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      Ron DeSantis visits Iowa as presidential bid speculation intensifies

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      Ron DeSantis visits Iowa as presidential bid speculation intensifiesRightwing governor of Florida – and most likely rival to Trump for the 2024 nomination – promotes his book in the early voting state Republican Ron DeSantis greeted fans in Iowa on Friday, marking the Florida governor’s first visit this election cycle to the early voting state and intensifying speculation over when he might announce his 2024 presidential bid.DeSantis delivered remarks to a full crowd at a casino in Davenport on Friday morning, and he is scheduled to later appear in Des Moines with the governor of Iowa, Republican Kim Reynolds, to promote his new book, The Courage to be Free.Larry Hogan doesn’t rule out third-party 2024 campaign in bid to stop TrumpRead moreThe hardline rightwing governor has emerged as the most likely rival to Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican nomination race and relations between the two have soured, with Trump recently pouring insults on DeSantis.Trump has already announced his own bid to return to the White House, but his grip on the party has weakened a little after a disappointing show by top Trump-backed candidates in last November’s midterm elections.Speaking in Davenport, DeSantis touted his accomplishments in Florida and hammered the culture-war issues that have energized Republican primary voters in recent years.The crowd gave DeSantis a standing ovation when he mentioned his decision to have migrants flown from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, a move that sparked a lawsuit and has already cost the state nearly $2m.“We will never surrender to the woke mob,” DeSantis told the Davenport crowd. “Our state is where the woke mob goes to die.”After the speech, DeSantis mingled with his supporters, working the rope line of the event. The governor took selfies with supporters and offered to autograph their books, looking like a candidate for higher office.DeSantis’s trip comes as he trails Trump in national surveys of likely Republican primary voters, with the former US president leading by 25 points in the latest Morning Consult poll.But a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey suggests DeSantis currently poses the largest threat to Trump in Iowa, which will hold the first caucus of the 2024 Republican nomination contest next February.According to the survey’s results, Trump is viewed favorably by 80% of Iowa Republicans, compared with 75% who view DeSantis favorably. The former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who launched her own presidential campaign last month, is viewed favorably by 53% of Iowa Republicans.“Someone who has already held the office and who won the state twice would be presumed to be the frontrunner, and I don’t know that we can say that at this point,” said pollster J Ann Selzer, who conducted the Iowa survey. “There’s nothing locked in about Iowa for Donald Trump.”Haley is wrapping up a three-day swing through Iowa on Friday, and Trump is scheduled to visit the state on Monday to deliver a speech on education issues, which DeSantis has seized upon as a central focus of his gubernatorial tenure.DeSantis has signed a bill banning lessons in Florida’s elementary schools on sexual orientation or gender identity, attacked by critics as the “don’t say gay” law, and Republican legislators hope to expand that policy to cover pre-kindergarten through eighth grade during this legislative session.DeSantis is expected to wait to formally launch his presidential campaign until after Florida’s current legislative session, which began on Tuesday, concludes in May. But DeSantis’s latest events and remarks have left little question that he will soon enter the presidential race, with the hope of capturing the Republican nomination and defeating Joe Biden in November 2024.“Now’s not the time to rest on our laurels,” DeSantis said in his state of the state address on Tuesday. “We will stand strong. We will hold the line. We won’t back down. And I can promise you this: you ain’t seen nothing yet.”TopicsRon DeSantisRepublicansUS elections 2024US politicsIowanewsReuse this content More

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      Ron DeSantis has his next target in his sights: freedom of the press | Trevor Timm

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      Ron DeSantis has his next target in his sights: freedom of the pressTrevor TimmFlorida’s rightwing governor and legislature want to gut one of the United States’ most important first amendment rulingsRon DeSantis, the Florida governor, and his cronies, not content with destroying free speech in public schools, have set for themselves a new target: destroying press freedom and every Floridian’s right to criticize public officials. Along the way, they aim to overturn the most important first amendment US supreme court decision of the 20th century.The latest bill to raise eyebrows sounds like it’s made up by the opponents of Florida Republicans to make them sound ridiculous. Unfortunately, it’s real. The proposed law, authored by state legislator Jason Brodeur, would – I kid you not – compel “bloggers” who criticize the governor, other officers of the executive branch, or members of the legislature to register with the state of Florida. Under the bill, anyone paid to write on the internet would have to file monthly reports every time they utter a government official’s name in a critical manner. If not, they’d face potentially thousands of dollars in fines.Banning ideas and authors is not a ‘culture war’ – it’s fascism | Jason StanleyRead moreIt’s a policy so chilling that it would make Vladimir Putin proud, and I wish that was hyperbole. In 2014, Russia’s autocratic leader signed a very similar provision, then known as the “blogger’s law”. As the Verge explained at the time, “under it, any blogger with more than 3,000 readers is required to register with the Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media oversight agency”.As despotic as this proposed Florida blogger law may be, it’s also so laughably absurd, and so unconstitutional on its face, that it’s hard to imagine even DeSantis’s rubber-stamp legislature would pass it. As Charles C Cooke recently wrote, “Senator Jason Brodeur is a moron, but he’s a solo moron” with no apparent further support here. One would hope. But the blogger blacklist bill may be useful for another reason: as an attention-grabbing sideshow, to take heat off another free speech-destroying proposal that has DeSantis’s explicit backing – this one aimed at a bedrock principle of press freedom in the United States.For the past few weeks, while his new Orwellian higher education rules have been getting the lion’s share of attention, DeSantis has also been on the warpath against New York Times v Sullivan, the landmark supreme court decision from the early 1960s that set the bar for defamation law in this country – and gave newspapers and citizens alike wide latitude to investigate and criticize government officials.Many legal scholars consider it the most important first amendment decision of the last century. It is one of the primary reasons newspapers in the US can aggressively report on public officials and powerful wealthy individuals without the constant fear that they are going to be sued out of existence. And up until a few years ago, when Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch started criticizing it, everyone assumed it was settled law.Recently, DeSantis staged a dramatic “roundtable” discussion to present to the public that he was now invested in changing Florida defamation law for “the little guys”, “the run-of-the-mill citizens”, the ordinary folk who don’t have “thick skin” like his. He then proceeded to use the majority of the presentation to rail against New York Times v Sullivan, which of course doesn’t apply to “the little guys” at all – only to powerful public figures like him.A few days later, DeSantis’s allies in Florida’s legislature introduced bills that would fulfill his wish and directly violate the Sullivan supreme court ruling. In their original draft, the law’s authors made no attempt to hide their disdain for the bedrock first amendment decision either. They called it out directly in the bill’s preamble, bizarrely stating that the unanimous decision from almost 60 years ago “bears no relation to the text, structure, or history of the first amendment to the United States constitution”. (That sentence was later deleted in the next version.)While the Florida house and senate version vary slightly in specifics, even the “tamer” senate version – introduced by the very same state senator Brodeur – guts almost every aspect of journalists’ rights. Here’s just a partial list of what the bills aim to do:
      Kill off a large part of Florida’s journalist “shield bill”, which protects reporters from being forced to testify in court.
