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      Ron DeSantis: 10 things to know about the Republican White House hopeful

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      Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, has officially announced his candidacy for the GOP’s 2023 presidential nomination. DeSantis joins a field currently dominated by Donald Trump, the GOP’s most popular candidate, and is widely expected to become his chief contender.Here are 10 things to know about Ron DeSantis:DeSantis is Italian-American and comes from ‘blue-collar roots’DeSantis, 44, was born in Jacksonville, Florida, to an Italian-American family. Described as a “native Floridian with blue-collar roots”, DeSantis was raised in Dunedin, a city on Florida’s Gulf coast by his mother who worked as a nurse and his father who installed Nielsen TV ratings boxes.DeSantis received an Ivy League educationDeSantis graduated from Yale in 2001 with a BA in history. During his time at Yale, DeSantis was captain of the varsity baseball team. After graduation, DeSantis briefly taught at Darlington school, a private boarding school in Rome, Georgia. In a New York Times story published last November, a former student at Darlington said that while teaching civil war history, DeSantis had tried to “play devil’s advocate that the South had good reason to fight that war, to kill other people, over owning people – Black people”. After Darlington, DeSantis went on to attend Harvard Law School and graduated in 2005 with cum laude honors.DeSantis served in the navy and was deployed to Guantánamo Bay and IraqAt Harvard, DeSantis earned a commission in the US navy as a judge advocate general’s corps (JAGs) officer. In 2006, DeSantis was stationed at the detention center in Guantánamo Bay. In an Al Jazeera op-ed published last month, former Guantánamo detainee Mansoor Adayfi claimed that DeSantis was present and was “smiling and laughing” while Adayfi was being force-fed by guards in an attempt to end his hunger strike. DeSantis contested Adayfi’s accusation, calling it “totally BS”. In 2007, DeSantis was deployed to Iraq and served as a legal adviser to Seal Team One. He was later awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Iraq Campaign Medal.DeSantis was little known when he served in the US House of RepresentativesIn 2012, DeSantis ran for Congress and went on to serve three terms before retiring in 2018 to run for governor. In 2015, DeSantis helped form the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus with the aim of shifting Republican leadership and policies as far right as possible. As the representative of Florida’s sixth congressional district, DeSantis routinely supported budget cuts to social security and Medicare. In 2013, DeSantis voted on a failed budget resolution that proposed raising the social security retirement age to 70.DeSantis became a national figure when he aggressively opposed Covid measuresThroughout the pandemic, DeSantis remained staunchly opposed to Covid-19 precautionary measures including lockdowns and mask mandates. He has also widely spread Covid-19 vaccine denialism. In 2021, as Florida experienced record-breaking surges in Covid-19 cases, DeSantis dismissed the spikes as “seasonal” and called the growing struggle faced by states’ hospitals “media hysteria”. Earlier this year, DeSantis announced a proposal to permanently ban Covid-19 mandates in the state. The governor’s aggressive stance has since earned him a variety of nicknames online including the “Pied Piper”, “Deathsantis” and “DeSatan”.DeSantis is waging a war against ‘woke’ culture, attacking minority groups in his stateSince becoming governor, DeSantis has launched a war against “woke” culture in Florida and signed into law a slew of bills that civil rights organizations have widely condemned as violations of individual freedoms. In 2022, DeSantis approved the so-called “don’t say gay” ban which prohibits discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity at school across all grade levels. In January, DeSantis banned African American studies from the state’s high schools, saying that the course “lacks educational value”. He also signed a bill approving a six-week abortion ban in the state and has announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory.DeSantis, who got married at Disney World, is engaged in a legal feud with DisneyFollowing DeSantis’s fight against LGBTQ+ rights in Florida and pressure from its own employees, Disney – one of the state’s biggest employers – publicly opposed the so-called “don’t say gay” ban last year. DeSantis retaliated by seizing control of Disney’s self-governing special district near Orlando and assumed new powers which allow him to appoint members of the development board that supervises the theme park. DeSantis has proposed building low-income housing on land next to the theme parks and also touted building a state prison in the area.DeSantis’s police program is luring officers with violent recordsAs an incentive to attract police officers from other states who are frustrated by Covid-19 vaccination requirements, DeSantis launched a new law enforcement relocation program on which he has spent $13.5m to date. The program offers a one-time $5,000 bonus for new recruits. However, a recent study of state documents found that among the nearly 600 officers who relocated to Florida, a “sizable number” have a slew of complaints against them or have since had criminal charges filed against them. Those charges include murder, as well as domestic battery and kidnapping.DeSantis’s wife, Casey, has played an influential role in his campaignA former television host and mother of three children, Casey DeSantis has been described as her husband’s “biggest asset”, from helping him contour his face to playing a high-profile role by her husband’s side during recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. In 2019, Casey DeSantis was reported to have helped push out staff members of Florida’s Republican party who were seen as more loyal to Donald Trump than to her husband. Not unfamiliar with the public eye, Casey is widely regarded as being responsible for reshaping her husband’s public persona, which has been described as “insular and standoffish”, to a “warmer” demeanor.DeSantis will face off against former ally-turned-rival Donald TrumpWith DeSantis officially in the presidential race, the governor is widely expected to become the chief challenger to Donald Trump, the GOP’s main contender and a former ally of his. Last year, Trump warned DeSantis not to run for president and threatened to reveal information about him should he run. Meanwhile, DeSantis, who has largely framed himself as “Maga without the mess”, has taken veiled jabs at Trump, who is embroiled in his own legal scandals. “We must reject the culture of losing that has impacted our party in recent years,” DeSantis said earlier this month. More

