Ron DeSantis accompanied wife to cancer treatment while critics claimed he was 'missing'
DeSantis announced his wife's breast cancer diagnosis in October



Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis accompanied his wife to her cancer treatment while critics were accusing the governor of taking a vacation as coronavirus cases spiked, Fox News has learned.

A DeSantis spokesperson said the governor accompanied wife Casey to cancer treatment Dec. 29, the day several left-wing critics accused the governor of "missing."


Rep. Ron DeSantis, Republican candidate for governor of Florida, speaks as his wife Casey DeSantis looks on during a campaign rally in Estero, Fla. Oct. 31, 2018. (Jayme Gershen/Bloomberg/File)

DeSantis' announced in October that his wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer, telling Fox News at the time that as "the mother of three young children, Casey is the centerpiece of our family and has made an impact on the lives of countless Floridians through her initiatives as first lady."

Democratic Mayor Jerry Demings of Orange County in Florida criticized DeSantis in a press conference Tuesday amid the rising COVID cases, suggesting state residents "should be outraged" with DeSantis not being in front of the media during the spike.


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

"Our residents, all Florida residents should be outraged, and they should ask the question, 'Now, where's our state? Where's our governor?'" Demings said. "Where is Ron DeSantis now? When was the last time you saw the governor do a press briefing regarding COVID-19?"

Others, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took to social media to criticize DeSantis and accuse him of being "inexplicably missing."

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1476...tis-missing-accompanied-wife-cancer-treatment


"Hasn’t Gov. DeSantis been inexplicably missing for like 2 weeks," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet during a visit to Florida. "If he’s around, I would be happy to say hello. His social media team seems to have been posting old photos for weeks."

"In the meantime, perhaps I could help with local organizing," added Ocasio-Cortez, who was spotted maskless while drinking and dining outdoors in the Sunshine State. "Folks are quite receptive here."


Gov. Ron DeSantis (Images/LightRocket)

MSNBC host Joy Reid also lashed out at DeSantis, writing in a tweet: "A governor, not governing during a crisis; and sunning his belly on vacation instead. @GovRonDeSantis is the Nero of Ted Cruzes."
DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw responded to Reid, attaching photos of DeSantis' daily schedule, and asked, "Have you ever considered that you’re one of the reasons nobody trusts the media?"

DeSantis communications staffer Kyle Lamb also responded to critics on Twitter who were questioning whether DeSantis was on vacation, writing: "Just FYI, [DeSantis] is not on vacation. Literally no one from our office has said that he is.

"Anyone pushing that could have easily seen the public schedule and seen that he's taking calls and meetings this past week," Lamb added. "Not having public events does not = 'vacation.'"

 

And watch.
No apologies or retractions from his critics.
Not in their playbook.

 

DeSatan gets read the riot act!

Protect yourselves.



Thinskin

 

Ok now look press and people I've been gone for more than two weeks taking my wife to cancer treatment. But now that I am back just remember that I am just like Trump and as long as I do it in broad daylight right in front of you it is not a crime.

DeSantis demands Feds allow Florida to buy $1 Billion in COVID treatment top donor has invested in

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
January 04, 2022



Florida Governor Ron DeSantis


Ron DeSantis has returned to public view after a two-week absence where he was accused of being "MIA" during record-breaking coronavirus case counts. On Monday the Republican governor held a press conference to blast President Joe Biden, demanding he allow Florida purchase a COVID-19 treatment that is manufactured by a company one of his top donors has heavily invested in.

Standing behind a sign promoting "treatment" – not vaccines or masks – DeSantis said the GOP-controlled state legislature has approved one billion dollars to purchase the COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, should the federal government allow it, WFLA reports.

“Now that we’ve gotten the pathway cleared with Regeneron," DeSantis told reporters, referring to the company that manufactures monoclonal antibody treatments. “We have the ability and we will immediately turn on additional sites as soon as the federal government gives us a supply." He also named two other new treatments made by other companies.

But as HuffPost reported, DeSantis had been "flying around the state promoting Regeneron" last summer.

"Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis — $5.75 million in 2018 and $5 million last April."