      Presume any news report written with anonymous sources is defamation.
      Roll back Florida’s anti-Slapp law, which ironically protects “little guys” like independent newspapers when they are sued by wealthy individuals for the primary purpose of bankrupting them.
      Weaken the “actual malice” standard from Sullivan, to make it easier for public officials to sue newspapers or critics.
      Now, can states just pass laws that blatantly ignore supreme court precedent? Of course not. Any responsible judge would strike this down as unconstitutional right away. But DeSantis may be hoping for a friendly appeals court ruling from a Trump-appointed judge or supreme court showdown to revisit the Sullivan ruling – following the same decades-long Republican strategy that finally overturned Roe v Wade. And in the meantime, DeSantis can burnish his anti-media bona fides for his presidential run, and Republican legislatures around the country can use the opportunity to copy the bill or one-up him.Whether the bill survives in the long term doesn’t change the fact that it would destroy all media in Florida – the traditional and mainstream, but also the independent and alternative, including all the conservative publications that have sprouted up all over the state in recent years.DeSantis has turned Florida into a national laboratory for speech suppression. And every American – Republican or Democrat – should be horrified.TopicsUS politicsOpinionRon DeSantisFreedom of speechJournalism booksFloridaUS supreme courtcommentReuse this content More

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      DeSantis inches closer to presidential run announcement with California speech – as it happened

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      That’s it from our live blog today. Here’s how the day unfolded in US politics:
      Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis appears to be moving toward announcing his presidential campaign after delivering a speech yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. In the speech, DeSantis’ condemned other states’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic and celebrated Florida as a “citadel of freedom”. DeSantis is expected to formally enter the GOP primary in the next couple of months.
      The DC city council will withdraw its bill revising the local criminal code from congressional consideration, the panel’s chairperson announced. The news comes after Joe Biden said he would not veto a Republican measure to overturn the DC bill. Despite the council’s move to withdraw the bill, the Senate still plans to vote on the matter this week, according to CNN.
      Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake won the vice-presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend. Lake defeated other contenders with 20% of the vote, while DeSantis came in second place at 14% and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley trailed with 10%. Lake is best known for losing the Arizona gubernatorial race last year and peddling the lie that her election was tainted by widespread fraud.
      Biden reportedly plans to travel to the west coast next week to fundraise, as the president is widely expected to formally launch his reelection campaign in the next several weeks. Biden is expected to make stops in California and Nevada as he meets with donors.
      Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, is “well on his way to recovery” after being hospitalized to receive treatment for depression, his top adviser said. Fetterman’s chair of staff, Adam Jentleson, shared photos of a morning meeting with the senator and said he continues to weigh in on legislation as he recovers.
      The live blog will be back tomorrow morning with more updates and analysis of US politics. See you then.Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, is “well on his way to recovery” after being hospitalized to receive treatment for depression, his top adviser said.Fetterman’s chair of staff, Adam Jentleson, shared photos of a meeting this morning with the senator and said he continues to weigh in on legislation as he recovers.“Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing the rail safety legislation, Farm Bill and other Senate business,” Jentleson said on Twitter. “John is well on his way to recovery and wanted me to say how grateful he is for all the well wishes. He’s laser focused on PA & will be back soon.”Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing the rail safety legislation, Farm Bill and other Senate business. John is well on his way to recovery and wanted me to say how grateful he is for all the well wishes. He’s laser focused on PA & will be back soon. pic.twitter.com/143uAhoQRx— Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) March 6, 2023
      Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed last month, following an evaluation by Dr Brian P Monahan, the attending physician of the US Congress. Fetterman’s office said he has “experienced depression off and on throughout his life,” and his symptoms had becaome severe in the weeks leading up to his hospitalization.Fetterman has received praise for publicly acknowledging his mental health struggles, as advocates have expressed hope that it will encourage others to seek help.“Asking for help is important, but it’s not always easy,” said Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general. “I hope Senator Fetterman’s courage will serve as an example for others.”Joe Biden reportedly plans to travel to the west coast next week to fundraise, as the president is widely expected to formally launch his reelection campaign in the next several weeks.Politico reports:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Biden’s trip west will take him to Rancho Santa Fe, a wealthy enclave of sprawling estates north of San Diego, two of the people told POLITICO. He also will have likely stops in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nev. The trip is planned for Monday and Tuesday, though the two people stressed Biden’s itinerary is still being finalized and specifics remain fluid.