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      ‘All hat, no cattle’: Ron DeSantis, the ‘anti-woke’ Florida governor running for president

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      The official Florida governor’s website invites visitors to “Meet Governor DeSantis”. But anyone who clicks on that option is greeted with the message “Governor Ron DeSantis Biography – coming soon”, along with his photo and a big white space.DeSantis’s admirers project on to that blank page the ideal of a strong chief executive, “anti-woke” warrior and consistent election winner. His detractors fill the vacuum with warnings that the Florida governor represents “Trump 2.0”, “Trump with a brain” and “Trump without the circus”.Six months ago DeSantis was being hailed as the future of a Republican party tired of former US president Donald Trump’s losing streak. He had offered blueprints for beating Democrats in elections and for exporting a rightwing agenda nationwide: “Make America Florida.”But after filing papers with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis still has everything to prove about his readiness for the ultimate stage.Florida political insiders suggest that he is undercooked and will fail the “likability test” – which candidate would you rather have a beer with?“I have been saying DeSantis was an overpriced political stock for a year and a half,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist who has been involved in more than 30 political campaigns in the state.“This guy is all hat and no cattle. He doesn’t have that natural verbal and political grace that you need to pull off a win against Trump, who is a powerful performer on stage.”DeSantis does have youth on his side. He was born 44 years ago in Jacksonville, Florida, and grew up in Dunedin, a suburb of Tampa, but writes in his book, The Courage to Be Free, that his upbringing reflected his parents’ midwestern working-class background: “This made me God-fearing, hard-working, and America-loving.”In a biographical detail as American as apple pie and sure to resonate in the heartland, the young DeSantis lived and breathed baseball. His team in Dunedin reached the Little League World Series in 1991. He served as captain of the varsity baseball team as an undergraduate at Yale University; his Yale jersey hangs in his office in Florida’s capitol building in Tallahassee.Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Florida Republican party, said: “Even to this day he knows baseball facts when people bring it up. It was interesting being at a stadium with him: someone started talking baseball and he immediately stopped whatever conversation he was having and started rattling off stories about various players.“He’s very passionate about sports and can have great conversations with people around sports as well.”After Yale, DeSantis taught at Darlington school, a private boarding school in Rome, Georgia, in the 2001-02 school year. One former student told the New York Times that he taught civil war history in a way that sounded to her like an attempt to justify slavery.Then, while at Harvard Law School, DeSantis was commissioned as an officer in the navy and, on graduation, joined the judge advocate general corps as an attorney. He was assigned to the military prison camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, where he oversaw the treatment of detainees. Later he was deployed to Iraq to advise a team of Navy Seals.In 2020 DeSantis married Casey Black, a TV reporter, at Disney World (which he now admits is “kind of ironic”, given his subsequent feud with the entertainment company). The couple have three children: Madison, Mason and Mamie. Casey, 42, remains his closest adviser.DeSantis worked briefly as an assistant US attorney in Florida before a successful bid for a House of Representatives seat in 2012. In Congress he helped create the hard-right Freedom Caucus focused on “small government” and implacable opposition to then president Barack Obama.After a short-lived attempt to become a senator, he ran for governor in 2018. He was endorsed by then president Trump, whom he praised on the campaign trail and in a TV advert, and ultimately won by a tight margin. Trump has since taken credit for DeSantis’s victory and accused his fellow Republican of being disloyal for challenging him for the White House.The new governor did not take the narrowness of his victory as a hint that he should seek consensus; instead he centralised power in the governor’s mansion, embraced a pugnacious CEO style and declared that he wants to take “all the meat off the bone”.He has shaped legislation, punished critics, sparred with journalists and filled the state’s courts, offices and boards with allies. Supporters say his no-nonsense, get-things-done style has made Florida boom. Opponents say he has authoritarian impulses and a mean streak a mile wide.The turning point in DeSantis’s political career was the coronavirus pandemic. He opposed many of the policies advocated by the federal government to prevent the spread of Covid. He resisted mask and vaccine mandates and was determined to keep Florida businesses and tourism destinations open during most of the pandemic.His defenders argue that his approach was driven by data and rooted in science because he had primarily been a policy wonk up to that point. But the media backlash helped him find his voice as a mini Trump: an antagonist of “liberal elites” and darling of Fox News but without the rough edges. He was more disciplined and intentional.Ziegler said: “During Covid, he started doing press conferences and the press started pushing back on him. And then he started punching them back – and then, all of a sudden, the public jumped on it, and they loved it that they had a fighter in there for them. I think he took note of that.”DeSantis’s political signature is his foray into the US culture wars, summed up in his proclamation: “Florida is where woke goes to die!” He has led the Republican fightback against what he argues are extreme progressive polices favoured by educators and corporations. He imposed limits on how race, gender identity and sexuality can be taught in schools, forcing some teachers to remove books from their libraries. He banned transgender athletes from playing girls’ and women’s sports.Ziegler believes that DeSantis’s status as a father of young children helps explain his desire to fight for parents’ rights. “This is a guy that always loves being with his kids and his family. He’s either working as governor or he’s out at his kids’ T-ball games and Little League. You don’t hear that. You don’t see that. Frankly, I think he should broadcast that more.”Last year DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points in Florida, a one-time battleground state. He has since signed laws banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, easing restrictions for people to carry concealed firearms and ending the state’s unanimous jury requirement for death penalty cases.But his battle with the Walt Disney Company over its Florida theme park has unnerved some donors. His mixed messaging on continued US support for Ukraine and reluctance to respond to Trump’s attacks have also called into question his political acumen. He has even been mocked over a report that he ate a chocolate pudding dessert not with a spoon but with three fingers.Now, with Trump surging ahead of him in the polls, other Republican candidates smell blood.DeSantis will be under pressure to make a compelling case as to why he wants to be president. To some, his motivations for entering politics remain nebulous. Ron Klein, a former Democratic congressman from Florida who is chair of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said: “I never heard the typical thing that I know I presented, and many other people present, about why you did this in the first place.“What was that single issue that drove you out there? What happened in your childhood or something your parents did or some influence around you that got you? I never heard that or saw it. I don’t remember some personal driving story about why he was running for office or why he wanted to be governor of Florida.” More