DeSantis also told reporters on Monday, “We are ready to go, on all of this, and have been ready for a long time,” referring to COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments. “We do not believe the federal government should be holding back anymore medications. We feel we have to offer this. Particularly for our elderly population.”

DeSantis did not promote getting vaccinated or wearing masks, far less expensive actions that have better results.


Ron DeSantis
@GovRonDeSantis
Instead of keeping a stranglehold on monoclonal antibodies, the federal government must release its stockpiles to states who want them and allow states to purchase these medications directly.

11:13 AM · Jan 3, 2022

https://www.rawstory.com/desantis-d...atment-top-donor-has-invested-in/ron-desantis

 

Wait.
So, the Feds have a strangle hold on monoclonal anitbodies, but won't let go of their stocks?
So, how much stock in Regeneron does Nancy Antoinette and the power rangers have?
Might be interesting to find out, eh?

And Griffin has donated to despicables, notably Obama, but also to Hillary. Not as much as he has to deplorables, but it is notable anyway.

 

News
‘Something Not Right Here’: Critics Respond to Viral Videos of ‘Very Unwell’ Ron DeSantis ‘Seemingly Gasping for Air’



Published

on

January 5, 2022 at 06:40 PM ET
By

David Badash

Just days after reappearing in public following a two-week disappearance Ron DeSantis delivered a speech Wednesday causing critics to express concern for his health. Several videos of DeSantis, garnering nearly one million view in just a few hours, have gone viral.

“Something is not right here,” observed the activists at MeidasTouch.com, posting disturbing video and describing the Florida Republican governor as “seemingly gasping for air,” and “on the verge of tears.”

MeidasTouch.com
@MeidasTouch
Ron DeSantis, seemingly gasping for air, on the verge of tears, during an event today. Something is not right here.

11:59 AM · Jan 5, 2022


MeidasTouch.com
@MeidasTouch
Here is a second angle of Ron DeSantis struggling with breathing problems during his event today. The longer this clip goes on, the worse it gets.

2:03 PM · Jan 5, 2022

Just days after reappearing in public following a two-week disappearance Ron DeSantis delivered a speech Wednesday causing critics to express concern for his health. Several videos of DeSantis, garnering nearly one million view in just a few hours, have gone viral.

“Something is not right here,” observed the activists at MeidasTouch.com, posting disturbing video and describing the Florida Republican governor as “seemingly gasping for air,” and “on the verge of tears.”


Florida Politics today reported DeSantis “has only received one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”


Attorney and activist Ron Filipkowski, a former DeSantis appointee who resigned over the far right wing governor’s COVID policies, said “Desantis looked and sounded very unwell today.”


Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
Ron Desantis looked and sounded very unwell today. Unlike right-wingers with Biden, I did not edit or doctor this video in any way. Maybe he just had a bad breakfast.

11:45 AM · Jan 5, 2022


Journalist Kaz Weida noted, “I have avoided speculating on what’s up with DeSantis disappearing for the past few weeks but this is pretty compelling evidence that something is going on.”

DeSantis has taken a highly-controversial approach the the coronavirus pandemic, choosing to discourage vaccines and preventive measures like masks and social distancing, while promoting treatments that happen to be made by a company invested in by one of his top donors.

Many over the past few weeks claimed DeSantis’ disappearance was proof he had contracted the deadly coronavirus, despite the governor not announcing any health issues. His press secretary pushed back, attacking critics and claiming he was taking care of his wife as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Just days ago on New Year’s Eve DeSantis and his wife appeared on stage at a Christian music concert. Despite her immunocompromised condition, no one was wearing masks.

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmoveme...nwell-ron-desantis-seemingly-gasping-for-air/

 

Ron's not well at all......perhaps it is a mild flu?



Thinskin

 

Shooter is positive that Ron will be glad to know that the despicables are so concerned for his health.

 

Heart felt..I feel the compassion all the way over here.

 

Mr Compassionate, were you just celebrating Harry Reid’s death.
Wishing he would have been suffering LONGER?

