- 8/21/2024
We will publish a biography of the President of the United States of America Ron DeSantisPart 4
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00:00We will publish the biography of the candidate for President of the United States of America
00:06Ron DeSantis.
00:08Part 4 In 2012, DeSantis secured a seat in the House
00:13of Representatives for Florida's 6th congressional district.
00:17He was re-elected in 2014 and 2016.
00:22DeSantis served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Oversight and
00:25Accountability, chairing the latter's Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign
00:30Affairs.
00:32During the 2016 Senate election in Florida, he ran for the seat held by Marco Rubio, who
00:37abstained from running from re-election due to his presidential campaign.
00:42Following Rubio's withdrawal and subsequent re-election campaign, DeSantis dropped out
00:46of the race.
00:48In January 2018, DeSantis filed to run for governor of Florida in the state's gubernatorial
00:53election to succeed Republican incumbent Rick Scott.
00:57Supported by then-President Donald Trump, DeSantis won the Republican primary in August
01:01and resigned from Congress in September.
01:05DeSantis and his running mate, Jeanette Nunez were confirmed the winners, following a statewide
01:09recount that led to Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum conceding.
01:14DeSantis signaled his intent to run in the 2022 gubernatorial election in September 2021,
01:20launching his re-election bid in November.
01:23In a landslide victory, he defeated Democratic nominee Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida
01:28from 2007 to 2011.
01:31DeSantis's tenure as the governor of Florida has seen several major developments.
01:37The COVID-19 pandemic in Florida began in March 2020 subverting scientific consensus,
01:42DeSantis downplayed the effectiveness of face masks against COVID-19 and attempted to reopen
01:47Florida while following Trump's advice.
01:50He appointed Joseph Ladapo, a noted COVID-19 vaccine skeptic and assignee of the Great
01:55Barrington Declaration, as Florida's Surgeon General in September 2021, while fining local
02:01governments for enforcing vaccine mandates.
02:05DeSantis signed the Parental Rights and Education Act in March 2022, prohibiting public schools
02:09in Florida from discussing or having classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender
02:14identity from kindergarten through third grade and beginning a feud with the Walt Disney
02:18Company.
02:20In April 2023, Disney sued DeSantis.
02:24DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban while supporting limited government and taking a
02:27hard stance on crime.
02:30He downplayed running for president in August 2020, calling the speculation around a potential
02:35bid total garbage.
02:37By January 2021, DeSantis had been a potential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
02:44He was invited to the Republican National Committee's January meeting in Amelia Island,
02:49despite supporting then-President Donald Trump at the time.
02:52DeSantis's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida ascended him further within the
02:57Republican Party.
03:00Josh Holmes, an adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said that DeSantis
03:04was having a moment with conservatives.
03:07In October 2022, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised DeSantis as a potential 2024 candidate,
03:14and in February 2023, repeated his hopes that DeSantis would run while reserving he was
03:19praising, not endorsing DeSantis.
03:22A conservative political action conference, PAC, straw poll saw DeSantis second only to
03:27Trump and the only other Republican to receive double-digit polling numbers in the poll.
03:32In May, DeSantis spoke to the Republican Party in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, further
03:37fueling speculation of a potential bid, as some Democrats began seeking to mount a campaign
03:42against him.
03:44Despite various endorsements, he publicly opposed a presidential bid, saying that the
03:48discussion over his candidacy was purely manufactured in a press conference in September 2021.
03:55State straw polls suggested a strong connection with college-educated voters within the Republican
04:00Party and narrow victories against Trump.
04:03In conservative media, DeSantis was frequently featured and developed a mutual relationship.
04:09In an email obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, a Fox News producer said that he could host
04:13Fox and Friends.
04:15DeSantis forged alliances with conservative pundits, hosting political commentator Dave
04:20Rubin and Newsmax reporter Benny Johnson to the governor's mansion in January 2022.
04:26In the American Conservative and the National Review, he was lauded as a strong alternative
04:31to Trump.
04:32As the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp began
04:36to appear critical of Trump for the January 6 Capitol attack, Murdoch's Fox News began
04:41shifting coverage to DeSantis and work with his team to portray him in a positive light.
04:47The New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman's book, Confidence Man, 2022, states Murdoch
04:52was willing to throw Trump over following his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
04:58The New York Post ran the headline, DeFuture, after DeSantis was re-elected, while the Wall
05:02Street Journal proclaimed it the DeSantis Florida Tsunami.
05:06DeSantis's speculative campaign was targeted by conspiracy theorists, particularly followers
05:11of QAnon.
05:13In February 2023, Hungarian-American businessman George Soros expressed his hope that DeSantis
05:19would defeat Trump for the Republican nomination, although he qualified this as a hope that
05:23such an outcome would result in Trump running as a third-party candidate and splitting the
05:27Republican vote rather than a DeSantis presidency, and therefore was not an endorsement.