      Biden and Democrats are gearing up an expected reelection campaign, including by dispatching Vice President Kamala Harris to fundraisers of her own in her home state. On Friday, she headlined a midday event in the San Francisco suburb of Hillsborough at the home of longtime fundraiser Stefanie Roumeliotes and her husband, John Costouros.
      Despite feeling no pressure to formally announce his re-election campaign, Biden has already held a handful of fundraisers out east to benefit the Democratic National Committee. Earlier this year, he gave a speech to DNC members in Philadelphia that aides described as a soft launch of sorts.The news comes as the Republican presidential primary is already in full swing, with Donald Trump and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley having both launched their campaigns. Other Republican candidates, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are expected to announce in the next few months.As of now, Democratic leaders appear to be rather unified around Biden’s candidacy. No Democratic lawmaker has yet stepped forward to challenge Biden, indicating that the president will likely have a smooth path to the nomination.When asked about self-help author Marianne Williamson announcing she will challenge Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House is “not tracking that”.Jean-Pierre joked that she would perhaps have more to say on Williamson “if I could feel her aura,” eliciting laughter from reporters in the briefing room.The comment appeared to be a dig at Williamson, a self-described spiritual leader who ran for president in 2020 and said that she struggled to push back against the perception that she was a “crystal woo-woo lady”.The White House will be represented at King Charles III’s coronation in May, but Karine Jean-Pierre would not commit to Joe Biden himself attending the event.Reports indicate that Biden does not plan to attend the coronation, but other senior members of the administration may travel to the UK for the event.Jean-Pierre rejected any suggestion that Biden’s lack of attendance should be interpreted as a snub of the British monarchy if the president does decide to skip the coronation.Karine Jean-Pierre would not comment on Donald Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, in which the former president vowed “retribution” against his political enemies.Jean-Pierre said she could not speak to Trump’s remarks because of the Hatch Act, which prohibits employees of the federal government from engaging in some political activities.A reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre why Joe Biden believes DC should be a state if he disagrees with the city council’s judgment on altering the local criminal code.Despite his refusal to veto the proposal overturning DC’s crime bill, Biden still believes that Congress should pass a bill granting DC statehood, and he would sign that legislation, Jean-Pierre said.“He believes that cities and states should be able to govern for themselves,” Jean-Pierre said.Karine Jean-Pierre sidestepped questions about the news that the DC city council is withdrawing its crime bill after Joe Biden said he would not veto a Republican motion to overturn the policy.“The president expressed concerns on certain provisions of the DC crime bill,” Jean-Pierre said. “As we can see, the DC council’s process is still ongoing, so we won’t comment on that any further.”A reporter noted that the White House has cited DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s opposition to the crime bill to justify Biden’s stance, but Bowser herself has said that Congress should not be “meddling” in local policy matters.Jean-Pierre deflected that question, instead saying the White House has been in “constant communication” with Bowser’s team.“This is not something that we put forward,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is a decision that was brought to [Biden], and he wants to be very clear and communicate with the people of DC and with all of you.”According to reports, the Senate plans to move forward with its vote to overturn the crime bill, even after the council announced it was withdrawing the proposal from congressional consideration.The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters, and she kicked off her comments by discussing “junk fees”.The Biden administration has pushed airlines to limit fees for customers, and Jean-Pierre said several airlines are now working toward fee-free family seating to “guarantee that parents can sit with their young children without getting nickeled and dimed”.The Department of Transportation is also launching a new family seating dashboard to help customers compare fees across airlines, Jean-Pierre noted.In his State of the Union address last month, Joe Biden pledged to crack down on junk fees, saying, “Junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most folks in homes like the one I grew up in. … I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and gets away with it. Not anymore.”The Guardian’s Chris McGreal reports on Evangelical Christians flocking to the Republican party over support for Israel:When Israel’s former ambassador to the US said his country should worry less about what American Jews think and concentrate on Christian evangelicals as the “backbone” of support for the Jewish state, he had in mind the Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee.Hagee founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a group that claims 11 million members, who have had a significant influence on Republican party politics and in hardening Washington’s already strong support for Israel.Donald Trump, while president, made no secret of his desire to keep Hagee and Christian Zionist voters happy as a key part of his base by abandoning even the pretense that the US was a neutral player in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Former South Carolina governor and current White House hopeful Nikki Haley recognised Hagee’s power within the most important religious bloc of Republican voters and their influence over political priorities, from anti-abortion laws to Israel policy, when she invited him to give the invocation at her presidential campaign launch last month.“Pastor Hagee, I still say I want to be you when I grow up,” she enthused.Left largely unmentioned by Haley and Hagee’s Israeli allies were his antisemitic views, including calling Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler a “half-breed Jew” who was sent by God to drive the Jewish people to Israel. He has also suggested that Jews brought centuries of persecution on themselves by disobeying God.Read Chris’ full report:Evangelical Christians flock to Republicans over support for Israel Read moreHere’s where the day stands so far:
      Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis appears to be moving toward announcing his presidential campaign after delivering a speech yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. In the speech, DeSantis’ condemned other states’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic and celebrated Florida as a “citadel of freedom”. DeSantis is expected to formally enter the GOP primary in the next couple of months.
      The DC city council will withdraw its bill revising the local criminal code from congressional consideration, the panel’s chairperson announced. The news comes after Joe Biden said he would not veto a Republican measure to overturn the DC bill. Despite the council’s move to withdraw the bill, the Senate still plans to vote on the matter this week, according to CNN.
      Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake won the vice-presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend. Lake defeated other contenders with 20% of the vote, while DeSantis came in second place at 14% and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley trailed with 10%. Lake is best known for losing the Arizona gubernatorial race last year and peddling the lie that her election was tainted by widespread fraud.