 

DeSantis campaign selling ‘Escape to Florida’ T-shirts as some top Democrats flock to Sunshine State
The shirt pokes fun at Democrats who leave states with strict pandemic laws to relax in the Sunshine State




Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reelection campaign is now selling new "Escape to Florida/The Lockdown Libs tour" T-shirts after some top Democratic politicians from states with stricter coronavirus restrictions were seen vacationing in the Sunshine State over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday.

News of the T-shirts, which are being sold online on the Republican governor’s "Official Ron DeSantis Store" on his reelection campaign’s website, was shared first with Fox News on Monday.


"We don't blame you … we like freedom, too," the back of the shirt says, underneath a list of Democrats – including the governors of states such as Connecticut, Michigan and New Jersey – and where in Florida they stayed. The front bears the slogans "Escape to Florida" and "Lockdown Libs," with an "Open" sign on an outline of the state.


The Ron DeSantis campaign will be selling the shirts, which reference how a number of prominent Democrats have vacationed in Florida while their own states have strict pandemic policies. (Image courtesy of DeSantis campaign)

"If I had a dollar for every lockdown politician who decided to escape to Florida over the last two years, I’d be a pretty doggone wealthy man, let me tell you," DeSantis joked at a press conference one week ago. "I mean, Congress people, mayors, governors, I mean you name it."


That remark was made after progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was spotted vacationing in Florida, hanging out at a crowded outdoor bar without a mask. Ocasio-Cortez's office said Sunday the congresswoman has since tested positive for COVID-19.

Another Democrat, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, was also seen in Florida in recent days as he vacationed with family members. California is among the strictest states in the nation when it comes to pandemic policies.


Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the opening of a monoclonal antibody site on Aug. 18, 2021, in Pembroke Pines, Florida. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

"It’s interesting the reception that some of these folks will get in Florida," the governor said at the press conference, "because I think a lot of Floridians say, ‘Wait a minute you’re bashing us because we’re not doing your draconian policies, and yet we’re the first place you want to flee to, to basically to be able to enjoy life.’"


The conservative governor saw his popularity surge among Republican voters in his state and around the nation in 2020 and 2021, thanks in large part to his combative pushback against COVID-19 restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.




To promote their new item, the DeSantis campaign on Monday put up a new video on social media that includes a shot of the governor putting on sunglasses and saying, "Welcome to Florida."


The video touts that the new T-shirts are the latest in a line of merchandise the campaign’s been selling in recent weeks and months, which also includes "Don’t tread on Florida" and "Don’t Fauci my Florida" items.

DeSantis, a former congressman who won his election as Florida governor in 2018, is running this year for a second term steering the Sunshine State. Pundits also view the Republican governor as a potential 2024 GOP presidential contender.

 

Here's a thought!

Instead of vaccine and mask mandates Desantis could require everyone to wear a "LETS GO BRANDON!" Tshirt.

Word is the President is headed that way next month .......

 

rotflmmfao....gottaluvit.

 

People Are Desperate For Covid Tests — But Florida Throws Away 1M Of Them
After a state official said Thursday that the tests had expired, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday tried to explain why the state didn’t distribute them.



https://khn.org/morning-breakout/pe...vid-tests-but-florida-throws-away-1m-of-them/

 

Ron DeSantis Proposing Funds to Ship Illegal Aliens Dropped by Feds to Sanctuary States




Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is proposing funds to reroute illegal aliens dropped in Florida by federal officials to states that have sanctuary city policies, he said during Tuesday’s State of the State address.

“Law and order also means having strong borders,” DeSantis said during the speech, criticizing the Biden administration’s inability to secure the border. As a result, the Biden administration has effectively released “hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to communities across the U.S., shipping them to Florida at alarming rates, including by sending clandestine flights in the dark of night,” he said.


“As a state we cannot be a party to what is effectively a massive human smuggling operation run by the federal government,” the governor said, noting that companies that are “facilitating the movement of illegal aliens from the southern border to Florida should be held accountable, including by paying restitution to the state for all the costs they are imposing on our communities.”

However, DeSantis said he is paying more than lip service, as he is “requesting funds so that when the feds dump illegal aliens in Florida, the state can re-route them to states that have sanctuary policies.”