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      Republican bill requiring display of Ten Commandments in Texas schools fails

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      Republicans in Texas failed to pass legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public school classroom.The controversial bill, authored by the Republican state senator Phil King, would have required schools to display the Old Testament text “in a conspicuous place in each classroom”, in a durable poster or frame.Passed by the Texas senate last week, the bill failed in the house. But it represented another sign of just how far to the right the conservative-majority Texas legislature is willing to go.Civil rights groups condemned the bill as an assault on religious freedom and the separation of church and state guaranteed by the US constitution.In a statement, the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties of Union said: “Parents should be able to decide what religious materials their child should learn.”Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a non-profit advocacy group, told the New York Times: “Forcing public schools to display the Ten Commandments is part of the Christian nationalist crusade to compel all of us to live by their beliefs.”The bill is far from the first attempt by far-right Texas lawmakers to embed Christianity in public education.In 2021, a Texas law came into effect requiring schools to display any donated “In God We Trust” signs, so long as they were in English.More recently, a bill was passed in the Texas legislature that would allow religious chaplains to act as school counselors as soon as the next school year.Another bill would allow public schools to observe a moment of prayer and hear a reading from a religious text, such as the Bible.In 2005, as Texas attorney general, the current Republican governor, Greg Abbott, won a case over attempts to display the Ten Commandments on a monument on the grounds of the state capitol building. More

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      Republican debt ceiling plans could see most vulnerable Americans lose aid

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      As debt ceiling negotiations come down to the wire with the 1 June deadline looming, some Republican leaders seem determined to use critical safety net programs – specifically, Medicaid and Snap – as a bargaining chip, and millions of America’s most vulnerable families may pay the price.Cuts and restrictions to these essential programs, which offer healthcare and food assistance, will cause further hardship to families who are already struggling – and who in many cases can’t afford the basic essentials like food and shelter. The Republican fixation on appending work requirements to these benefits are also ineffective: data shows these policies are not needed and don’t produce any substantial solutions. Some critics say they also force people to find jobs that don’t actually lead to economic mobility, prolonging their need for federal assistance.“Most Americans with health coverage through Medicaid are already working if they are able to,” Senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said in a recent statement. He also noted that “the track record shows work reporting requirements are a bureaucratic nightmare for Americans”.If Democrats make these concessions to the GOP, the cuts would also be one more blow to vulnerable people this year, many of whom just recently experienced slashed benefits when emergency Snap benefits ended along with the public health emergency for Covid-19 in May. At the same time, grocery prices are soaring: The US Department of Agriculture estimates all food prices are predicted to increase 6.5% in 2023, on top of the jumps in cost we’ve already seen over the past year or so.Maine resident Hazel Willow, single mother to a four year old, recently left an abusive relationship and says these programs provide the essential support she desperately needs to survive and heal.“The way I’m best able to provide for my child, to make sure I’m living my highest good as myself, a mother, a citizen and human in society, is to heal and recover with whatever ability I have in my body that day,” Willow said. “To do that safely and successfully, I need the societal safety net of Snap, Tanf, Wic, and others.”Willow notes that – like everyone else she knows who relies on these programs – she would love to be more self-sufficient, and wishes she had more options that would provide her with more financial breathing room and agency over her own life.“A life in which you live or die by your access to these programs is not an easy one. In my new world – where almost everyone is on most of these same programs – I have yet to meet someone who has an easy day, who is happy and safe with the way their life is and feels content to simply exist on these benefits.”Paco Vélez, president and chief executive of Feeding South Florida, said there are more than a million people struggling with food insecurity in his region and worries that more restrictions will make the situation even more dire.“The proposed work restrictions expand the minimum 20 hour per week work requirement from ages 18 to 49 to include ages 50 to 55,” said Vélez. “Many times, individuals that are unable to work fall through the cracks and have a hard time filing for an exemption or navigating the process to obtain disability, although their health is at risk, or they are unable to perform in a job they used to be able to do.”“My Snap benefits run out by the second week of the month and that is already shopping for whatever I can find on sale,” says Lilia Jorge Perez, 51, of Hollywood, Florida, who relies on Feeding South Florida. “I want to buy more healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, chicken or fish but that would take most of my benefits.”Perez came to the US from Cuba last year and has been struggling to find work because she is still waiting for her work permit. She was recently cut off from Medicaid and cash assistance and is grateful to be receiving Snap benefits.“It is already difficult to find work and even worse for those over 50 with little to no education and who don’t speak English,” says Perez. “I know people shouldn’t have to rely only on the government to provide for themselves, but if we are already facing the possibility of homelessness from the raise in rent, and people are going without food because of the prices, how can the politicians make it worse during such a difficult time in the United States?”Work restrictions often create obstacles for people accessing benefits, while also putting additional strain on staff and resources that are already stretched thin in such programs. Many families are required to navigate a notoriously complicated and time-consuming process in order to submit documentation proving they are meeting the requirements.And many communities – especially those in high-poverty areas – lack the resources to help residents who are facing food insecurity.“The families we serve may not have access to a computer, miss the required phone interview, or have notices mailed to a former address,” said Vélez. “Expanding the age for work requirements will force more folks to jump through these hoops to access food – a necessity.”Meanwhile, the cuts could deprive millions of Americans access to healthcare at a time when Covid continues to have significant impacts. The pandemic emergency status may have officially ended earlier in May, but tens of thousands of Americans are still getting sick with the virus or dealing with the lingering symptoms of long-term Covid.A mandatory national Medicaid recertification process involving all program enrollees – known as an “unwinding” – has already begun as states resume the annual eligibility verification procedures that had been on hold during the pandemic. KFF estimates that between 5.3 million and 14.2 million people will lose Medicaid coverage just through that process alone.States that saw some of the largest Medicaid enrollment surges during the pandemic – such as California, New York and Florida – are also likely to be among those with the largest number of people who lose coverage during this unwinding process. That means many people living in those states will soon be left uninsured – particularly in states like Florida, which didn’t adopt the Medicaid expansion, meaning fewer people meet the criteria for eligibility.Adding work requirements and other barriers to coverage will compound the healthcare access crisis – and place significant strain on community resources including emergency rooms (where uninsured patients will seek care if they have no other option).The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the red tape created by the Republicans’ proposed work restrictions would jeopardize the health coverage and access to care of 21 million Americans.Kimberley Causey-Gomez, commissioner of the Virgin Islands Department of Human Services, notes that more than 40% of the territory’s population relies on Medicaid, and she worries that many of them may be at risk of losing coverage (and the access to healthcare) should work requirements become a reality.Meanwhile, in Maine, Willow thinks the wealthy, including lawmakers and administrators who create and oversee these policies, don’t appreciate the consequences their actions have for people who rely on these programs – people who play an important role in our communities and society.“The people who make your coffee, cut your hair or bag your groceries. The staff at the gas stations and restaurants you frequent,” she said.“Your life is supported by these programs whether you see them or not.”This article was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project More