      The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.The Senate still plans to vote on overturning the DC bill revising the local criminal code, even after the council announced it would withdraw the proposal from congressional consideration.Two Senate aides told CNN’s Manu Raju that they still expect the vote to occur:Senate will STILL vote this week to halt DC criminal code rewrite despite the last-ditch attempt by the DC Council’s chairman to withdraw the legislation from Hill review, two aides said— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 6, 2023
      Now that Joe Biden has said he would not veto the proposal to overturn the DC bill, more Senate Democrats are expected to join Republicans in supporting the motion.The chair of the DC Council, Phil Mendelson, said this morning, “If the Republicans want to proceed with a vote … it will be a hollow vote because the bill isn’t there before them.”Carlisa N Johnson reports on how Republican legislators are attempting to restrict voting access:In the final few days of this year’s Georgia assembly legislative session, Republican lawmakers raced to propose laws seeking to restrict voting access, and make it easier for citizens to challenge and subvert normal election processes.Senate bill 221, house bill 422 and house bill 426 are just a few of the newly proposed election laws, which come after state Republicans, including the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, praised election officials for smooth elections in the past two years.They include measures to eradicate absentee ballot drop boxes, allow citizens to more easily challenge voter registrations – which Republican conspiracy theorists had already done with little backing evidence during the midterms – and even unseal ballots for review.While some of the elements of these proposed laws offer expanded flexibility and resources for elections, including the popular bipartisan effort to eradicate runoff elections in the state, other aspects are grounded in unfounded claims and conspiracy theories surrounding mass election fraud stemming from the 2020 election.Read Carlisa’s full report:Georgia Republicans race to pass laws to restrict and challenge votesRead moreBefore the DC Council announced it would withdraw the crime bill, Joe Biden faced criticism from a number of Democrats for saying that he would sign a Republican measure to reverse the policy.“It’s disappointing to all of us who believe in home rule,” Congressman Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic caucus, said Thursday.“I’m deeply disappointed to see the President announce he will allow Congress to overturn a DC law for the first time in decades,” Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said. “This is simple: The District of Columbia must be allowed to govern itself.”Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi added Friday, “If he was going to do it, I wish he would’ve told us first because this was a hard vote for the House members.”The Guardian’s Chris Stein has more details on the DC Council’s decision to withdraw a bill revising the local criminal code:The chair of the DC council, Democrat Phil Mendelson, criticized the Republican opponents of the crime bill, saying Congress was more focused on winning political points rather than carefully considering the policy.“It’s quite clear to me that the headwinds that have prevailed in Congress are about the politics of next year’s election and not about what’s the substance in this criminal code,” Mendelson said at a press conference this morning.“The fact is is that the criminal code has hit these headwinds, which is why I pulled it back.”Mendelson acknowledged that Senate Republicans may still push for a vote to overturn the bill, but he said such a maneuver would be “hollow” because the council has withdrawn the proposal from congressional consideration.Mendelson blamed the criticism of the crime bill on misinformation about the content of the proposal, saying, “What people were hearing was we were decriminalizing or that we were reducing sentences and the messaging just got out of our control.”Asked why he believed Joe Biden indicated he would sign the Republican reversal measure, Mendelson said he thought the president was trying to protect Democratic lawmakers.“The reality is that if we’re to get statehood, it’s going to be the Democrats who help us with it,” Mendelson said. “So if we have any hope for statehood, we have to want to protect our Democratic friends in Congress. And that’s where I think the president is.” More

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      DeSantis lambasts California’s ‘woke ideology’ in Reagan library speech

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      DeSantis lambasts California’s ‘woke ideology’ in Reagan library speechFlorida governor, expected to announce presidential run, says Democrats have been infected with a ‘woke mind virus’Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, took his fight against liberalism deep into the Democratic territory of California on Sunday, part of a national roadshow as he lays the ground for an expected White House bid.DeSantis has been meeting with wealthy donors in recent days and burnishing his national credentials in a series of speeches boasting about his achievements in Florida while lambasting the “woke ideology” of leaders in Democratic strongholds including California and New York.DeSantis, who is expected to announce a presidential run in the next few months, has made a war on liberalism a central theme of his governorship and a way to appeal to the Republican base.While he has not yet announced a White House bid, one candidate who has – former Republican president Donald Trump – clearly views DeSantis as a major potential threat as the GOP nominating contest kicks into gear. Trump has already launched personal and political attacks on DeSantis as the race for the Republican party’s 2024 presidential nomination begins to heat up.DeSantis, speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library about 50 miles north of Los Angeles, made a veiled reference to the chaos of Trump’s presidency and his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.“You don’t see drama and palace intrigue,” DeSantis said of his governorship in Florida. “You see surgical precision and execution.”DeSantis, who narrowly won election to the governor’s mansion in 2018, touted his landslide re-election in November.He attacked Democratic governors and leaders as being infected with a “woke mind virus”. The term “woke” has become shorthand among opponents as leftwing ideology run amok.He decried their policies on tax, vaccine mandates and classroom “indoctrination”.DeSantis also took aim at Disney, which opposes a Florida law that restricts classroom instruction of gender and sexual orientation.Last month he signed a bill that takes control of a special tax district surrounding Walt Disney World that for half a century allowed it to operate with a high degree of autonomy.“There’s a new sheriff in town,” DeSantis declared, referring to what he has called the end of Disney’s “corporate kingdom”.Other candidates expected to jump into the Republican primary race include former vice-president Mike Pence and ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, declared her candidacy last month.TopicsRon DeSantisRepublicansUS politicsUS elections 2024CaliforniaFloridanewsReuse this content More

