I wrote the other day about how Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis — The No. 1 Trump Mini-Me — has seen a stunning drop in his popularity among Floridians over the past three months, due in large part to his massive and continued bungling and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic in our state. Today the Tampa Bay Times has a delicious new story that adds another chapter to DeathSantis’ stunning and rapid fall: the RNC Convention debacle.
DeathSantis lobbied hard to convince the Trump campaign to move the convention from North Carolina to Florida:
Florida could fly in and put up thousands of delegates, fete Trump in style and keep attendees safe from a fast-spreading disease, DeSantis said in June. And they could do it without all those pesky safety restrictions that North Carolina’s Gov. Roy Cooper would have required in Charlotte.
More importantly, DeathSantis and his minions had visions of the RNC Convention in Jacksonville giving him a prominent role that would catapault him to national star status in the Republican Party.
As the host governor, DeSantis would’ve had a major role in putting on the convention, a duty that typically comes with a bunch of perks. Hobnobbing with influential Republicans from across the country. Introductions to deep-pocketed donors. And a prime time speaking slot to address millions of Americans watching at home.
It was a chance for the 41-year-old Republican to snag a top billing during Trump’s final coronation and test the waters for a potential run at the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. In an interview last month, Republican Party Chairman Joe Gruters said he expected the convention would “put Gov. DeSantis in the spotlight and add fuel to his efforts to make a national name for himself.”
Now? Not so much. Not only have DeathSantis’ dreams of becoming a national GOP star been suddenly dashed, but he’s learning firsthand the dangers of hitching your star to Donald Trump — you’ll always get burned. Ever Trump’s eager lapdog, DeathSantis was one of the first governors to heed the calls of the Orange One and reopen Florida too soon. Now he’s confronted with having to explain why he continues to insist that it’s safe for Florida’s schools to fully reopen in August — again in an effort to please Trump — when Trump is saying it’s not safe to have the RNC Convention in Florida in August.
...Trump’s sudden announcement Thursday...raised doubts about DeSantis’ own response to the coronavirus. On the same day DeSantis contended Florida’s outbreak was showing signs of slowing down, Trump argued it was too dangerous to hold a convention there.
“The timing for this event is not right. It’s just not right with what’s happened recently — the flare up in Florida — to have a big convention,” Trump said in a news conference. “It’s not the right time.”
Trump is rolling that bus over DeathSantis, hard. Trump loves to say how everything is rosy with COVID-19 in our country, so it’s notable that he’s pointing out how things are not going well with the virus in Florida (i.e. it’s DeathSantis’ fault that there are “big fires” in Florida and thus DeathSantis’ fault that they had to cancel the convention in Jacksonville).
In case you’re wondering, Florida added 584 new hospitalizations for COVID-19 on Friday — a record high, 12,444 new infections — surpassing 400,000 cases over the past five months, and 136 deaths, bringing the total number who have died from coronavirus since March in Florida up to 5,763 people.
And in case you forgot, it was Ron DeathSantis who described Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a girl “or whatever she is”; it was Ron DeathSantis who aired a political ad in which he encouraged his toddler daughter to use building blocks to “build the wall”; it was Ron DeathSantis who read The Art of the Deal to his even-younger son Mason in that same ad. So do I get a little joy out of continuing to chronicle for you his rapid and stunning fall? Yes I do.