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      Ron DeSantis to launch presidential campaign on Twitter with Elon Musk

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      The rightwing governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, will launch his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday evening in a live appearance with Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter.NBC News first reported the plan, saying the Twitter Spaces talk at 6pm ET would be moderated by David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur, Musk confidante and DeSantis supporter. Multiple outlets later confirmed the scheme and Musk himself retweeted one report.The billionaire also trailed the interview in remarks to a conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal, adding that though he would “not at this time … endorse any particular candidate” he was “interested in Twitter being somewhat of a public town square where more and more organizations … make announcements”.Having convened a widely reported gathering of donors in Miami, DeSantis was also expected to release an announcement video on Wednesday.Fox News said the governor would be interviewed by its host Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman, at 8pm ET.Plans for a kick-off rally in DeSantis’s home town, Dunedin, have been reported. NBC said the governor would visit early voting states next week, after the Memorial Day holiday. DeSantis has repeatedly visited such states already, in an extended run-up to his formal campaign launch including the release of a campaign-oriented book.In Republican primary polling, DeSantis has maintained a consistent if increasingly distant second place to Donald Trump.The former president faces unprecedented legal jeopardy, including a criminal trial set to begin in New York in late March next year and potential indictment for his election subversion and incitement of the January 6 insurrection. He has however parlayed such challenges into success with Republican voters responsive to his claim to be a victim of political persecution.Trump used Twitter to great effect in his rise to power but was suspended from the platform after January 6. Musk lifted the ban but Trump has continued to use Truth Social, the platform he set up in his exile.Reporting DeSantis’s announcement plans, the New York Times said Musk would “add a surprising element and give Mr DeSantis access to a large audience online”.But the paper also said Musk would “inject a level of risk into a rollout that is expected to be carefully scripted and ensure that Mr DeSantis’s first impression as a presidential candidate will be aligning himself with … an eccentric businessman who has ranked at times as the world’s richest man”.Musk’s ownership of Twitter has seen continual upheaval at the company and a succession of controversies over his own use of the platform.On Tuesday Maxwell Frost, a Democratic congressman from Florida, greeted news of DeSantis’s plans with derision, tweeting: “On a Twitter space? [Laugh my ass off] this is so lame.”Rick Wilson, a Republican operative turned co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said the conversation between Musk and DeSantis would be, “to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, the unspeakable in pursuit of the unelectable”.Nonetheless, DeSantis will enter the race brandishing a successful hard-right record as governor, a position the Yale and Harvard graduate won in 2018 after serving in the US navy, including a spell at Guantánamo Bay, and spending three terms in the US House.He won re-election in a landslide last year. The Florida legislature has not yet finalised a bill allowing him to run for the presidency without resigning as governor but his ambitions have not been affected.With an eye firmly on the White House, DeSantis has accelerated his implementation of culture-war-inspired policies on gender, LGBTQ+ rights, the teaching of history (particularly regarding race), abortion, gun control and voter suppression.Democrats and some political observers say the effects of such policies, including a high-profile legal fight with Disney over a so-called “don’t say gay” public education law, will render DeSantis unappealing to voters in a general election.In figures released this week, the thinktank Data For Progress reported majority disapproval of DeSantis among women likely to vote.Among issues polled, 54% of respondents were against the six-week abortion ban DeSantis signed in April; 57% opposed book bans in public school libraries fueled by parental objections; and 75% were against allowing concealed carry of firearms without a permit or training, which DeSantis also signed into law last month.Musk himself appeared to nod to such concerns on Tuesday, telling the Wall Street Journal conference his “preference and the preference for most Americans is really to have someone fairly normal in office. I think we’d all be quite happy with that actually. Someone who is representative of the moderate views that most of the country holds in reality.“The way that it’s set up is we have … people who push people to the edge … that causes a swing to the left or right during the primaries. And a shift toward the center for the general election. A fairly normal and sensible to be the president, that would be great.”Despite such unease about DeSantis’s policies – and widespread criticism of his lack of interpersonal skills and campaign-trail charisma stoking reports of donor unease – head-to-head polling between DeSantis and President Joe Biden generally puts the two men level.Other candidates for the Republican nomination include Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations; Tim Scott, a sitting US senator from South Carolina; Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor; and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur. More

