Medicaid provider at the behest of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) – in a clear conflict of interest.
The money was moved into Hope Florida from the AHCA as part of a $67 million settlement between the AHCA and Medicaid provider Centene regarding alleged overpayments made to pharmacy benefit managers. $57 million of this settlement money went back to the taxpayers while $10 million went to Casey DeSantis’ nonprofit, as compelled by the AHCA in the documentation. The AHCA denies that this payout involved “the expenditure of state funds” in a peculiar and deceptive claim designed to dispel legitimate inquiry into the developing scandal.
“There was no civil action and this settlement did not require the expenditure of state funds, so no notice was required,” AHCA Deputy Chief of Staff Mallory McManus said in an email to Politico. “This was a pre-suit settlement in AHCA’s favor that was directed, in part, to the direct support organization which serves a population of individuals traditionally served by AHCA.”
McManus is a DeSantis hack using weasel words to obfuscate the facts of the matter. The settlement money was clearly meant to go to the people, and yet it ended up in the coffers of Hope Florida. If the AHCA thought this money should be dispersed to nonprofits, why was this money not dispersed to different public health nonprofits? Why was it not evenly distributed between different nonprofits engaged in this sort of work? The answer, of course, is due to political connections.
The state has been tight-lipped about divulging any further details about the settlement and which parties were involved, only adding to the intrigue and sending signals that the DeSantis family has much to hide. Reports indicate that the $10 million may have been funneled into the coffers of an anti-cannabis campaign supported by Hope Florida’s partners at the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
Records show that Hope Florida gave a $5 million grant to the Florida Chamber’s ‘Secure Florida’s Future’ front group and an additional $5 million grant to the ‘Save our Society from Drugs’ organization after receiving the controversial settlement. Both of those organizations then funneled substantial sums of money, close to the amount they received from Hope Florida, to the Keep Florida Clean committee to defeat Amendment 3, a measure to legalize cannabis in Florida, in last year’s election.
Republican lawmakers, whose state-mandated oversight of these funds was sidestepped, are not convinced by the DeSantis spin and continue to demand answers into what very well may be an illegal payout.
Then Attorney General Ashley Moody, now appointed to the US Senate, approved the transaction. The Florida State House held revelatory hearings on the matter. Ultimately the perpetrators returned the $10 million but took it from state Medicare funds not from their political coffers to which the money they grabbed had flown.
When initially asked about the illicit transfer Governor Desantis urged reports to ask his wife since the Hope project was “her thing,” referencing his wife.
The Governors defenders claimed that $10 millions dollars came from a fine that had been levied against a company caught over-charging the Medicare System. This argument does not hold water because the fines still belonged to the State Medicare system and should have been used to fund the Medicare program not to illicitly fund a campaign against those “Desanti” ,as I call them, oppose.
Despite the fact that this is an egregious violation of both state and federal law, a grand jury in Orange County released a “presentment” rather than indictments and sealed those documents, so people (also known as voters) would not know precisely what had transpired
This grand jury presentment leaked and was widely reported in the media. Citing the revelations of that grand jury presentment in public is not in any way a crime since the grand jury proceedings have not been challenged as in authentic or inaccurate and are now in the public domain.
This scandal does not touch Republican Governor nominee Byron Donalds, who has not defended the actions but has referred reporters questioning him about it to Governor DeSantis for answers.
In a lawsuit filed late Friday night and a letter sent the same day to station managers across Central Florida, the party argues that the grand jury’s report and its findings became contraband on Oct. 7, when a state appeals court ordered the report erased.
Under the party’s theory, broadcasting the report’s “content, gist, or import” is now a first-degree misdemeanor and criminal contempt of court.
It also requested that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and prosecutors investigate the media stations.
The verified complaint, filed in Highlands County circuit court, asks a judge to issue a temporary restraining order without notice to the other side. It names the Florida Democratic Party, three of four statewide Democratic candidates, and the owners of 11 television stations in the Orlando and Tampa Bay markets, including WFTV, WESH, WKMG, WOFL, WTVT, WFLA, WTSP and WFTS.
The target is a 30-second spot paid for by the Democratic Party and approved by David Jolly for governor, Jose Javier Rodriguez for attorney general, and Annette Taddeo for chief financial officer.
