Ron DeSantis spoke in Elmhurst over the weekend on a one-day, three city, Back the Blue tour in Illinois. His visit caused quite a stir in surrounding areas. John Howell is joined by Russell Lissau, veteran reporter covering politics, education and other areas of interest for the Daily Herald. Lissau discusses Desantis’ visit, as well as his findings on where the Uihleins sent their cash last Fall.
While the group has no ties to DeSantis, Ready for Ron has run afoul of the Federal Election Commission, which appears set against letting the group share its 200,000 contacts with DeSantis, even though no money is involved. The two sides expect to face off at a commission hearing later this month.
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Ready for Ron’s counsel and veteran political lawyer Dan Backer said, “Millions of Americans want Ron DeSantis to run. Nearly a quarter-million people have already publicly engaged with and joined the effort. Signing the petition is the ultimate act of political free speech and association, and there is simply no basis for the FEC to stand in the way of Americans telling someone they want him to run for office, or that they continue to support him doing so. We’re going to fight to protect our right to Free Speech and Free Association to draft DeSantis to seek the presidency, and we’re going to win.”
Echoing his party’s reactionary wing, DeSantis condemned the status quo as an “open-ended blank check,” which the governor said is “not acceptable.”
In the same interview, the Florida Republican suggested his own country deserves part of the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — DeSantis apparently thinks the withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan laid the groundwork for Putin’s war, which is a familiar claim that has never made any sense — before dismissing Russia’s potency as “a third-rate military power” that isn’t “on the same level as a China.”
Of course, what DeSantis neglected to mention is that Russia’s military ineptitude has been exposed by Ukrainian forces that have benefited greatly from U.S. support — the same support he apparently has a problem with, as his “blank check” rhetoric suggested.
The governor went on to say, “I don’t think it’s in our interests to be getting into a proxy war with China, getting involved over things like the borderlands or over Crimea.”
Dan Drezner, a professor of international politics at Tufts University, described DeSantis’ claims as “incoherent,” adding, “You cannot simultaneously believe that Russia invaded Ukraine because of Afghanistan and then turn around and urge the U.S. [to] withdraw support from Ukraine to stand tough on China. If you really believe that the conflict in Ukraine is a proxy war with China (it isn’t), then exactly what signal does DeSantis thinks the United States would send if it withdrew support from Kyiv?!”
But I was just as struck by the Floridian’s motivations as I was his unfortunate rhetoric. DeSantis seems to think the best way to advance his ambitions is to criticize existing U.S. support for our Ukrainian allies. To hear the governor tell it, Biden is wrong in large part because of the Democrat’s steadfast commitment to support a democracy under attack by an authoritarian adversary.
That says a lot about DeSantis’ assumptions about what GOP voters want to hear, but it also sends a striking signal abroad.
“The name-calling has turned a lot of people off,” Tapia told the outlet. “Let me tell you, we don’t like that.”
The retired electrical company executive donated more than $50,000 to DeSantis’ gubernatorial reelection bid and hosted a pair of fundraisers for him, according to Politico.
Tapia further told the outlet that he predicts a three-day-long retreat for DeSantis to be held at Florida’s Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach will be “overwhelmingly” attended by former Trump supporters.
The former ambassador himself donated more than $100,000 to Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
DeSantis is thought to be planning on entering the Republican presidential primary race in the spring, joining Trump, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy as announced candidates.
Trump has repeatedly mocked the popular Florida governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious” and has called him a “RINO [Republican in name only] GLOBALIST” in posts on his social media website, Truth Social.
New York magazine’s Jon Chait concluded, “Vladimir Putin has built his strategy on the assumption that he can keep throwing conscripts into the trenches of eastern Ukraine longer than the United States is willing to keep sending money and arms to Kyiv. Putin’s main hope has rested on Donald Trump returning to office in 2025. Now he has a second option should Trump falter in the primary. The odds that Putin will end the war just got longer.”
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