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December 4, 2022

DeSantis Explains Why There Wasn’t a Red Wave During Midterms

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1619: 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish, England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God. Considered by many The First Thanksgiving in the Americas.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) addressed the Republican Party’s underperformance in this year’s midterm elections, saying that the Red Wave failed to materialize because the GOP didn’t focus on delivering results for the voters.

DeSantis said that Republicans “assumed we were going to end up with like, 245 House members, we’re at 222 it looks like — which is a huge underperformance.”

“And so the question is, why did that happen? Because the way these midterms work, someone gets elected to the White House, and then there’s a reaction the other way. That’s what happens almost every two years — and especially when people are pessimistic about the direction of the country, have a negative view on Biden — usually those voters are going to want to vote for people that are offering an alternative.”

DeSantis said that despite the fact that some U.S. voters disapproved of President Joe Biden and the country’s overall direction, “They still didn’t want to vote for some of our candidates.”

The governor doesn’t believe that the GOP’s underperformance in the midterms is a result of a divided party, but it’s due to Republicans nationwide not following what he and other Florida Republicans are doing.

DeSantis said that Florida Republicans have “exercised leadership, we’ve not kowtowed, we’ve been willing to take on big interests … producing results.”

“And that ends up attracting more people to want to be on your team,” DeSantis said, adding that this methodology “was not something that was happening throughout the rest of the country.”

Watch DeSantis’ remarks below:

Source: The Daily Wire

By T. Thompson
November 20, 2022

DeSantis Breaks Silence on “GOP Civil War”

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1945: The Nuremberg war trials begin as 24 Nazi leaders are put on trial before judges representing the victorious Allied powers.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) addressed rumors of a “civil war brewing” in the GOP.

DeSantis, 44, was asked about the situation while delivering remarks in Matlacha, Florida.

“We just finished this election, okay?” DeSantis responded. “People just need to chill out a little bit on some of this stuff. I mean, seriously, we just ran an election. We have this Georgia runoff coming, which is very important for Republicans to win that Georgia runoff.”

“I know around the country, Florida was kind of the biggest bright spot, it was not so bright in many other parts of the country,” the governor continued. “It was a substandard performance given the dynamics that are at play.”

DeSantis said he won re-election because he’s focused on leading and delivering results to Floridians. He noted that he didn’t waste any time getting back to work after handily defeating Democratic challenger Charlie Crist last week.

“So at the end of the day, I think what we showed in Florida is just produce results, lead with conviction,” DeSantis said. “I never put my finger in the wind or took polls, I just did what I thought that was right. But what the election gives us the opportunity to do is to continue to deliver. And so we’re going to continue to deliver, we’re not going to look back. And I think that that’s very, very significant.”

The Republican said that if “you look at all the problems that the country is having with the inflation, the open border,” and other issues, “Florida is an example that … you can get the big things right.”

“You know, the good thing about winning a big victory, we’ve got super majorities in the legislature now, and really, I think have have an opportunity to continue great momentum,” he concluded.

Source: The Daily Wire

By T. Thompson
November 3, 2022

Insurance Company Cancels Couple’s Policy Night Before Hurricane Ian

A Florida couple had a rude awakening after their property insurance company canceled their policy the night before Hurricane Ian hit the Sunshine State.

The night before the hurricane hit, Tom Colantuono and his wife were preparing for the disaster. They were purchasing supplies and getting their house ready when they received the gut-wrenching news.

“She was white as a ghost,” Colantuono told WFLA. “She said, ‘we just got cancelled by Frontline.’”

Their notice of cancellation went into effect on Oct. 22, 2022 — the second time this year that they had a policy canceled.

“Tell me why I was canceled?” Colantuono said during an interview in May.

The Tampa Bay man was one of 68,000+ Florida residents canceled by FedNat Insurance Company. Colantuono called the state’s insurance market “out of control.”

“They just can’t cancel our policy the night before a hurricane is going to make landfall,” he said.

He’s correct — companies can’t do that.