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      Florida Republicans seek new abortion restrictions amid broad rightwing push

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      Florida Republicans seek new abortion restrictions amid broad rightwing pushProposals include restrictions on gender identification, diversity programs, press freedoms, and relax concealed weapons lawsFlorida Republicans are planning a broad rightwing legislative push, including new restrictions on gender identification, diversity and equity programs, abortion and press freedoms, and further relaxation of concealed weapons laws and the ability of courts to impose death sentences.The basket of proposed legislation comes five months after the state’s rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis won re-election by a decisive margin and the Republicans established a convincing majority in the state legislature.The broad push is seen by many as following the Republican governor’s ideological wish-list as DeSantis positions himself for a likely 2024 White House and an attempt to wrest the Republican party from out of the shadow of Donald Trump.Last week, Republican lawmakers moved to expand the state’s controversial “Parental Rights in Education/Don’t Say Gay” law with proposed legislation limiting the use of gender pronouns within parts of the public and charter school education system.The legislation, known as House Bill 1223, is aimed at establishing a requirement that “personal titles and pronouns” used in schools for kindergarten through 12th grade match the identity assigned at birth.The bill says that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun” that does not match their sex and expands bans on sexual orientation and gender identity topics in schools by five years, from third to eighth grade.The legislation, introduced last week, also releases employees, contractors, or students in Florida K-12 schools from referring to others using their preferred personal title or pronoun if it does not match their sex.Seeking to suppress trans rights has become a political tactic for Republicans in recent months across the US amid a broad right-wing backlash against LGBTQ communities, that has included proposed book bans, attacks on drag shows and the promotion of conspiracy theories.Other laws set to be pushed in Florida include allowing concealed weapons without a permit or training, a ban on diversity and equity programs at state universities, new abortion restrictions, rolling back press freedoms and allowing courts to pass a death sentence without a unanimous jury verdict.Republican lawmakers in Florid have indicated that they are guided by DeSantis. “We’re going to get his agenda across the finish line,” Republican Senate president Kathleen Passidomo said last month.The governor summoned lawmakers to a special session last month that would expand his power to transport migrants solely from Florida to transport from anywhere in the US. Lawmakers also gave state prosecutors expanded powers over voting-related crimes.The legislative slate follows DeSantis’s 19% margin in his re-election in November and appears to have little effective Democrat opposition. HB 1223 builds on 2021’s Parents Bill of Rights and HB 1557 Parental Rights in Education better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which triggered widespread outrage but has been copied by other Republican-controlled state legislatures.Under the proposed legislation, both private providers or public schools would also be blocked from providing instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.Equality Florida Public Policy director Jon Harris Maurer said in a statement that the legislation “is about a fake moral panic, cooked up by Governor DeSantis to demonize LGBTQ people for his own political career”.“Governor DeSantis and the lawmakers following him are hellbent on policing language, curriculum, and culture. Free states don’t ban books or people,” Maurer added.TopicsFloridaRon DeSantisRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      A diminished but loyal Trump Maga at CPAC: ‘There’s one choice’

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      A diminished but loyal Trump Maga crowd at CPAC: ‘There’s one choice’Trump might have lost some ground in the Republican party, but his core support is holding fast, even as some attendees expressed doubtIt fell to Steve Bannon, far-right podcaster and political pugilist, to wake up the crowd with a jolt.“Don’t fall for the primary stuff,” he urged in a fiery speech. “It’s not relevant. We don’t have time for on-the-job training [instead of] a man that gave us four years of peace and prosperity.”Trump’s war with DeSantis heats up with details of 2024 battle planRead moreWhat had been a low energy Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) erupted in cheers. It did so again when Bannon – who is facing four months in prison for contempt of Congress – assured them that “Donald J Trump” would win both the Republican nomination and US presidency in 2024. Finally, here was someone who was speaking the language of CPAC.But a glance at the convention centre ballroom revealed row upon row of empty seats. The “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement, while vociferous as ever, appeared diminished in size. There was no doubt that former president Trump remained the big fish at the National Harbor in Maryland – but in a smaller pond.CPAC, which bills itself as the biggest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world, has been taking place for nearly half a century. After a pandemic-enforced move to Florida and Texas, it returned to the Washington area this week. But proximity to the capital was no guarantee of relevance. The list of Republicans who decided to stay away was as striking as those who showed up.CPAC impresario Matt Schlapp, who is battling a lawsuit over a sexual assault allegation, acknowledged on Thursday: “There’s a lot of chatter in the media about who’s here and not here.”The absentees included potential 2024 contenders such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, former vice-president Mike Pence and Senator Tim Scott. Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel were also missing.Even Fox News, once Trump’s loudest cheerleader, appeared to have given up the ghost and been supplanted by the more extreme and fringy Newsmax. Bannon railed against Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, vowing: “Murdoch, you’ve deemed Trump’s not going to be president. Well, we’ve deemed that you’re not going to have a network. Because we’re going to fight you every step of the way.”Fox News reportedly imposes ‘soft ban’ on Donald TrumpRead moreIt was a far cry from the days when CPAC commanded national headlines as the rehearsal dinner for Republican primary candidates. In 2015, the year before the last competitive Republican primary, the marquee event heard from nearly all the major candidates, including Jeb Bush.Nevertheless Nikki Haley, who launched her campaign last month, did venture into the lion’s den on Friday. Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations diplomatically avoided direct criticism of her old boss, though she did offer coded jabs.Noting that Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections, Haley said: “Our cause is right but we have failed to win the confidence of a majority of Americans. That ends now. If you’re tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation.”Although she received polite applause throughout her speech, there were numerous empty seats in the ballroom. And later several attendees chanted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” as she walked through the venue.Mike Pompeo, a former secretary of state who is also expected to launch a White House bid, was similarly oblique and subdued in taking on Trump. He said: “We can’t become the left, following celebrity leaders with their own brand of identity politics, those with fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality.”Both appearances underscored how no Republican has yet shown willingness to step into the ring and go toe to toe with Trump for fear of alienating his voter base. DeSantis has so far refused to engage while, in a recent interview, Scott admitted that he could not think of any policy differences with the former president.Meanwhile Trump, whom no one ever accused of being tormented by self-doubt, has forged ahead with campaign events, policy announcements and a visit to the scene of a toxic rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, that showed his populist touch has not entirely deserted him. Last month’s opinion polls showed him building momentum.‘You’re not forgotten‘: how the right racialized the Ohio train disasterRead moreCPAC, in effect a four-day Trump rally, is likely to provide a further sugar rush. He cruised to victory in its unscientific straw poll of more than 2,000 attendees with 62% of the vote, well clear of DeSantis on 20%. His speech drew by far the biggest crowd of the conference.A walk through the corridors revealed a plethora of “Make America great again” caps, “Bikers for Trump” vests and “Trump 45” sports jerseys, clustering around Maga podcasters such as Bannon, Sebastian Gorka and Mike Lindell. Trump’s son Don Jr spent hours broadcasting against the backdrop of a White House image.Downstairs, at the CPAC trade show, there was no escape from pro-Trump bobbleheads, caps, coins, dollar bills, dresses, flags, jewelry, sparkly purses, T-shirts and other products. A “DeSantis” cap with the Stars and Stripes sat beside a “Trump won” cap. A mock-up of the Oval Office featured a Trump photo, Maga cap and “Trump was right” sign sitting on a resolute desk ready made for photo ops.Interviews with more than a dozen attendees appeared to confirm the notion that, while Trump might have lost some ground in the Republican party, his core support is holding fast. Several expressed doubts over the validity of the 2020 election and none said the January 6 2021 insurrection was a deal breaker. Some spoke of nostalgia for the Trump economy.Theresa McManus, 67, a horse trainer and organic farmer from rural Virginia, said: “I liked my grocery bill. I’ve had to cut my herd of cows. I have a lot of friends who are pissed off because I can’t feed them anymore. My $30 bag of feed is now $75 a bag. This is ridiculous. My grocery bill: two little bags that were $10 or $20 are now $50 to $100.“Let’s just look at the economy. Look at the gas prices. Look at the food prices. He knew how to run this country. People didn’t like him because he was crass, because he was loud. You know what? I identify with that. I speak my mind, too, and it’s like, get out of my way.”Others continue to back the former president with a near religious zeal that will be difficult for primary opponents to penetrate. Asked why he likes Trump, Jason Jisa, from Dallas, Texas, corrected: “I love Trump. He puts America first. He puts the people of America first. He doesn’t sell us out to the globalists. He takes on the big dogs and he wins.”Jisa, 41, selling Trump merchandise, dismissed the potential threat from DeSantis. “Stay in Florida, stay in your lane. You can do it at a later time. He’s not the man for the job. He’s not up for it. I wouldn’t vote for him. If it’s not Trump, I won’t vote. There is no second choice. There’s one choice and that’s it. You can look at it as a spiritual thing: years ago, this situation we’re in now, has been foretold. We’re living out a prophecy and he’s the guy.”He was not alone in offering a scathing verdict of DeSantis that could foreshadow an ugly and divisive primary.Antwon Williams, 40, another merchandise trader from Columbia, South Carolina, said: “He’s being bought off. He was a Trumper and clearly now he has his own agenda. It’s like he used President Trump to get his name to where he needed to be and now all of a sudden he’s onto his own agenda now and that’s not cool.“Put it this way, DeSantis is to me is what Pence is to me: a traitor. Either you’re with us or you’re against us. Clearly Pence didn’t know the difference between that line and DeSantis is not understanding the difference between that line right now. I have nothing positive to say about him as long as he’s trying to run against us.”But others were more forgiving. A 40-year-old truck driver from Nashville, Tennessee, who gave his name only as James, said: “I love what DeSantis stands for. He is doing fantastic for the state of Florida. If there were not a Donald Trump in existence, I would be for Ron DeSantis as number one. Donald Trump is the man, the myth, the legend, the bomb. He is fantastic. I would love to see Trump-DeSantis on the ‘24 ticket.”Yet even in this Trump stronghold there were dissenting voices. Some argued that, while they admire his record as president, his myriad legal troubles, poor midterm election performance and boorish behaviour make him an electoral liability.Hylton Phillips-Page, 67, a retired investment manager from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, wants DeSantis to be the nominee. “He’s Trump without the circus,” he said. “I like Trump policies. I respect everything he’s done for us but there are too many people who will not vote for him.”Phillips-Page, who protested outside the US Capitol on 6 January, added: “I’m involved with the Republican party in a big way and I can tell you when I’m campaigning I meet lots of Republicans who tell me, ‘I’m not voting for Trump’.“It’s just a problem and I feel we really can’t afford to take that risk, quite frankly. I have no problem with Trump being president but, once he gets through the primary, DeSantis will have a much better shot at winning the general.”Kathleen Smero, 62, a supply chain analyst, favours Haley and Pompeo. “Nikki Haley has governor experience now as well as international experience of being ambassador. Mike Pompeo, of course, being secretary of state – the international defence skills are really important for being president.”But the 62-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland, added: “If Trump gets the nomination, I would vote for him. I believe in his policies. The rhetoric has been tiresome but I always support my candidate and I’ll always support President Trump if he gets the nomination.”Others are still undecided about their choice of Republican standard bearer. Wes Gregory, 34, a US marine veteran who is African American, said: “It will have to be a cross between DeSantis and Trump. They both care more about the people than themselves. They’re all about making America a better place.“Trump did it on the national level. DeSantis did it on the state level. Everyone’s moving down to Florida – everyone likes it. Trump did a lot of good stuff for the Black community, way more than any other president I can think of in my lifetime.”But if he had to choose between Trump and DeSantis? “Honestly, it would have to be a coin flip,” said Gregory, from Brunswick, Maryland. “They both have a proven track record of excellence.”TopicsCPACUS politicsDonald TrumpRon DeSantisRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      ‘Just the tip of the iceberg’: Kimberlé Crenshaw warns against rightwing battle over critical race theory