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      DeSantis envisions ‘quarter-century’ of far-right majority in the supreme court

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      In a speech to Christian media in Orlando, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, envisaged the creation of a “7-2 conservative majority that would last a quarter-century” on the US supreme court should he be elected president next year.Speaking to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, DeSantis said: “I think if you look over the next two presidential terms, there is a good chance that you could be called upon to seek replacements for Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito and the issue with that is, you can’t really do better than those two.”Supreme court justices serve for life or until they choose to retire. Thomas, who has rejected calls to resign over his relationship with a Republican mega-donor, is 74. Alito is 73. Both are hard-right figures on a court tipped firmly right, 6-3.But DeSantis also alluded to a chance to replace Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal appointed by Barack Obama who is now 68, or perhaps Elena Kagan, another Obama appointee who is now 63, should he win the White House and serve two full terms.He said: “So it is possible that in those eight years, we have the opportunity to fortify justices … Alito and Thomas as well as actually make improvements with those others, and if you were able to do that, you would have a 7-2 conservative majority on the supreme court that would last a quarter-century.”According to the Washington Post, DeSantis’s comments were met with “raucous applause”.The governor also took a shot at John Roberts, the conservative chief justice who has sided with liberals on key decisions, including the one last year which eliminated federal abortion rights.“If you replace a Clarence Thomas with somebody like a Roberts or somebody like that,” DeSantis said, “then you’re gonna actually see the court move to the left, and you can’t do that.”Under Roberts, the court has moved to the right.Last year, Alito wrote the opinion in Dobbs v Jackson, which removed abortion rights. Thomas wrote the opinion in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen, striking down a gun control law in place since 1911.DeSantis, 44, is expected to announce his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination this week.Donald Trump, 76, is the clear frontrunner to face President Joe Biden, who is 80 and beat Trump in 2020. On Monday, however, Fox News reported that 100 Trump White House alumni have formed a pro-DeSantis group called the Eight-Year Alliance.DeSantis is preparing to launch a campaign fueled by hard-right state legislation. Notable policies have included a crackdown on the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues and of race in US history, legislation targeting trans people in public life, a loosening of gun control laws and a six-week abortion ban.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMany observers say that record may prove too extreme for voters in a presidential election.On abortion rights, for example, public opinion is consistently against the kind of extreme bans recently passed in Republican states.In Orlando, the Post said, DeSantis “promoted the six-week abortion ban he helped enact this year … a divisive topic he tends to brush past, even with staunchly conservative audiences”.The governor’s comments were “brief”, the Post said. But when he said his ban was meant to “protect an unborn child that has a detectable heartbeat”, he was “drowned out by extended cheers”.Gynecologists say fetuses do not have heartbeats at six weeks, a stage at which many women do not know they are pregnant.In Orlando, DeSantis said his ban was “the right thing to do”. More

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      Republican John Kennedy: southern plain-talk or Foghorn Leghorn shtick?

