Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican Governor, fielded questions at a St. Petersburg press conference on Thursday. He answered the question posed to him in a very interesting and thoughtful way. It’s clear that he has one message to convey, but is considering all variable factors at hand when meticulously preparing the wording for his answers to questions about things such as elections, censorship, Covid-19, and other sensitive topics.
Many see this as a very important leadership skill in a world where it’s easy for anyone, even elected officials, to be censored on social media for saying things the wrong way, or saying the wrong things. No one thought former President Donald Trump would have been banned by social media, especially while he was the sitting U.S. president. But that is what has happened in the United States and it is the reality that citizens and politicians must face until or unless that ever changes.
Meanwhile, when responding to a question about what DeSantis thought about the 2020 presidential election, he started by applauding the efforts of Florida Republicans, probably alluding to as compared to other red or red-leaning states. DeSantis said that Florida “had the best-run election in this state that we probably ever have.” Florida Politics also reported in part:
DeSantis used the term “Zuckerbucks” in reference to the grants. Funding for the grants, in part, came from a $250 million donation from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
“They spent hundreds of millions of dollars to basically run elections in different parts of the country. Some of these supervisors want those Zuckerbucks. I don’t want the Zuckerbucks in Florida,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis slammed other states saying ballot harvesting at ballot boxes were an issue around the nation in 2020.
“I think some of this ballot harvesting you see across the country is a huge, huge problem,” he added. DeSantis believes that many of those issues have been addressed in Florida going forward, pending good fortune with potential legal challenges from Democrats to new voting laws. Many new voting laws in red states or states with Republican legislatures are being pushed for and/or implemented after the 2020 election.
Many believe that even if there was no fraud or widespread fraud, that mail-in ballots may favor Democrats unfairly and that Covid-19 mail-in protocols may have exacerbated that effect. Many Republicans also believe that voting should simply be “day of” and in-person to prevent anything foul from potentially happening.
It will be interesting to see how the 2022 and 2024 elections pan out with new potential voter regulations in many red and swing states, not to mention the new image Joe Biden has reflected onto the Democrat party.