Ahead of Hurricane Ian, Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier issued an order to temporarily protect residents. Under the order, “from September 28 – November 28, no insurer or other regulated entity may cancel, non-renew or issue a notice of cancellation or nonrenewal of a policy or contract except at the written request of the policyholder.”

However, they are able to cancel policies after that two month period expires, which is why Colantuono’s agent signed him up with another provider.

“I just found a policy with Citizens,” Colantuono said.

When asked if he’s worried that he’ll eventually be priced out of the Sunshine State, Colantuono said: “Sure — just this year the increases have gone up, probably doubled, almost tripled.”

Insurance experts say that the insurance company was able to cancel the policy because it was likely initiated in the weeks before the hurricane.

It is worth noting that the Office of Insurance Regulation said that any cancellation issued 10 days before Hurricane Ian must be withdrawn.

Residents who went through anything similar are encouraged to call their insurance agents.

Those who experienced property damage during the hurricane that their insurance provider is refusing to cover, or offering too little of a sum, are encouraged to sign up for a Free Case Review.

Source: The Hill

By T. Thompson
November 2, 2022

Parkland Victim’s Grandma Tells Gunman to “Burn in Hell” [Video]

The sentencing hearing for the gunman in the February 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting began on Tuesday, with the victims’ families giving emotional addresses to the shooter.

Nikolas Cruz, 24, fatally shot 14 students and three staff members and wounded 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. He evaded the death penalty under Florida law, with a jury recommending that he be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On Tuesday, survivors and family members of those killed in the shooting gave powerful statements to Cruz in a Fort Lauderdale court before the sentence is formally announced.

Many victims’ family members expressed outrage at the jury’s verdict, arguing that Cruz’s heinous crimes warranted the death penalty.

Terri Rabinovitz, grandmother of 14-year-old victim Alyssa Alhadeff, told Cruz that he should “write a book on how you and your defense counsel beat the judicial system and got away with murder.”

“I’m too old to see you live out your life sentence, but I hope your every breathing moment here on earth is miserable and you repent for your sins, Nikolas, and burn in hell,” Rabinovitz said.

Patricia Oliver, mother of 17-year-old victim Joaquin, delivered an impassioned statement, saying that if this case “doesn’t deserve the death penalty, what does?”

“You had in your head enjoyment,” Oliver said directly to Cruz. “Listen to me, defendant — enjoyment while killing my son, Joaquin Oliver, and coming back to him to blow his brain out.”

“Your living hell is about to get started,” she said. “Joaquin is a legend for what he is and for what he will be. Nice, kind, humble. And you will remember every single day of your life about what Joaquin is.”

Max Schachter, father of 14-year-old victim Alex, accused Cruz’s attorneys of “making the mental health crisis in America worse by misrepresenting what actually happened to the Parkland murderer.”

“The defense, in their closing argument, said if he had just had the proper diagnosis, things would be different,” Schachter said. “Nothing would’ve changed. … He was on medicine after medicine … and he still wants to kill.”

Schachter said Cruz grew up “in a loving home” raised by a mother who tried to help him.

“He had well over 200 individual sessions with mental health professionals. … They tried everything, they couldn’t have given him more services,” he continued.

“But you can’t fix evil.”

“He hunted down innocent children and staff, terrified then tortured them, blew their heads apart like a water balloon and enjoyed it,” Schachter said, adding that Cruz “does not deserve to live amongst us.”

Schachter said, while incarcerated, Cruz “gets to receive phone calls, boxes of fan mail. He gets to fall in love and get married. He gets a tablet to email and text people. He gets to receive visitors. He gets to watch TV … and even get a college degree.”

Sources: ABC News | NBC News

Photo: Screenshot from ABCNews.com

By T. Thompson
November 1, 2022

GOP Canvasser Assaulted in Florida Neighborhood

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that one of his campaign canvassers “was brutally attacked” in a politically motivated assault.

Police confirmed that one arrest had been made.

Rubio said the canvasser sustained a broken jaw and internal bleeding from the assault in Hialeah, Florida.

“We know that someone wearing a Rubio shirt and a [Gov. Ron] DeSantis hat was walking in the neighborhood not far from here yesterday when four individuals assaulted him,” Rubio said.