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      Senator John Neely Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, offended Mexicans across the world in a hearing on the FBI and DEA’s budget this month, calling for American military members and law enforcement agents to invade their country in order to “stop the cartels” while adding that Mexico would be “eating cat food and living in tent behind an Outback [Steakhouse]” if not for “the people of America”.Mexico’s top diplomat condemned the comments as “profoundly ignorant”, and the country’s ambassador to the US called for a formal apology for the “vulgar and racist” language. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, urging the more than 37 million Americans of Mexican and other Latin American descent to “not to vote for people with this very arrogant, very offensive and very foolish mentality” in the future.The entire episode illustrated how Kennedy has emerged as a loud conservative voice in recent years in the US and in a state which has repeatedly relied on laborers of Mexican origin to rebuild homes as well as businesses following hurricanes and other natural disasters.But as the fallout from his remarks about Mexico unfolded, critics also seized on the opportunity to point out that the Republican senator was once a moderate – and some would even say liberal – Democrat before switching parties in 2007, just as the far-right Tea Party movement was taking hold in Louisiana politics.And those critics say the politician who holds degrees from Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia and Oxford University in the UK is “playing the role of a clever hick” by doing things like making fun of Mexico in order to exploit the “bigotry and fear of his base”.Kennedy has made a name for himself by delivering “folksy”, sometimes racist statements in an exaggerated southern American accent that has been likened to being somewhere between that of Mr Haney, the con artist from the former CBS sitcom Green Acres, and Foghorn Leghorn, the cartoon rooster who appears in Looney Tunes. The latter comparison is so striking that New Orleans’s Times-Picayune newspaper once posted a quiz featuring a series of eccentric statements that was headlined: “Who said it: Sen John Kennedy or Foghorn Leghorn?”In a Senate confirmation hearing, Kennedy once told a Cornell law professor born in Soviet-era Russia: “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade” – insinuating that she was a communist or a foreign agent. The remark came about three years after Kennedy drew ridicule from some quarters for spending a Fourth of July holiday – which recognizes the US’s independence from the UK – in Russia with leaders of his country’s rival power.Separately, in a tough-on-crime, pro-police campaign ad, Kennedy ended the video by saying: “Look, if you hate cops just because they’re cops, the next time you’re in trouble, call a crackhead.”But back when he was a figure in Louisiana’s state politics, Kennedy’s elocution hewed more closely to a background that is typical of his estimated net worth of more than $12m in 2016. In interviews and videos of proceedings before his switch to the Republican party, Kennedy – one of the wealthiest members of Congress – appears to speak with only a slight southern accent.“Before he got to the Senate, Kennedy never pretended to be a hick,” said Robert Mann, mass communication professor at Louisiana State University and author of Backrooms and Bayous: My Life in Louisiana Politics. “Instead, he usually acted like the well-educated, affluent person that he is.”Mann said that while Kennedy was a member of the Democratic party during a prior role as the Louisiana state government’s treasurer, he was one of the most outspoken critics of the governor at the time: Bobby Jindal, a Republican. But once he switched parties and entered the national political scene, Kennedy literally changed his tune.“After he got to the Senate and realized that Fox News and its viewers enjoyed his shtick, he went all in on this new persona,” Mann said. “The Kennedy of 2005 or 2008 is a completely different person in style and tone from the one you see today on the TV.”For Mann, Kennedy’s one-liners aren’t genuine, off-the-cuff folksy remarks. They’re calculated attempts to appease his conservative base. “The relationship is simple, I think: he periodically validates and reinforces their distorted views [on] Mexicans, Blacks and other marginalized people,” Mann said. “That tells them that he’s not an urbane, rich, well-educated person, but just one of them.“It’s how politicians have pandered to the lowest common denominator for centuries. Kennedy has mastered the technique.”Mann said that Kennedy was “playing a role on TV” by delivering sometimes “nonsensical” statements and using an exaggerated accent, which appears to fall in the long tradition of ambitious people using voice alteration to further themselves. Recent examples include Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder who is bound for prison after fraudulently claiming her technology could diagnose diseases with a single drop of blood and admitted that the baritone voice she used before her criminal conviction wasn’t her real voice. Another is Paris Hilton, who recently dropped the iconic, high-pitched “shy” voice she once used while appearing on the reality television show The Simple Life.“That role is of a clever hick who, while unsophisticated, is always quick with a put-down for smug city slickers,” Mann said. “If you view him through the lens of someone who is affecting an attitude, the words don’t have to make complete sense. It’s the image and the attitude that count.”But while Kennedy may be playing a character, the senator’s statements have real-world impacts, including on foreign relations. The remarks have strained the relationship between the US and Mexico.The two countries are economic partners, with more than 33 million US tourists visiting Mexico every year and over $800bn in bilateral trade. That includes the more than $40bn Louisiana exports to Mexico and $15bn the state bought, creating a surplus balance in favor of Louisiana of $25bn.Additionally, more than 2 million US citizens permanently live in Mexico, and the jobs created by trade between the countries supports more than 70,000 families in Louisiana.A senior Mexican diplomat at the Mexican embassy in Washington said the rhetoric in Kennedy’s recent remarks about his country and his people runs “counter to the needs of the US-Mexico relationship,” which he said requires “stronger dialogue and mutual understanding”.“Uninformed and ill-intentioned statements have the potential to veer us on to a trajectory that can further foster misunderstanding and miscommunication between both countries,” the official said. “The true challenge lies in comprehending and addressing the numerous shared challenges but also opportunities faced by Mexico and the US, on the grounds of respect.” More

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      Tim Scott says ‘I’m running for president of the United States’ in announcement speech – as it happened