“Florida should not be made to bear the burden of our federal government’s lawless open border policies,” he added.

DeSantis’s pledge comes on the heels of the several proposals he laid out last year to cut illegal immigration in Florida. One of those proposals included $8 million to transport illegal aliens out of the Sunshine State.

“In yesterday’s budget, I put in $8 million for us to be able to transport people here illegally out of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said at the time.

“It’s somewhat tongue in cheek, but it is true, if you sent them to Delaware or Martha’s Vineyard or some of these places, that border would be secure the next day,” he added.

 

Good for him, lets see if Florida goes along with it.

 

WATCH: Trump attacks 'gutless' Ron DeSantis for refusing to say if he's had COVID booster

John Wright
January 11, 2022



Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and President Donald Trump (Photo: White House)


Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday ripped into politicians who refuse to say if they've received a COVID-19 booster shot — a group that notably includes Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“I’ve had the booster," Trump told One America News Network in an interview. "Many politicians, I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed and one of the questions was, ‘Did you get the booster?’ Because they had the vaccine, and they’re answering like — in other words, the answer is ‘yes,’ but they don’t want to say it, because they’re gutless. You gotta say it, whether you had it or not, say it."

Trump's recent statements in support of COVID-19 vaccines have prompted some of his supporters to turn on him.

DeSantis, a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024, has been far less enthusiastic about promoting vaccines.

DeSantis reportedly received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine last spring. In December, during an interview on the Fox News Channel, DeSantis was asked whether he had gotten a booster.

“I’ve done whatever I did, the normal shot, and that at the end of the day is people’s individual decisions about what they want to do,” DeSantis responded.

Last week, Politico asked DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw whether he had received a booster.

"I am not privy to the governor's private medical decisions and am unable to share information about his booster status," Pushaw responded. "Governor DeSantis has consistently said that vaccination (and by extension, boosters) should be a personal choice, and anyone who has questions or concerns should consult with a healthcare provider."

Watch below.

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2656382864/

 

‘DeSantis is particularly disturbing’: Expert warns states are becoming ‘laboratories of autocracy’

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
January 12, 2022



Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
President Joe Biden warned about the looming threat of autocracy during his speech marking the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol attack and denounced his predecessor Donald Trump for inciting the rioters. In a statement responding to Biden’s speech, Trump continued to falsely claim the 2020 election was rigged. To discuss further, we are joined by historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on the psychology of authoritarianism, who says Trump has grown his “personality cult” since his election loss and converted the GOP into “a far-right authoritarian party which has enshrined violence as part of the practice of power.” She also discusses Trump’s recent endorsement of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been recognized by European Union leadership as a threat to democracy, and calls Florida Governor Ron DeSantis a “mini-Trump” who is planning for “an authoritarian system at the state level.”




Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: President Biden marked the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol insurrection by denouncing Donald Trump for inciting his supporters to attack the Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. In a speech from Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol, Biden accused Trump of spreading a “web of lies” and claimed the former president — who he did not name — is placing a “dagger at the throat of American democracy.” This is part of Biden’s address.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Here is the God’s truth about January 6, 2021. Close your eyes. Go back to that day. What do you see? Rioters rampaging, waving for the first time inside this Capitol a Confederate flag that symbolized the cause to destroy America, to rip us apart. Even during the Civil War, that never, ever happened. But it happened here in 2021.
What else do you see? A mob breaking windows, kicking in doors, breaching the Capitol; American flags on poles being used as weapons, as spears; fire extinguishers being thrown at the heads of police officers. A crowd that professes their love for law enforcement assaulted those police officers, dragged them, sprayed them, stomped on them. Over 140 police officers were injured.
We’ve all heard the police officers who were there that day testify to what happened. One officer called it, quote, a “medieval” battle, and that he was more afraid that day than he was fighting the War in Iraq. They’ve repeatedly asked since that day: How dare anyone — anyone — diminish, belittle or deny the hell they were put through?
We saw it with our own eyes. Rioters menaced these halls, threatening the life of the speaker of the House, literally erecting gallows to hang the vice president of the United States of America.
But what did we not see? We didn’t see a former president, who had just rallied the mob to attack, sitting in the private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House, watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours as police were assaulted, lives at risk, the nation’s Capitol under siege.
This wasn’t a group of tourists; this was an armed insurrection. They weren’t looking to uphold the will of the people; they were looking to deny the will of the people. They were looking to uphold — they weren’t looking to uphold a free and fair election; they were looking to overturn one. They weren’t looking to save the cause of America; they were looking to subvert the Constitution.
This isn’t about being bogged down in the past; this is about making sure the past isn’t buried. That’s the only way forward. That’s what great nations do. They don’t bury the truth; they face up to it. Sounds like hyperbole, but that’s the truth: They face up to it. We are a great nation.
My fellow Americans, in life, there’s truth and, tragically, there are lies, lies conceived and spread for profit and power. We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie.
And here is the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests and America’s interests, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.
He can’t accept he lost, even though that’s what 93 United States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials in every battleground state have all said: He lost. That’s what 81 million of you did as you voted for a new way forward. He has done what no president in American history, the history of this country, has ever, ever done: He refused to accept the results of an election and the will of the American people.
While some courageous men and women in the Republican Party are standing against it, trying to uphold the principles of that party, too many others are transforming that party into something else. They seem no longer to want to be the party — the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes. But whatever my other disagreements are with Republicans who support the rule of law and not the rule of a single man, I will always seek to work together with them to find shared solutions where possible, because if we have a shared belief in democracy, then anything is possible — anything.
And so, at this moment, we must decide: What kind of nation are we going to be? Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies? We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. …
Those who stormed this Capitol and those who instigated and incited and those who called on them to do so held a dagger at the throat of America, at American democracy. They didn’t come here out of patriotism or principle. They came here in rage, not in service of America, but rather in service of one man. Those who incited the mob, the real plotters, who were desperate to deny the certification of this election and defy the will of the voters.
AMY GOODMAN: President Biden, speaking Thursday at the Capitol to mark the first anniversary of the deadly January 6 insurrection.

Delaware Congressmember Lisa Blunt Rochester spoke later as part of a day of commemoration on Capitol Hill.

REP. LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER: On the day that I was sworn in to Congress, as many of my colleagues know, I was the first African American and the first woman from the state of Delaware elected to Congress. And I carried this scarf with me. It marked an X that my great-great-great-grandfather used to sign this returns of qualified voter registration of 1867 in Georgia. I also carried it on the day of the insurrection, because it is my proof of what we have overcome, and it is my inspiration for what is yet to be done as we work towards a more perfect union.
I continue to have hope, even when I feel hopeless, because my ancestors would have it no other way, and because Scripture tells us that weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. And while I remember a great deal that day, what I remember most is walking back onto the House floor into the chamber that morning to complete our work, the morning when democracy prevailed. Remember, reflect, recommit.
AMY GOODMAN: Delaware Congressmember Lisa Blunt Rochester, speaking Thursday.

We’re joined now by New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat. She’s an expert on the psychology of authoritarianism and the author of Strongmen: How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall. She also publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy.

Can you put what happened yesterday in the context of your study of fascism, the anniversary of what happened a year ago, Professor?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: Yes. So, Trump was never going to be — he was never a president who resembled either a Republican or Democrat head of state. He ruled as an autocrat. His priorities were autocratic ones: making money off the presidency, spreading hatred and creating a personality cult.

And so, when he lost the election, it was easy to predict, as I did in Strongmen, that he wouldn’t leave quietly, because democratic — with a small D — presidents, they respect the transfer of power, and they think about their legacy, but for somebody like Trump, who needs immunity from prosecution and needs the adulation, it’s like a kind of existential threat to have to leave. And so he tried everything. He tried martial law. He tried electoral manipulation. And then he went with his bespoke, custom army of thugs.

And what’s really so disturbing, that the GOP, which he remade into an authoritarian party, his personality cult one year later is stronger than ever. And very quickly, in the last year, the GOP has come into its own as a far-right authoritarian party, which has enshrined violence as part of the practice of power. That is part of its menu of how you do politics now.