The ad says: “A leaked grand jury report found taxpayer money was quietly moved into a dark money political committee that James Uthmeier controlled, not to Florida families. They found $10 million was misappropriated.” It closes with the words “conspiracy, concealment, corruption.”
Uthmeier, the sitting attorney general, is on the Nov. 3 ballot. The Republican Party’s complaint describes him as “the candidate the advertisement targets.”
The suit rests on the First District Court of Appeal’s Oct. 7 opinion, written by Judge Lance Neff, ordering the 116-page presentment expunged “in its entirety.” That ruling, as the Trident has reported, was issued after the only party fighting to make the report public was kept from learning the appeal existed. Highly unsavory.
Under the Court’s own rules, the ruling is not final until 15 days after it was entered, or until disposition of any motion for rehearing. At the earliest, the ruling would not go into effect until this Friday. When asked whether the lawsuit filed was premature since the ruling is not yet final, Republican Party of Florida chair Evan Power told the media “they’re not going to change their minds.”
Meanwhile, the appellate court has ordered State Attorney Jack Campbell to explain why the court should not appoint a special master to investigate how the unredacted grand jury report reached the media and whether the court’s injunction was violated.
The court order also instructed Campbell to demonstrate why he should not be sanctioned for an Aug. 26 email to lawyers for Uthmeier and others suggesting that a clerk of the appeals court or the Leon County Clerk was responsible for the leak, and why he should not be referred to the Florida Bar for discipline. Campbell is required to provide answers under oath within five days.
The Republican Party argues the ruling changed the legal status of the report’s contents. Because the grand jury summarized witness testimony, the party says, anyone who knowingly broadcasts the “content, gist, or import” of that testimony violates section 905.27 of the Florida Statutes. A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor and criminal contempt of court.
“The law then is straightforward,” party lawyer Benjamin Gibson of Shutts & Bowen wrote to station managers on Friday. “Knowingly broadcasting advertisements built on the contents of the confidential Presentment is criminal conduct in Florida.” No lawyer I know agrees with this twisted analysis of the law.
Gibson’s letter went further than the lawsuit. It told the stations the party was “referring this matter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and relevant prosecutorial authorities.”
Copies went to FDLE Commissioner Larry Keefe, Statewide Prosecutor Brad McVay, and the state attorneys in 11 of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits. McVay works in Uthmeier’s office. With Uthmeier on the ballot and a party to the transfer this makes this an egregious conflict of interest.
The Democrats have not responded in Court but a serious rebuttal on the law is expected. It makes sense why the Republican Party of Florida under the direction of Ron DeSantis would want to cover this story up.
Everyone should remain mindful that if elected Governor Byron Donalds would have the authority to in essence appoint a Special Prosecutor under Florida Statue 27-14 to examine this article afresh.
The only reason the DeSantis’ are not currently under indictment for their conduct is the ‘general amnesia’ of their staff while they were being questioned by the grand jury, and before the State Legislature which found that they misappropriated the funds.
Whether it’s the insurance crisis, skyrocketing utility rates, or deep corruption, Ron DeSantis is not the governor he wants you to think he is. He didn’t even stand up for Floridians, as he falsely claims, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeSantis locked down his state, pushed COVID vaccinations, and later changed the narrative to suit his invented career narrative. More egregiously he betrayed the man who lifted from from obscurity and catapulted him to the Governor’s office
Ron DeSantis is a fraud, and he will never be President of the United States.
DeSantis’ Betrayal Of President Donald Trump
In addition to being one of the most openly corrupt governors in the United States, Ron DeSantis has also been a treacherous, back-stabbing traitor for his entire political career. DeSantis even betrayed President Donald Trump, the man that made his political career.
In 2018, President Donald Trump’s tweeted endorsement catapulted virtual unknown Ron DeSantis to the Florida Republican gubernatorial nomination over Party favorite agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam, Trump asked Wiles to step in and right what was a rocky general election campaign against Democrat nominee and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, whose career would later crash when he was exposed in a sex and drug scandal.
DeSantis had little money, and was critiqued by Florida political insiders as having little-to-no campaign structure, poor organization, and an overall lack of professionalism. When DeSantis accused his opponent Gillum of wanting to “monkey up” the Florida economy with tax increases, DeSantis’ comments were widely condemned as ‘racist.’
