Florida Senate Passes DeSantis Counterpunches

CLAY: Breaking news going on out there. The Florida Senate as the state of Florida continues to be a fountain, an oasis of freedom, just passed Ron DeSantis’ congressional map that creates four new Republican-leaning districts, wiping out Democratic gains in redistricting across the nation. And, Buck, this is significant ’cause it kind of ties in with what we were talking about to start off the program.

It also removes Disney’s self-governing power and special exempt status. Now, the House, I believe, in Florida still has to pass this bill as well. It will go to the Florida House tomorrow, but the Florida Senate has — wow — again, four new Republican congressional districts and has removed Disney’s self-governing power and special exempt status.

We talked about this, Buck, since Walt Disney himself bought up land in the Orlando area, Disney has basically had regulatory authority when it comes to building whatever it wants. The Florida legislature had given them that. Now potentially if it passes the Florida House and is signed by DeSantis, that will cease to exist.

BUCK: What was that really worthwhile phrase that Barack Obama said? “Elections have consequences”? Some people in Florida are finding out that elections do have consequences. It turns out if you want to be getting… Remember, this is about special treatment for Disney that the state of Florida is under no obligation to provide. There’s nothing — this isn’t, you know, punitive in the sense that they’re getting less than equal treatment.

They’re actually not going to get more than equal treatment, assuming this passes and becomes a law. You know, I keep wondering this — and I’ll give credit to my friend Sean Davis — our friend Sean Davis from The Federalist — on this one ’cause he raised this a few days ago on Twitter. Why isn’t every Republican governor seeing a lot of what Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida, in states where there’s an even more red legislature? Why aren’t they seeing this and saying, “There is a way” or “This is the way”?

CLAY: It’s a great question, and the answer is they should be following his lead even more, because when he took office, remember, he won by 30,000 votes. And that is one of the most consequential governorship elections that we have ever seen, because otherwise Andrew Gillum would have ended up in office.

And I think he would have led Florida during covid like we have seen New York and California be led. Instead of an oasis of freedom, Florida would have been a satellite of New York — and if that had happened, many other governors would not have been willing to take the risk to follow DeSantis’s lead. It’s crazy to think about.

BUCK: I could see Andrew Gillum as Governor Gillum–

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: — giving speeches about how Florida has such a large retirement community, and they need to have the most extreme lockdowns. They would have gone as far or further than New York City in the depths of its covid lockdown madness if Andrew Gillum had won that race. No question in my mind, and you’re seeing this right now. People are humiliating themselves in public over this mask mandate on planes.

Individuals who think they are smart — I’m not just talking about the blue check MDs now — people in the media who want to be taken seriously, they’re hysterical. I mean, they’re hysterical not in the funny sense. These are people who… It’s like they’re suffering from agoraphobia or something. They can’t go outside, and they expect that no one should be able to go outside. But in this case, you can’t go out into a plane unmasked? It’s lunacy.

CLAY: It’s also evidence, I think, of one of the biggest issues that’s out there right now, Buck, which is an inability to actually analyze risk and fear and be able to make rational decisions, which is one of the hallmarks of adulthood. And, by the way, on DeSantis, if he wins by as much as I think he is likely to win by in November?

If he wins by seven or eight points, let’s say, in what was otherwise considered to be a swing state when he took office, I think there will be a lot of Republicans who say, “Oh, maybe I should be following his lead. This is how it really is done,” because I think he’s gonna set a record for a Republican governor in terms of how much he wins by.

BUCK: Governor Abbott… You know, we had Tate Reeves on. Go full DeSantis. Make the left suffer the consequences of their lunacy. Push for decisions that defend freedom and sanity in your own states, right? I just throw in the two governors that came to mind. Any Republican governor, you gotta see this and say, “Why can’t we do that? I would like answers. I want to know, why can’t they do that?”