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      From 5h agoTim Scott has said the magic words.“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every single rung of the ladder that helped me climb and that’s why I’m announcing today I’m running for president of the United States of America,” the senator said to applause and cheers in his kick-off speech in North Charleston, South Carolina.He began the speech by recounting his upbringing from poverty and downplaying the impacts of racial disparities in the economy, saying “I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression.”When it comes to policy, the senator is outlining familiar conservative priorities.“On my first day as commander in chief, the strongest nation on earth will stop retreating from our southern border,” he said.He embraced the conservative demand to deploy the military against drug traffickers, and vowed to restart construction of the border wall pioneered by Donald Trump.“When I am president, the drug cartels using Chinese labs and Mexican factories to kill Americans will cease to exist. I will freeze their assets, I will build the wall and I will allow the world’s greatest military to fight these terrorists. Because that’s exactly what they are.”Republican senator Tim Scott threw his hat into the ring with a speech in South Carolina where he promised to pursue a more compassionate form of conservatism, while advocating for hardline border security policies and downplaying the effects of racial inequality on American society. The GOP’s presidential field is crowded and set to become more packed on Wednesday when Ron DeSantis makes his campaign official, but can anyone defeat the final boss of Republican politicians, Donald Trump? We’ll see.Here’s what else has happened today:
      Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy will meet at 5.30pm to (hopefully) resolve the debt ceiling standoff.
      The NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida over policies DeSantis has pursued as governor, and which he will likely try to sell voters on in his presidential campaign.
      Mandatory water cuts were avoided in the west after the Biden administration and several states agreed to a deal regarding management of the Colorado river.
      Trump and fellow South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham both wished Scott well on his presidential bid.
      Speaking of Trump, federal prosecutors have evidence that he was warned he could not hold onto classified documents, the Guardian has confirmed.
      We’re 10 days away from 1 June, the estimated date when the US government, fresh out of cash and prohibited by the legal debt ceiling from borrowing more money, will default on its obligations for the first time in history.Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are in the midst of negotiations over a deal to raise the limit, likely in exchange for spending cuts or the enactment of conservative priorities that the GOP has demanded. But it’s coming awfully close to the deadline, particularly since it takes several days for Congress to consider and vote on legislation, and there’s no telling who might object to whatever deal the Democratic president reaches with the Republican speaker of House.The Associated Press took a look at what might happen if Washington does the unthinkable and actually defaults, and reached a grim verdict:
      The repercussions of a first-ever default on the federal debt would quickly reverberate around the world. Orders for Chinese factories that sell electronics to the United States could dry up. Swiss investors who own U.S. Treasurys would suffer losses. Sri Lankan companies could no longer deploy dollars as an alternative to their own dodgy currency.
      “No corner of the global economy will be spared” if the U.S. government defaulted and the crisis weren’t resolved quickly, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
      Zandi and two colleagues at Moody’s have concluded that even if the debt limit were breached for no more than week, the U.S. economy would weaken so much, so fast, as to wipe out roughly1.5 million jobs.
      And if a government default were to last much longer — well into the summer — the consequences would be far more dire, Zandi and his colleagues found in their analysis: U.S. economic growth would sink, 7.8 million American jobs would vanish, borrowing rates would jump, the unemployment rate would soar from the current 3.4% to 8% and a stock-market plunge would erase $10 trillion in household wealth.
      Biden and McCarthy are set for a 5.30pm meeting at the White House for further talks on a debt limit agreement.In major news for western US states grappling with drought, the Guardian’s Oliver Milman reports that the Biden administration has agreed to a deal that will see them use less water from the Colorado river and ward off the prospect of mandatory water cuts:A deal has been struck by Joe Biden’s administration for California, Arizona and Nevada to take less water from the drought-stricken Colorado River, in a bid to prevent the river dwindling further and imperiling the water supplies for millions of people and vast swaths of agricultural land in the US west.The agreement, announced on Monday, will involve the three states, water districts, Native American tribes and farm operators cutting about 13% of the total water use in the lower Colorado basin, a historic reduction that will probably trigger significant water restrictions on the region’s residents and farmland.In all, 3m acre-feet of water is expected to be conserved over the next three years – an acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre of land, about the size of a football field, one foot deep. A single acre-foot is enough to sustain two average California households for a year.Of these savings, 2.3m acre-feet will be compensated by the federal government, with $1.2bn going to cities, tribes and water districts. The rest of the savings will be voluntary, uncompensated ones to be worked out between the states.The agreement averts, for now, the prospect of the Biden administration imposing unilateral water cuts upon the seven states – California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – that rely upon the river, a prospect that has loomed since last summer when the waterway’s two main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, hit perilously low levels.In the run-up to the presidential campaign announcement he’s expected to make on Wednesday, Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis has overseen an effort by the state government to restrict what students can learn about race and diversity. That has prompted one of the country’s best-known civil rights groups to issue an unusual warning against visiting the state, the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports:The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida, calling the state “actively hostile” to minorities as Florida’s conservative government limits diversity efforts in schools.In a Saturday press release, the civil rights organization better known as the NAACP said the travel warning comes as Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, “attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools”.“Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color,” the advisory said.While much of Monday’s political focus has been on the expanded field of 2024 Republican presidential candidates, Texas’s US senator Ted Cruz has drawn unflattering headlines from some quarters for announcing an investigation into the maker of Bud Light as his state is gripped by major crises.Cruz, along with fellow Republican US senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, on Wednesday sent a letter to the beer industry’s regulatory body questioning whether Anheuser-Busch violated guidelines “prohibiting marketing to underage individuals” when transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April posted a video of herself on Instagram holding a custom Bud Light can with her face on it.Rightwing media outlets and consumers reacted to Mulvaney’s video by calling for a boycott of Bud Light, which reported a 23% drop in sales for the final week of April as compared to the same period during the previous year, according to CBS News.Meanwhile, as Business Insider noted, Cruz’s home state has experienced five of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in recent US history but has offered little in the way of solutions to that. He’s also hardly weighed in as Covid asylum limits known as Title 42 recently expired, giving way to new, arguably tougher immigration policies.The rush to the US-Mexico border in Texas and other parts which preceded the expiration of Title 42 has brought extraordinary pressure to immigration officials, and politicos on both sides of the aisle have so far mostly just bused migrants to different cities rather than devise substantial solutions.“Beer marketing, however – thanks to Cruz – has all the attention of the state’s top leaders” on Capitol Hill, as Insider put it.Of Cruz’s latest culture war entry, Vanity Fair added: “No, he doesn’t have anything better to do.”Tim Scott was announcing his presidential campaign on Monday, when a technical glitch left the 57-year-old senator in silence.