The lawmaker posted photos on Twitter that he said were the man’s injuries. Rubio said the attackers “told him Republicans weren’t allowed in their neighborhood.”

When asked by ABC News to confirm the incident, Hialeah police said their officers had arrested Javier Lopez after responding to a “fight” where they found a 27-year-old victim with “multiple bruises and a laceration” who had been “passing out fliers.”

“Mr. Lopez told the victim he was not allowed to walk on the sidewalk and pass out fliers in his neighborhood,” police said in a statement. “The victim, in order to avoid the confrontation walked across the street where he was again confronted by Mr. Lopez. During the verbal dispute, Mr. Lopez then struck the victim multiple times in the face and head causing the injuries.”

A local Republican Party official confirmed to the outlet that the victim is a former member of the Miami-Dade GOP Executive Committee.

“The attack on a Republican canvasser is catastrophic, uncalled for and unprecedented. … We demand the perpetrators be caught, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Kevin Cooper, campaign director for Miami-Dade Republicans.

Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo Jr. also decried the incident.

“Freedom of speech is the bedrock of our democracy, and cowardly acts such as this should be condemned by all regardless of individual political affiliation,” he wrote in a statement on social media.

“I have spoken to the victim’s family, and have pledged a thorough investigation,” Bovo said.

Source: ABC News

By T. Thompson
October 14, 2022

DeSantis Slams Jury’s Decision: “You Deserve the Death Penalty”

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1982: U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a war on drugs.

The gunman in the 2018 Parkland school shooting has avoided the death penalty after a jury recommended that he be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole — a decision that was rebuked by some of the victims’ family members and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

On Thursday, the jury handed down its recommendation for Nikolas Cruz’s punishment for the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. However, it is not the official sentence. Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer is expected to issue the shooter’s formal sentence on November 1. But under Florida law, she cannot depart from the jury’s recommendation of life without parole.

Family members quickly condemned the jury’s decision.

“I am disgusted with our legal system. I am disgusted with those jurors,” said Ilan Alhadeff, the father of victim Alyssa Alhadeff, 14. “That you can allow 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded and not give the death penalty. What do we have the death penalty for? What is the purpose of it? You set a precedent today. You set a precedent for the next mass killing, that nothing happens to you. You’ll get life in jail. I’m sorry – that is not OK. As a country we need to stand up and say that’s not OK!”

Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was killed in the shooting, called the decision a “gut punch” for the victims’ families.

“This shooter did not deserve compassion,” Montalto said. “Did he show the compassion to Gina when he put the weapon against her chest and chose to pull that trigger, or any of the other three times that he shot her? Was that compassionate?”

The decision was also rebuked by DeSantis, who said that the death penalty would have been more appropriate.

“I think that if you have a death penalty at all, that that is a case, where you’re massacring those students, with premeditation and utter disregard for humanity, that you deserve the death penalty,” DeSantis told reporters. “I just don’t think anything else is appropriate except a capital sentence in this case. And so, I was very disappointed to see that.”

“This stings. It was not what we were hoping for…if that would’ve gone the correct way, I would’ve done everything in my power to expedite that process forward,” he added. “Nevertheless, we are where we are today. But it is disappointing nonetheless.”

Last October, Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. The defense had argued that Cruz, 24, had neurodevelopmental disorders caused by prenatal alcohol exposure.

Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence the shooter to death, arguing that the heinous act was premeditated and calculated, and not related to any neurological defects.

Debra Hixon, the widow of the school’s athletic director, 49-year-old Christopher Hixon, rejected the defense’s arguments about the shooter’s mental struggles, citing one of her sons who has special needs.

“I have a son that checked … a lot of those boxes that the shooter did as well,” Hixon said. “And you know what? My son’s not a murderer. My son’s the sweetest person that you could ever meet.”

Sources: NPR | Fox News | CNN

By T. Thompson
October 9, 2022

Migrants Arrested for Looting Town Wrecked By Hurricane

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1941: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves an atomic program that would become the Manhattan Project.

As Floridians continue to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, looters are trying to take advantage of the situation.

