Yesterday, one of the NY Times in-house conservatives noted that Ron DeSantis is full of shit and has no spine, at least when it comes to dealing with Trump. “He doesn’t want to take on Trump directly, so he shimmies. This month, Trump insinuated that DeSantis behaved inappropriately with high school girls while he was a teacher. Instead of slamming Trump, DeSantis shimmied. Trump calls DeSantis ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ and ‘Meatball Ron.’ DeSantis glides blithely by. The problem with running a campaign in which you are trying to be Trumpy-but-not-Trump is that you’re never your own man. You have to compete with the king without crossing him. You’re always trying to find that magic sweet spot between just-MAGA and plain-crazy. If he were more of a strategic thinker and less a tactician, I think DeSantis would realize that he’s either going to have to fight Trump directly on some issue or copy him right down the line. And I think he’d realize that he’s already locked himself into a position in which he’s going to have to copy him… As the campaign wears on, and the debate on Ukraine continues, DeSantis will be condemned to playing Mini-Me to Trump in trying to win that populist 40 percent. Meanwhile, he’ll be cutting ties to many in the nonpopulist 41 percent [who believe America is giving Ukraine the right amount of aid or not enough]. That will leave room for some normie Republican in the Brian Kemp/Tim Scott mold to rise.”
Foreign policy isn’t DeSantis’ thing— nor is it most Americans’ thing— and he’s much more comfortable demonizing immigrants, an ultra-popular position among MAGAts and xenophobic, bigoted Republicans in general. Yesterday, John Kennedy reported for USA Today that “Continuing what appears to be a box-checking lead-up to an eventual presidential campaign announcement, Gov. Ron DeSantis outlined plans Thursday for stricter steps to combat illegal immigration to Florida… Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said it was a ‘heavy-handed use of government power to attack our vulnerable families, friends and neighbors. This is not just an immigrant issue. This is a morality issue.’… DeSantis’ immigration announcement Thursday follows a pattern of recent weeks, with the governor unveiling Florida-specific proposals that may appeal to Republican voters nationwide… This month, alone, DeSantis has announced efforts to bar governments from using socially conscious investment principles, limit what he calls the predatory practices of trial lawyers— a profession close to Democratic leaders— and create new penalties for social media platforms and mainstream media, both longtime bugaboos of conservative voters.”
Every time I have something negative to say about Meatball Ron, I think in terms of this poll of typical American voters and it gives me pause:
DeSantis, I’m afraid is far more likely to beat Biden than Trump is and as likely to be as terrible a president as Trump was/would be again. But it’s hard to not keep writing about him— precisely what he wants, of course. Writing for Politico yesterday, Matt Dixon noted that Meatball Ron’s “broken relationship with the mainstream media could get even worse. At the governor’s urging, Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature is pushing to weaken state laws that have long protected journalists against defamation suits and frivolous lawsuits. The proposal is part DeSantis’ ongoing feud with media outlets like the New York Times, Miami Herald, CNN and the Washington Post— media companies he claims are biased against Republicans— as he prepares for a likely 2024 presidential bid.
Beyond making it easier to sue journalists, the proposal is also being positioned to spark a larger legal battle with the goal of eventually overturning New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limits public officials’ ability to sue publishers for defamation, according to state Rep. Alex Andrade, the Florida Republican sponsoring the bill.
“There is a strong argument to be made that the Supreme Court overreached,” Andrade said in an interview. “This is not the government shutting down free speech. This is a private cause of action.”
Andrade said he is working with DeSantis’ office on the bill: “I would say I am accepting their input.”
DeSantis has a combative relationship with many media outlets, refusing to conduct interviews with platforms except Fox News and building a communications team that openly brags that its role is to be antagonistic to members of the press. His former press secretary, Christina Pushaw, frequently argued with journalists on Twitter and was once suspended by the social media giant for abusive behavior.
Yet the proposed bill goes further than simply decrying media bias. Free-press advocates call the measure unconstitutional and suggest it could have far-reaching consequences beyond major media outlets.
“I have never seen anything remotely like this legislation,” said Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “I can’t say I have seen every bill ever introduced, but I’d be quite surprised if any state Legislature had seriously considered such a brazen and blatantly unconstitutional attack on speech and press freedoms.”
He added: “This bill is particularly remarkable since its provisions have the vocal support of a governor and likely presidential candidate.”
…Stern said 49 states and several appellate circuits recognize a reporter’s privilege against court-compelled disclosure of source material and stressed that it’s essential for people to be able to speak to reporters without risking their jobs or freedoms.
“Journalists do not work for the government and it’s none of the government’s business how journalists gather news,” he added.
These were the ideas DeSantis has been pushing that are now part of Andrade’s legislation:
allowing plaintiffs who sue media outlets for defamation to collect attorneys fees
adding a provision to state law specifying that comments made by anonymous sources are presumed false for the purposes of defamation lawsuits
lowering the legal threshold for a “public figure” to successfully sue for defamation
repealing the “journalist’s privilege” section of state law, which protects journalists from being compelled to do things like reveal the identity of sources in court, for defamation lawsuits
Critics of the bill took issue with the section about attorneys fees, saying it could add a financial incentive to file defamation lawsuits and erode the laws preventing retaliatory lawsuits filed to silence criticism. Florida, like other states, has anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) laws designed to help stop frivolous lawsuits.
“One of my largest concerns with the bill is the rolling back of the anti-SLAPP protection for defamation defendants,” said Adam Schulman, a senior attorney with the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, which advocates for free markets, free speech and limited governments. ”That’s just moving in the wrong direction.”
He said beyond large media companies, some of which have legal teams, the changes could affect the “ordinary guy” who leaves an “unfavorable Yelp review.”
“At one time, it was not considered ‘conservative’ to advocate for turning on the spigot to all sorts of troll-like civil litigation that will line the pockets of bottom-feeding plaintiffs’ lawyers,” Schulman said.
Stern said the new bill would leave those protections “toothless.” Under most anti-SLAPP laws, individuals can recover attorneys’ fees if they can show they were sued in retaliation for criticizing the government.
“The new bill would change that so that plaintiffs whose lawsuits survive anti-SLAPP motions can recover their attorney’s fees,” he said. “That means the anti-SLAPP law would lose all of its value as a deterrent against powerful people filing abusive lawsuits to silence their critics.”
…Elected officials routinely criticize the media as biased, but Donald Trump ramped up those attacks during the 2016 election cycle and beyond. The former president regularly labeled news stories he didn’t like as “fake news” and would chide individual reporters at The Washington Post, The New York Times and elsewhere. Trump is widely seen as DeSantis’ top rival for the GOP nomination in 2024.