DeSantis was also having trouble raising money against Republican establishment favorite agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam. Multiple respected polls showed that DeSantis’ support languished in single digits.
DeSantis, who had not actually ever endorsed Trump in 2016, and had run for re-election insisting that “just because we are on the same ticket does not mean I support Trump.”
DeSantis then cannily emerged as a vocal defender of Trump on the Fox TV and the Conservative talk show circuit in the Russian collusion battle.
Falling back on his experience as a Military prosecutor, DeSantis caught the President’s eye. In the end, however, it was not Ron DeSantis, but Congressman Matt Gaetz who convinced Trump to issue the fateful tweeted endorsement that would propel DeSantis to the Republican Governor’s nomination, and the Governor’s mansion. Gaetz had a longtime grudge against Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam who he felt had slighted him when Gaetz was a State legislature and he approached the Agriculture Commissioner about a constituent matter.
Realizing that the DeSantis campaign would need to be stabilized, President Trump deployed Susie Wiles to take control of the floundering DeSantis campaign.
DeSantis went on to secure a narrow victory in his 2018 election, due entirely to President Donald Trump and Susie Wiles.
Just 5 years later, DeSantis launched his Presidential campaign to run against former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Election. His campaign was a vicious attack on the man that made him.
On May 25th, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, while speaking with Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, falsely accused President Donald Trump of ‘handing over’ the country to Anthony Fauci. DeSantis told Beck, “I think he did great for three years, but when he turned the country over to Fauci in March of 2020 that destroyed millions of people’s lives.”
Ron DeSantis was lying. HE pushed the vaccines. Ron DeSantis LOCKED DOWN Florida and even pushed for children to receive COVID-19 booster shots.
In late May of that same year, during a radio interview with Matt Murphy on WTN-AM, Desantis attacked President Donald Trump’s stellar record as President, saying, “I don’t know what happened to Donald Trump; this is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 and 2016 and I think the direction that he’s going with his campaign is the wrong direction.”
In October of 2023, DeSantis claimed that Trump, who appointed three Justices to the Supreme Court that struck down the precedent of Roe v Wade, providing more protections to the unborn than had been afforded since pre-1973, was ‘betraying’ pro-life conservatives.
DeSantis said, “I think all pro-lifers should know that he’s preparing to sell you out,” to Iowa voters ahead of his defeat at the hands of Trump in the state.
The attacks didn’t stop at politics either. DeSantis also made derogatory comments about President Trump’s age, saying in October of 2023, “We don’t need any more presidents that have lost the zip on their fastball.”
During the same speech in which he made the previous statement, DeSantis also accused Trump of ‘energizing Democrats,’ saying, “You could have John Kennedy walk through the door right now and he wouldn’t energize Democrats as much as Donald Trump does.”
In December of 2023, DeSantis falsely accused President Donald Trump of disrespecting members of the military, saying on X, “Trump denigrates military service by claiming it is ‘braver’ that he debated Hillary Clinton than what soldiers endure on the battlefield. Debating isn’t ‘brave’; it’s the bare minimum any candidate should do. Hiding from debates, on the other hand, is an example of cowardice.”
DeSantis’ accusation that Trump is a ‘coward’ is laughable, especially considering that he and his wife stole $10 Million from the poorest Floridians in the Hope Florida scandal we delved into earlier.
Even after he dropped from the race, DeSantis continued to attack Trump. On January 7th, 2024, DeSantis told Face The Nation, “If the election is about Trump and his legal issues, it will be a “really nasty election” and “doesn’t put Republicans in a good position to win.”
Just days later, DeSantis accused Trump of ‘slipping mentally’ once again, saying on Morning Joe, “Clearly Donald Trump is not the same Trump from 2016. When he gets off the teleprompter, there’s a lot of mistakes, a lot of stream of consciousness stuff.”
Ron DeSantis owes his entire career to President Donald Trump, and even after being thoroughly dismantled by Trump in the 2024 Republican Presidential primary, DeSantis refused to endorse the President.
Let’s not forget that DeSantis literally changed Florida law so that he could siphon the hundreds of millions he raised during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign to his presidential campaign.
Peculiar time for such an ad post there Roger. Who’s side are you on?