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      ‘Just the tip of the iceberg’: Kimberlé Crenshaw warns against rightwing battle over critical race theory Exclusive: Author and academic cautions pushback against racial justice education feeds revival of segregationist policiesThe professor who is a leading voice on critical race theory has warned that the rightwing battle against racial justice education not only threatens US democracy, but encourages a revival of segregationist values and policies.‘Cowering to politics’: how AP African American studies became the most controversial course in the USRead moreKimberlé Crenshaw is among top American academics and authors recently stripped from the latest draft of the advanced placement (AP) African American studies course being piloted in US high schools, after Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, led an aggressive backlash against it.The Columbia University and UCLA law professor and co-founder of the African American Policy Forum thinktank, believes that the escalations against racial history teaching, in Florida and elsewhere represent “the tip of the iceberg” of rightwing efforts to retract the progress since the civil rights era and push America towards authoritarianism.“Are [schools] on the side of the neo-segregationist faction? Or are [they] going to stick with the commitments that we’ve all celebrated for the last 50, 60 years?” Crenshaw asked, referring to headway made on equal opportunities since the 1960s.“The College Board fiasco, I think, is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of interests that have to make this decision,” she said.The College Board, the organization that administers college readiness exams and AP courses for high schoolers to earn college credits, denied bending to political pressure amid accusations that the curriculum has been watered down.But in what many viewed as a response to DeSantis’s ban, the work of Crenshaw and other high-profile progressive Black figures, such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, were relegated from required reading to “optional” within the course.Several topics, including intersectionality, queer studies and the Black Lives Matters movement, were downgraded. The new version of the course now suggests Black conservatism as a research project idea.DeSantis, who will probably run for president in 2024, claimed the course violated state law and “lacks educational value”.Even apart from outrage at states moving to ban the course outright, if the edited version ends up being the course’s final form when it is set to launch fully in 2024, Crenshaw cautions that states teaching the significantly pared-down version will see its students earning the same credits as those studying the fuller version that includes the kind of contemporary and intersectional material she views as vital.Making such core topics optional “is exactly the same structure of segregation”, she said. “It’s like ‘we’re going to create this so that the anti-woke [camp] will permit states to decide whether they want the segregated version, or whether they want a more fully representative and inclusive version,’” said Crenshaw.Crenshaw is widely known for her activism and scholarship on two essential schools of thought on anti-Black racism. She is a trailblazer in critical race theory, which explores the persistence of systemic racism in US legal institutions, pioneered by law professor Derrick Bell. And she coined the term intersectionality, in 1989, describing how different identities such as race, gender and sexuality cut across each other and overlap.And from the previous draft last fall to the current version of the AP course, the key word “systemic” disappeared entirely and the word “intersectionality” went from several to a lone mention.Crenshaw said that the “frightening” choice in the new AP course to make contemporary lessons optional follows a similar logic to how corporations navigated Jim Crow segregation.Crenshaw noted that Donald Trump and the right’s Make America Great Again (Maga) extremism is directly linked to the College Board’s decision – and further back to strategies used during decades of racial segregation laws that prevailed from post-Reconstruction to the 1960s.“One of the truly, bone-chillingly frightening things about the aspiration to ‘make America great again’ that’s amplified by what’s happening with the College Board is that one of the most sustained features of segregation in the past was the fact that businesses were not only enablers, they facilitated segregation,” she said, driven by the profit motive and the white supremacy movement.“So when businesses and segregation were aligned, it was a chokehold on Black freedom aspirations,” she said.Crenshaw spoke to the Guardian from the sunlit living room of her New York home. A nearby desk that Crenshaw calls the “graveyard” is stacked with commonly banned books – books that Crenshaw herself hands out as part of her Books Unbanned tour, such as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.She urges a stronger, concerted pushback to this latest manifestation of racist history. “What was brilliant about the civil rights movement is that they really pressured national interests, corporate interests, to break with their policies of simply facilitating segregation in the south,” she said.Crenshaw believes that the College Board development reflects just one part of a continuous strategy from the right to target and disenfranchise minority groups.“It’s called ‘make America great again’. So what is it about this America now that this faction finds wanting?” she asked.“The energy and power structure of the Maga [movement] is really this desire for a time where there isn’t a sense of ‘I have to share this country with people who don’t look like me, [and] what we are born into was never an even playing field,’” she said.So when the “idea of greatness” harks back to the time of racial tyranny, she noted, far-right forces attempt to forgo the teaching of said history, so that “future generations have no tools, no exposure, no ability to critique the present as a reflection of the past”.Today’s most influential Republicans have made inclusive education a target and taken the supreme court further to the right, undermining other democratic institutions, as well as playing down the 6 January 2021 insurrection where extremist Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump and some carried Confederate flags inside the US Capitol after breaking in.In Crenshaw’s view, this is all with the goal of transforming the “decades-long journey towards greater social justice” into what the right admonishes as “wokeness” – which is in fact the encouraging of racial justice and equity.“Wokeness has become the oppression, not the centuries of enslavement and genocide, and imperialism that has shaped the lives of people of color, in ways that continue into the present,” said Crenshaw.Crenshaw traces the aggressive disinformation campaigns about critical race theory to a September 2020 executive order passed by then president Donald Trump that restricted federal agencies and contractors from providing diversity and equity training.