Officials from Lee County, Florida, which took a direct hit from the hurricane, announced that they had made four arrests for looting — and three of the four are in the U.S. illegally.

“When I say zero tolerance, I mean zero tolerance,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said. “I’m proud to say they’re behind bars where they belong.”

“All three of these subjects are here illegally in this country — Robert Mena, Brandon Araya, Stephen Araya — all arrested for stealing bottles on Fort Myers Beach during the hurricane. They were located and arrested. And I’m going to tell I’m not tolerating it again.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) echoed Marceno’s sentiments after the arrest of suspects Omar Mejia Ortiz, 33; Valerie Celeste Salcedo Mena, 26; Brandon Mauricio Araya, 20; and Steve Eduardo Sanchez Araya, 20.

“If I could, I would take those three looters, I would drag them out by the collars and I would send them back to where they came from,” DeSantis said. “These are people, they are foreigners, they are illegally in our country, and not only that they try to loot and ransack in the aftermath of a natural disaster.”

All four suspects were charged with burglary of an unoccupied structure during a state of emergency.

The sheriff warned the public that not all looters will get off as lucky.

“I’m not playing. We’re not playing. We have law and order and great residents will be safe and secure. We’ve had arrests on these incidents,” Marceno said. “You might walk in. You’ll be carried out.”

Source: CBS21

By T. Thompson
October 6, 2022

Hot Mic: Biden Drops an F-Bomb

A hot microphone caught President Joe Biden drop an F-bomb while meeting with Florida state officials and residents impacted by Hurricane Ian.

The R-rated candid moment came as Biden was talking with Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy.

The pair shook hands and Murphy thanked Biden and told him to “keep the faith.”

“No one f—s with a Biden,” the president appeared to say with a chuckle.

“You’re goddamn right,” Murphy laughed.

“And you can’t argue with your brothers outside the house,” Biden added.

Much of the conversation was inaudible, and it was unclear exactly what Biden and Murphy were discussing.

Sources: The Hill | Washington Examiner

By T. Thompson
October 5, 2022

Watch: Fox News Reporter Carries Hurricane Victim to Safety

A Fox News correspondent reporting from Florida carried an elderly survivor to dry land amid the mass floods caused by Hurricane Ian.

Steve Harrigan said the rescuers were a “mish-mash” of government workers and volunteers.

Harrigan explained his motivations for helping out while Fox News’s “The Story” showed a video of him carrying the man.

“Everyone is sort of just pitching in to try and get people out of the water,” Harrigan said, adding that “everyone is lending a hand.”

In the video, Harrigan walks into the water where the boat’s stopped. He puts the man over his shoulder before walking him to dry land.

The Fox News correspondent said some people might not be able to move around well, and he would hope someone would help his mother if she were in the same situation.

Watch the full segment below:

Source: Fox News

By T. Thompson
October 3, 2022

Watch: VP Harris Confronted Over Promoting Discriminatory Policy Amid Hurricane Ian

Vice President Kamala Harris was asked to clarify controversial comments she made about providing disaster relief aid amid Hurricane Ian, saying that “communities of color” should be prioritized.

“It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making,” Harris said at the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum on Friday.

“We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity, understanding not everyone starts out at the same place,” Harris continued.

“And if we want people to be in an equal place, sometimes we have to take into account those disparities and do that work,” she added.

On Saturday, Harris attended the Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C., where an attendee confronted her over the remarks. The VP did not offer any clarification.

A man asked Harris: “Vice President, can you clarify what you meant about equity for hurricane relief?”

A video of the interaction shows Harris glance at the man as he asks his question, avert her eyes, and continue walking away.

Christina Pushaw, the Rapid Response Director for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reelection campaign, emphasized that the federal programs assist anyone impacted by Hurricane Ian.

“[The VP’s] rhetoric is causing undue panic and must be clarified,” Pushaw wrote on Twitter. “FEMA Individual Assistance is already available to all Floridians impacted by Hurricane Ian, regardless of race or background. If you need assistance visit disasterassistance.gov or call 1-800-621-3362.”

Source: The Daily Wire

By T. Thompson
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