05:32Opponents of DeSantis later seized upon this, putting forward conspiracy theories that DeSantis
05:37was a tool of the deep state, with more than 12,000 mentions of DeSoros on social media
05:42and news sites.
05:44From January to May 2023, former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Carrie Lake falsely
05:51claimed that Soros had endorsed DeSantis, which she referred to as the kiss of death.
05:56As speculation continued, Trump mounted attacks against DeSantis, referring to him as Ron
06:01DeSanctimonious at a rally in Pennsylvania in November 2022, in advance for a presidential
06:06campaign.
06:08The New York Times reported that Trump has casually used the nickname Meatball Ron.
06:13DeSantis is Italian-American.
06:16Several days after the article was published, Trump said on TruthSocial that he will never
06:20call Ron DeSanctimonious Meatball Ron, and that it is totally inappropriateon.
06:25In February 2023, DeSantis released The Courage to be Free, a memoir overviewing his political
06:31beliefs, and subsequently embarked on a book tour in the early voting states of Iowa, New
06:35Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, among other states.
06:40Despite teasing a potential presidential bid, DeSantis stated that the tour was intended
06:45to advocate for his record as the governor of Florida, rather than Trump.
06:49In April, he visited Japan, South Korea, Israel, and the United Kingdom, in a move considered
06:55to improve his credentials on foreign policy.
06:58DeSantis was criticized for an apparent lackluster performance over the course of the trip.
07:04According to The Guardian, DeSantis began assembling senior staff on Feb. 27.
07:10The Florida legislature passed an elections bill in April that removes the requirement
07:14that DeSantis must resign as the governor of Florida if he launches a presidential campaign.
07:20The bill was signed into law by DeSantis hours before he was expected to announce his candidacy.
07:26At the end of the Florida legislature session on May 12, DeSantis told reporters that he'll
07:30put up or shut up on a campaign announcement soon.
07:34A person affiliated with DeSantis's campaign told The Hill on May 19 that DeSantis would
07:38file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission the following week, and DeSantis's
07:43Twitter handle was changed from at RonDeSantisFL to at RonDeSantis on May 23.
07:49Ahead of a potential presidential bid, reports of DeSantis's aloof personality began to form.
07:56In the most notable of these instances, the Daily Beast reported in March 2023 that, during
08:00a private plane trip in March 2019 from Tallahassee to Washington, D.C., DeSantis ate a chocolate
08:06pudding dessert using three fingers, according to two sources.
08:10A former staffer told the publication that DeSantis would eat like a starving animal
08:14who has never eaten before as part of a section about his tenuous social skills.
08:19Although he denied the incident, it quickly garnered press attention.
08:24A political action committee, PAC, aligned with Trump ran a political message in April
08:28titled Pudding Fingers and featuring claims DeSantis had made across a backdrop of a man
08:32eating pudding with three fingers.
08:35Speaking to NBC News, multiple Republican colleagues said that DeSantis was a loner
08:39who was often seen on his cell phone.
08:42The New York Times reported that DeSantis used bike racks to separate himself from the
08:46crowd during his visit to Iowa.
08:49A video of DeSantis laughing went viral and drew comparison to the Dean Scream, a political
08:54gaffe in Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign.
08:58Prior to the campaign announcement, allies of DeSantis established a political action
09:02committee known as Friends of Ron DeSantis.
09:05Although the PAC raised $86 million, its funds cannot be transferred to Ron DeSantis for
09:11president because they were raised under looser laws.
09:14On May 15, Friends of Ron DeSantis filed paperwork with the Florida Division of Elections changing
09:19its name to empower parents and devoted its new mission to protecting parental rights
09:23and education, in an apparent effort to distribute the funds and circumvent federal law.
09:29The Watchdog Group Campaign Legal Center has stated that it will file a complaint with
09:33the Federal Election Commission if the funds are transferred.
09:37Empower parents may transfer its funds to Never Back Down, a federal super PAC that
09:41has raised $30 million.
09:44Never Back Down has run ads in key early voting states that directly target Trump and expects
09:49to have a budget of $200 million.
09:53The PAC intends to transfer $80 million from one of DeSantis's political accounts.
09:59Although the transfer would have been prevented under state law, the Florida Department of
10:02State changed its handbook to allow such a transfer, citing Citizens United v. FEC, 2010.
10:10On May 23, 2023, a campaign insider revealed plans to the Associated Press for DeSantis
10:15to announce his candidacy on Twitter Spaces with Twitter CEO Elon Musk at 6 p.m. EDT the
10:21following day, after meeting with donors at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami.
10:25Musk then officially announced the live conversation.
10:29Hours before the discussion took place, DeSantis officially filed with the Federal Election
10:34Commission, FEC.