“When that happened it was a five star alarm for me. Because if this can happen with the stroke of a pen, it means that our entire infrastructure that we’ve built since Brown [v Board] is weakened,” said Crenshaw, noting the landmark supreme court case that prohibited segregation in US public schools, adding that several elite universities rushed to comply with Trump’s mandate.Soon after, she became acutely aware that Trump and activist Republicans were twisting the term critical race theory and critiquing Black history taught in schools, or slamming research such as the New York Times’ 1619 project in order to spread moral panic.“The ban on anti-racism is so profound, that even the story of a kindergarten or first grade integrating an all-white school runs counter to [the new laws],” said Crenshaw, referring to the memoir of activist Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to integrate an elementary school in the American south in 1960.“So, white kids’ feelings are more important than black kids’ reality.”She continued: “They got their marching orders and into the school boards they went, and into the legislatures they went.”She warned: “If parents can be convinced that there is a wrong happening in public schools, they might be convinced to agree to the dismantling of public education across the board.”Colleges and universities have faced similar assault, Crenshaw noted, as professors are targeted under state laws.Crenshaw further laments the risks of conservatives’ steady takeover of the supreme court and the dismantling of federal voting rights protection and threat to affirmative action in higher education.“This court stands poised to really gut the entire civil rights infrastructure that was built by blood, sweat and tears,” said Crenshaw.Overall, Crenshaw exhorts Democrats and the media to employ much more vigor and urgency in addressing escalating attacks on US institutions, noting that many news outlets frame “the push towards authoritarianism as a [mere] rebrand”.“It was wishful thinking to believe that once the campaign was over, this was going to go away,” said Crenshaw, referring to the Biden-Harris victory in the 2020 election.But Crenshaw remains buoyed by hope that the next generation can overcome attempts at retrenchment from the far right: “This is the next generation’s lap to run. And we’ve got to hand them a baton that they can carry.”In the meantime, Crenshaw says there must be more acknowledgment of what’s at stake.“At some point, there has to be a recognition that we’re fighting for the soul of the country,” she said.TopicsUS politicsUS educationToni MorrisonRon DeSantisDonald TrumpThe far rightFloridafeaturesReuse this content More

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      Trump’s war with DeSantis heats up with details of 2024 battle plan

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      Trump’s war with DeSantis heats up with details of 2024 battle planAxios reports Trump’s intention to attack Florida governor for disloyalty as he prepares for likely face-off in presidential primaryThe incipient Republican civil war between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis heated up on Friday, with news of how the former US president reportedly plans to attack the rightwing Florida governor in the coming 2024 presidential primary.‘Hardcore Maga’ on display as Republican contenders make their pitches at CPAC – liveRead moreCiting “sources and friends familiar with Trump’s thinking”, the news website Axios reported that the former president plans to attack “Ron DeSanctimonious, as he delights in branding the governor”, in areas including perceived disloyalty, support for changes to Social Security and Medicare and his response to the Covid pandemic.Trump recently denied road-testing another derogatory nickname, Meatball Ron, which he conveniently repeated in his denial.Signs of heightened tension between the two Republican powerhouses also emerged in Florida earlier this week, when a group of Trump supporters including the far-right activist Laura Loomer, were told to leave an event promoting DeSantis’s new memoir, according to a police officer on the orders of the governor’s staff.Loomer called DeSantis a “tyrant”.On Friday, Axios quoted “a Trump confidant” as saying: “There’s a pre-Trump Ron and there’s a post-Trump Ron. He used to be a Reagan Republican. That’s where he comes from. He’s now awkwardly trying to square his views up with the populist nationalist feeling of that party.”DeSantis did not comment. Axios pointed out, however, that earlier this week the governor told Fox News Trump’s attacks were “background noise”.Trump and the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley are the only major declared candidates for the Republican nomination, though DeSantis is among others widely expected to run.Trump and DeSantis dominate polling, though Trump has recently enjoyed a boost, with healthy leads over DeSantis in multiple surveys.Many Republicans oppose a third Trump candidacy after his chaotic presidency, two impeachments, incitement of the January 6 insurrection and poor record in successive midterm elections.But many fear a split field could hand him the nomination without needing majority support, as was the case in 2016. Surveys have shown Haley and DeSantis splitting anti-Trump support.Axios said the former president planned to focus on votes DeSantis cast as a congressman to raise the eligibility aid for Medicare – a hot-button issue in Washington as Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee in 2024, hammers Republicans on the issue.In a related attack line, Trump reportedly wants to link DeSantis to Paul Ryan, the former vice-presidential nominee, House speaker and advocate of privatised social benefits now on the board at Fox.Covid, Axios said, “is a top Trump target, even though the governor is known for resisting mask mandates. Trump plans to attack DeSantis’ caution in the earliest days of the pandemic – and try to fight the issue to a draw”.On a similarly muddy issue, Trump reportedly wants to portray DeSantis as “wishy-washy on the war” in Ukraine, while he himself “toes the Maga line of cutting aid” to Kyiv in its war with Russia.Trump has a better shot at the Republican nomination than people realize | Osita NwanevuRead moreFinally, Axios said Trump planned to attack DeSantis for perceived disloyalty, after Trump supported his first bid for governor in 2018, and likability.Speaking to Fox News this week, DeSantis said Trump “used to say how great of a governor I was. And then I win a big victory [in the 2022 midterms] and all of a sudden he had different opinions. And so you could take that for what it’s worth.”If a Trump-DeSantis face-off seems inevitable, it will not happen this week at CPAC, the conservative convention outside Washington at which Trump will speak on Saturday. DeSantis is not scheduled to appear.Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist turned leading anti-Trump activist, accused DeSantis of having “a glass jaw”.“He chickened out of facing Trump at CPAC because his carefully curated tough-guy shtick can’t take a hit,” Wilson said.TopicsRepublicansRon DeSantisDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More