“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb. And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America,” Scott told a cheering crowd at Charleston Southern University in his home state of South Carolina. “Our nation, our values, and our people are strong, but our president is weak,” he added.At that point, the sound cut out. Here’s that moment, if you missed it earlier today:Now that Tim Scott has announced his run for the presidency, my colleague Nick Robins-Early has pulled together 10 things you need to know about the newest Republican hopeful.He writes:Scott is a 57-year-old senator from South CarolinaScott grew up in South Carolina, attending a Baptist university and owning an insurance company before becoming involved in politics. He entered politics in the mid-1990s as a Charleston, South Carolina, city council member before running for Congress.Scott was first elected to Congress in 2010Scott staked his political claim amid a wave of conservative opposition to Barack Obama’s presidency. As a member of the hardline conservative Tea Party movement, he was endorsed at the time by the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and became a rising star of the party. After two years as a congressman, he was chosen in 2012 to replace the Republican senator Jim DeMint and appointed to the Senate.Scott is the sole Black Republican senatorScott is the only Black Republican senator, and was the first Black Republican elected to the US House of Representatives from South Carolina in over a hundred years. He has previously talked about his unique role as a Black Republican and the discrimination he has faced from authorities, but has claimed that liberals use race as a way to divide voters. He faced heated criticism from Black activists in 2021 after declaring “America is not a racist country” in response to a speech from President Joe Biden that condemned racism following a white supremacist mass shooting.Here’s the full explainer:Politicos and voters of South Carolina who support both US senator Tim Scott and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley have been handed a dilemma now that they have both declared their candidacies for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.As the Associated Press pointed out Monday, Scott and Haley have a lengthy history and were even allies earlier in their careers. Both were members of South Carolina’s state House. And in 2012, while she was serving as governor of South Carolina, Haley appointed Scott to a state Senate seat in 2012.Scott, who is the US Senate’s only Black Republican and formally launched his presidential campaign Monday, told the AP that he doesn’t consider the situation a dilemma and expressed his belief that he and Haley would remain friends despite their competing interests.Meanwhile, the AP said Haley declined to comment when asked about Scott.Others in the Republican field who have already declared include Donald Trump – who appointed Haley to her UN role during his presidency – as well as former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and Woke, Inc author Vivek Ramaswamy. Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis is widely expected to formally announce his presidential campaign in the coming days.As for the Democrats, Joe Biden has announced that he will campaign for a second term in the Oval Office after defeating Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Biden’s declared Democratic challengers so far include self-help author Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr.Republican senator Tim Scott threw his hat into the ring with a speech in South Carolina where he promised to pursue a more compassionate form of conservatism, while advocating for hardline border security policies and downplaying the effects of racial inequality on American society. The GOP’s presidential field is crowded and set to become more packed on Wednesday when Ron DeSantis makes his campaign official, but can anyone defeat the final boss of Republican politicians, Donald Trump? We’ll see.Here’s what else has happened today:
      Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy will meet at 5.30pm to (hopefully) resolve the debt ceiling standoff, which, by all indications, remains ongoing.
      Trump and fellow South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham both wished Scott well on his presidential bid.
      Speaking of Trump, federal prosecutors have evidence that he was warned he could not hold onto classified documents, the Guardian has confirmed.
      And here’s what Donald Trump has to say about Tim Scott throwing his hat into the presidential ring:
      Good luck to Senator Tim Scott in entering the Republican Presidential Primary Race. It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable. I got Opportunity Zones done with Tim, a big deal that has been highly successful. Good luck Tim!
      For those unfamiliar with Trump’s latest batch of zingers: Ron DeSanctimonious is the ex-president’s erstwhile ally Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is expected to announce his presidential campaign on Wednesday.Senator Tim Scott is now the second South Carolinian vying for the Republican presidential nomination, after former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.The state’s other senator, Republican Lindsey Graham, has already made public his endorsement of Donald Trump. He nonetheless reserved kind words for Scott in a statement released after his campaign’s official kick off:
      Congratulations to my good friend Senator Tim Scott on his announcement that he is running for President of the United States.
      Tim makes South Carolina proud, and he is one of the most talented and hard-working public servants I’ve ever known.
      He will have an optimistic vision for the future of conservatism and America, and I know he will acquit himself well.
      The anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America welcomed Senator Tim Scott’s formal entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary today.“We are encouraged by his commitment to sign the strongest achievable protections for life should he be elected president,” said the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser. “We welcome Scott and all presidential contenders further outlining their pro-life vision and policy platform.”Scott has vowed to sign “the most conservative, pro-life legislation” that could pass Congress if he becomes president, but he has refused to specify his preferred time frame for a potential federal abortion ban.When asked about his preferred cut-off point for banning the procedure, Scott told NBC News last month: “I’m not going to talk about six or five or seven or 10 [weeks].”Dannenfelser said today, “The pro-life movement is seeking a national defender of life who will boldly advocate a minimum national standard to protect unborn children at least by 15 weeks when they can feel pain, and who will work tirelessly to build consensus and gather the votes necessary in Congress.”In his presidential campaign announcement speech, Tim Scott recounted his upbringing from poverty, discounted the impact of racial inequality on Americans’ lives and restated conservative policy goals, from cutting taxes to building a wall along the US border with Mexico.As he wrapped up his address, he vowed to promote on the campaign trail a friendlier form of conservatism.“This can’t be another presidential campaign. We don’t have time for that. We need a president who persuades not just our friends and our base,” he said. “We have to have a compassion for people who don’t agree with us.”He closed with these words: “I am living proof that God and a good family and the United States of America can do all things, if we believe. Will you believe it with me?”In the months to come, we’ll find out if Republican voters share his faith.Tim Scott has said the magic words.“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every single rung of the ladder that helped me climb and that’s why I’m announcing today I’m running for president of the United States of America,” the senator said to applause and cheers in his kick-off speech in North Charleston, South Carolina.He began the speech by recounting his upbringing from poverty and downplaying the impacts of racial disparities in the economy, saying “I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression.”When it comes to policy, the senator is outlining familiar conservative priorities.“On my first day as commander in chief, the strongest nation on earth will stop retreating from our southern border,” he said.He embraced the conservative demand to deploy the military against drug traffickers, and vowed to restart construction of the border wall pioneered by Donald Trump.“When I am president, the drug cartels using Chinese labs and Mexican factories to kill Americans will cease to exist. I will freeze their assets, I will build the wall and I will allow the world’s greatest military to fight these terrorists. Because that’s exactly what they are.”Tim Scott may be the lone Black Republican in the Senate, but his message to Republican voters downplays the impact of racial inequality in America.“For those of you who wonder if America is a racist country, take a look at how people come together,” Scott said. “We are not defined by the color of our skin. We are defined by the content of our character.” More