As advertised, Joe Biden did indeed visit Tampa Tuesday, spending an hour or so at Hillsborough Community College to the manufactured delight of several dozen Democrats local campaign operatives could herd through the gymnasium doors on short notice.
Oh, wait. They had most of a week. And sympathetic local media was obliged to declare the gym was “partially filled,” which is MSM-speak for “so empty you could hear hope drop.”
Say what you will about the Orange Prince of Mar-a-Lago, give his Bay area organizers six days’ notice, and you’d need a parking lot at the NFL stadium across the street to accommodate the throng. (We’re not making this up.)
Anyway, Biden, the titular president of the United States, swung by for a quick game of pin-the-blame-on-Trump, and that could mean only one thing. No, not that. Rather, this: Biden’s proximity meant it was yet another excellent day for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Entertaining stakeholders, supporters, and mediafolk at a televised bill-signing ceremony in Naples Tuesday, the former GOP presidential hopeful went off on the condition of federal politics. An equal-opportunity basher, DeSantis used the just-passed $95 billion foreign aid package to slam the Biden administration, Capitol Hill Democrats, and, especially, hopelessly complicit Republicans.
For the latter, the bill was an opportunity squandered, an all-give, no-get capitulation. The White House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and the Democratic House minority got precisely what they desired, at zero cost. Potentially launderable funds are headed toward presumed friends in Kyiv, Tel Aviv, and Taipei (not to mention Gaza — Oi!), but there’s not a dime to hold back the flood at America’s southern border.
Instead, border enforcement was stripped from a bill most of Congress considered must-pass and forced to stand alone. You know how that worked out.
DeSantis was not amused.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rips House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans for giving up all their leverage and not getting border security passed while giving Biden what he wanted on foreign aid:
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 23, 2024
"The #1 issue that our voters wanted them to address is the southern… pic.twitter.com/GjpcWHw5H8
“Republicans were sent there and the No. 1 issue that our voters wanted them to address is the southern border and the massive influx of foreigners by the millions coming into this country, and we don’t know who these people are,” DeSantis told reporters. “And they basically just surrendered on the border. They now have no leverage to do anything on the border.”
“They had an opportunity to insist that Biden accept the border if he wanted all the foreign aid, and they decided to capitulate. And so, he got everything he wants,” DeSantis said. “And Republican voters did not get anything with respect to stopping this problem at the southern border.”
Is that bad? Yes. Is it symptomatic of the helplessness of a razor-thin GOP House majority that seems more committed to in-fighting, backbiting, and conspiracy-mongering than effectively legislating? Yes, yes, so very much yes, again.
However, to be absolutely clear, even if the throbbing heart of Republican Nation had gotten precisely what it wanted on border enforcement in the foreign aid package, it would have been up to the Biden administration to enforce it. (Insert laugh track here.)
Either way, Americans who regard the nation’s overrun border as a worrisome development — 71 percent of us, says the Wall Street Journal — were getting nothing. Zip-a-dee-do-dah.
Still, that does not render DeSantis’ pique meaningless. While Biden was in Tampa reflexively making the sign of the cross while blessing MAGA — make abortion gratuitous again — Florida’s governor was not just channeling Americans’ surging frustration over what matters to them (Hint: It ain’t snuffing unborn humans), he was describing mitigating measures taken by his administration. Such as interdicting a boat with human traffickers aboard off the Florida coast bound from Haiti.
We pause here to relive the indelible moment Biden sanctified abortion.
Biden blesses himself in apparent horror at Ron DeSantis protecting unborn babies from abortion… pic.twitter.com/b5lWcvXnAX
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 24, 2024
We return to our regularly scheduled programming.
“We’re doing more in Florida to deal with it than the Congress is. I mean, it’s just pathetic that that’s going on. So I was really, really disappointed to see that they basically capitulated entirely on the border and at this point you’re not gonna see anything done on the border for the rest of this year,” DeSantis said. “What are we just going to let in another 2 million people and do nothing about it? I think it was a real, real failure.”
Not that DeSantis let Biden entirely off the hook for revving up the progressive base over abortion access. The confluence of the six-week ban that goes into effect May 1 and the state constitutional referendum that would overturn it may be stoking dreams of a Blue Florida on the left.
But supporters of undelivered life in the Sunshine State are just beginning to ramp up their messaging, with DeSantis often at the point, as he was Tuesday.
DeSantis responds to Biden's expected Tampa visit
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) April 23, 2024
"Floridians are not buying what Joe Biden is selling [...]"
"we're going to play an instrumental role in sending him back to Delaware where he belongs." pic.twitter.com/ezvajZVhVP
“Now, [Biden is] coming down to try to support a constitutional amendment that will mandate abortion up until the moment of birth, that will eliminate parental consent for minors and that’s written in a way that’s intentionally designed to deceive voters,” DeSantis said. “So, all I can tell you is Floridians are not buying what Joe Biden is selling, and, in November, we’re going to play an instrumental role in sending him back to Delaware where he belongs.”
Ah, that the events of midwinter had turned out differently, and we weren't just now hanging on every twist of the lawfare carnival created simply because a once (and possibly future) president couldn't/wouldn't keep his alter ego in his pants.
If Ron DeSantis would have been our nominee, he would be going on every show talking about the border, the debt, and Biden's failures. Every single ounce of energy would be spent obliterating Democrat failures and pushing a positive and competent vision for our country.
— Unfiltered☢Boss (@Unfilteredboss1) April 24, 2024
It's…
Instead, things are what they are. And so the wistful crowd that wanted a different nominee but wants to send Joe Biden packing more says: From the governor’s lips to Ronald Reagan’s ears.