10:36DeSantis tweeted a launch video minutes before the Twitter Space began.
10:41During the call, which attracted over 600,000 Twitter users, technical issues severely affected
10:46the announcement as DeSantis was unable to speak for 20 minutes.
10:51The Twitter Space was restarted, but lost a significant number of listeners.
10:55The conversation was moderated by David Sachs, a confidant of Musk's during his acquisition
11:00of Twitter and a Republican donor who praised DeSantis and gave him $50,000.
11:06Following the meeting, DeSantis appeared on Fox News Tonight and spoke to former Republican
11:11Congressman Trey Gowdy, joking about the technical issues.
11:15Protesters gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel prior to the DeSantis announcement.
11:20Although Sachs claimed that the event was the biggest room ever held on social media,
11:24BuzzFeed's Facebook Live livestream of an exploding watermelon stunt and a livestream
11:28of April, a then-pregnant giraffe at the Animal Adventure Park in Harpisville, New York, exceeded
11:33it in viewership.
11:35An estimated 3.4 million people listened to the interview or a recording of it, according
11:40to Twitter.
11:42Following the announcement, DeSantis appeared on a variety of conservative media, including
11:46Eric Erickson's Eric Erickson Show and the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, suggesting
11:51that he would pardon Trump if convicted, as well as participants of the Jan. 6 Capitol
11:56attack.
11:57On the Ben Shapiro Show, he pledged to repeal the First Step Act, signed by Trump in 2018
12:02at the behest of his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
12:06These appearances have antagonized Trump – in his interview with Shapiro, DeSantis criticized
12:11Trump for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
12:14The technical issues experienced during the Twitter space overshadowed DeSantis's message.
12:20President Joe Biden, who was running for re-election, tweeted this link works, followed by a link
12:25to his own campaign donation.
12:28Trump wrote on Truth Social that DeSantis's collar was too big in his launch video – he
12:32later released a satirical video of a fake Twitter space's event, with figures such
12:36as George Soros, Klaus Schwab, Adolf Hitler, and the Devil in attendance.
12:41Trump followed the video up with another video of a rocket, labeled Ron 2024.
12:47Referencing Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign logo, falling over.
12:52Both videos appear to be generated by artificial intelligence.
12:57Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a prominent Trump ally, tweeted, desedative.
13:03Conservative media quickly used the technical issues to lampoon DeSantis.
13:08National Review editor Philip Klein called it a disaster, as did Fox News.
13:13The Daily Mail ran the headline, Ron's Desaster, a term that became a trending hashtag on Twitter,
13:18while Breitbart News called it a debacle for DeSantis.
13:21Conversely, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro wrote that those concerned about the optics
13:26of the Twitter space's glitch are unlikely to vote for DeSantis.
13:31Musk positioned the discussion as a success, pointing to media coverage of its failure.
13:36DeSantis's campaign later released a statement clarifying that the issues experienced during
13:41the Twitter space were due to an influx of people listening to the audio discussion at
13:45once.
13:46Campaign spokesperson Dave Abrams called it internet-breaking excitement.
13:51According to the New York Times, employees had not run a stress test beforehand.
13:56The Tampa Bay Times attributed the lack of a response from late-night talk show hosts,
14:00such as Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.
14:06On May 30, DeSantis held his first in-person event at Eternity Church in Clive, Iowa, in
14:11a decision considered by the Associated Press to strengthen his connection with evangelical
14:15Christian voters.
14:18He subsequently appeared in other cities across Iowa, including Sioux City, Council Bluffs,
14:23Pella, and concluding his visit in Cedar Rapids.
14:26In a Fox & Friends interview, DeSantis called Iowa very important and drew parallels to
14:31the six-week abortion ban he signed into law with Iowa's.
14:35The event is part of a tri-state tour billed the Great American Comeback Tour, in which
14:40he will visit 12 cities in the United States, including those in the key early voting states
14:44of New Hampshire and South Carolina.
14:48During his visit to New Hampshire, DeSantis sparred with an Associated Press reporter
14:51in Laconia, asking him, are you blind?
14:55The incident attracted media attention, never back down-framed it as an instance of him
14:59shutting down fake news.
15:02In Manchester, DeSantis was met by reproductive rights protesters.
15:06On June 7, DeSantis visited the Mexico-United States border in Arizona, meeting Cochise
15:12County Sheriff Mark Daniels.
15:14Simultaneously, he began a $100 million US door-knocking effort.
15:20The DeSantis campaign has established a boot camp, referred to by allies as Fort Benning,
15:24to encourage canvassing efforts.
15:27DeSantis fielded questions at a town hall event in New Hampshire on June 27.
15:32I stop at this point today.
15:36We continue to narrate a stage in the life of the candidate for Ron DeSantis.
15:43Soon we will publish Part. 5.
15:49Until next time, stay curious.
15:52Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
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