AMY GOODMAN: During his speech, President Biden addressed what he called the president’s three big lies: Number one, Election Day itself was an insurrection; number two, the election results cannot be trusted; and number three big lie, the mob were the true patriots. Put that in the context of the strongmen you have studied.

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: So, a third of my book is on military coups, and which I thought wouldn’t be so relevant for the American reader, and, of course, I was wrong. And every single coup or authoritarian takeover is always justified as a patriotic act against tyranny, against corruption.

And so, Trump had set this up very well, because these big lies only had traction with his followers because he told 30,000 lies before that. And many of those lies, for years, were trying to take away the legitimacy of the electoral system in people’s minds. He started this in 2016, but he won, so he didn’t have to use this. So, we have to think about how what we saw, and what has been going on after January 6 for the last year, is the product of this very successful propaganda strategy.

And so, turning — what you also do is you turn it — I call authoritarianism as the upside-down world. So, Biden’s victory becomes the insurrection, and then January 6 becomes the righting of the wrong. And Trump knows how to tell a story. He’s a reality TV president. And he was very compelling, this idea that he was the hero, the savior of the nation, who had something taken away from him. And that way, January 6 becomes a kind of morally righteous action.

AMY GOODMAN: Just days before the January 6th anniversary, Trump endorsed Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. He released a statement saying, “He has done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary, stopping illegal immigration, creating jobs,” etc. Talk about the significance of President Trump in the world and what 2024 could mean if he were to run again.

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: So, I’ve always seen Trump — of course, we focus on how he came to power to destroy American democracy. That was his goal. But his other agenda was detaching America from the democratic world order and inserting it into what I’ve been calling since 2017 “Axis 2.0,” this kind of far-right autocratic order. A lot of it’s funded by Putin. And Orbán has made Budapest a kind of hub of these far-right networks, which remind me of what I initially studied, was these fascist networks of this fascist internationalism in the 1930s.

Now, Trump really identifies with Orbán, because Orbán is somebody who was a centrist, and then he was voted out, and he spent some years getting back to power. And then he arranged things. He has this electoral autocracy, where you hold elections and then you fix them, so that he doesn’t have to leave, you know, in his mind.

And the GOP has embraced Hungary, and they really see Hungary’s present as America’s future. And so, Tucker Carlson, you know, had whole week of broadcasting there. And even Mike Pence, who’s not the most worldly person, trotted over to Budapest and talked about how he hoped that abortion rights would be taken away soon. So, Hungary is this model of white Christian supremacy, anti-trans, homophobic. It checks all the boxes of what the GOP is actually today.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, we talk about him as a model and him modeling himself on autocrats around the world. But what about him as a model at home for people like Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor? You lay out, in a very chilling piece, this image of DeSantis surrounded by the people he wants to basically deputize as what his opponent in running for governor has talked about as his “secret police.”

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: Yeah, Ron DeSantis is an example — so, when you have somebody like Trump who imposes this kind of authoritarian party discipline, the system populates with mini-Trumps. They used to be called mini-Duces and mini-Hitlers, and now we have these mini-Trumps. And so, what we’ve seen is, in places like Texas and Florida, states are becoming laboratories of autocracy.

And DeSantis is particularly disturbing, because, you know, he wants to have his own civilian National Guard. And many states have those, but I discovered, doing research, that he’s also establishing an office for, quote, “election integrity,” which is code speak for election fraud, where it’s going to have its own prosecutors and investigators. So, anybody who — if there’s like an election result in the state that DeSantis doesn’t like, he can have his goons go after them and accuse them of violating election law. And they’ve made what used to be misdemeanors into felonies, so these people could be put in jail. So this is an example of the kind of authoritarian system at the state level that DeSantis has planned.

AMY GOODMAN: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, I want to thank you for being with us, expert on the psychology of authoritarianism and fascism. She is the author of Strongmen: How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, and she publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy.

Coming up, the CDC is predicting 84,000 people will die in the United States of COVID over the next four weeks. We’ll speak with emergency room doctor Craig Spencer. Stay with us.

https://www.rawstory.com/desantis-i...tates-are-becoming-laboratories-of-autocracy/