DeSantis news – latest: Florida governor most popular with rich Republicans as he defends move to fly migrants to California

DeSantis on campaign trail hoping to raise national profile as 2024 race hots up

Ron DeSantis snaps at reporter who asked why he wasn’t taking questions from the public

Florida governor Ron DeSantis appears to be the preferred Republican candidate among right-leaning millionaires, according to the latest CNBC Millionaire Survey, although his arch-rival and front-runner Donald Trump is seemingly also picking up support among wealthy Americans.

The poll shows that 32 per cent of Republicans with qualifying millionaire status currently support Mr DeSantis, a drop from 54 per cent at the end of 2022, while Mr Trump now has the backing of 28 per cent, up from 17 per cent last year.

Meanwhile, the governor has met with sheriffs in Arizona and defended his state’s recent decision to fly migrants from the US-Mexico border to Sacramento, California, a move widely derided as a cruel political stunt but which he insisted was above board because the west coast state had essentially invited them with its liberal immigration policies.

“I think the border should be closed. I don’t think we should have any of this,” Mr DeSantis said. “But if there’s a policy to have an open border, then I think the sanctuary jurisdictions should be the ones that have to bear that.”

Key Points

• Inside the bitter rivalry between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom
• Millionaires support Ron DeSantis but Trump support growing, says poll
• California investigating whether DeSantis involved in flying asylum-seekers from Texas to Sacramento
• Showtime documentary on DeSantis’s Guantanamo Bay career mysteriously dropped
• DeSantis wraps up first early states tour with attack on Biden

[9 July 2023 12:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump hits out DeSantis fundraising and teases about debate participation

Three more post-lunch Truth Social missals from Donald Trump on the 2024 campaign trail today, both attacking Ron DeSantis.

In the first, the former president claims DeSantis’s donors have fled “do [sic] to his terrible, and still falling, poll numbers”.

Ron DeSanctimonious is desperately trying to get out of the Presidential race, while at the same time saving face for 2028, where he has been greatly damaged. Jeff Roe, Ron’s boss despite having a terrible record of winning, is spending money like a wild man gone bad. Much of the money being used was raised for his Gubernatorial race, and transferred over (illegally?) because his Presidential donors have largely fled do to his terrible, and still falling, poll numbers. Ron is just wasting time!

In the second, he says that DeSantis’s top political strategist believes the Florida governor should drop out of the race and then teases that he may — or may not — take part in the Republican Party primary debates.

Steve Cortes, the Ron DeSanctimonious top political strategist, thinks that Ron should get out NOW, while the getting is still good. He also said (thank you Steve!) that Donald J. Trump is the best Presidential debater ever, and can’t be beaten at the debate game. Well, based on that, maybe I should enter the debates - But, then again, when you have a 40 to 50 point lead over the field, maybe I shouldn’t???

He adds that he would rather go head-to-head with Mr DeSantis.

Despite Fake News protestations to the contrary, I do better one on one against Ron DeSanctimonious than I do with a field of candidates, large or small. Personally, I don’t think it matters. MAGA!!!

[9 July 2023 11:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump points out that obvious cardboard cutout of him is cardboard cutout

Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday afternoon to make it clear that a photo circulating of January 6 defendant Taylor Taranto standing with a cardboard cutout of the former president was indeed a cardboard cutout and not actually him.

He wrote:

This picture is a “cardboard cutout” of me put out by the Fake News Media and probably supplied to them by Deranged Jack Smith and the Department of Injustice for purposes of Election Interference. Weaponization of “Justice” is the new way that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics will CHEAT in the 2024 Presidential Election. WE WILL STOP THEM!!!

Mr Trump linked to a Gateway Pundit article that features the photo prominently at the top. It appears to come from one of Mr Taranto’s social media accounts and is clearly him at an event, holding a glass of red wine and standing with a cardboard cutout of the former president.

Here’s some of our recent coverage of Mr Taranto and how Mr Trump and former President Barack Obama fit into the bizarre case that stretches well beyond the January 6 Capitol riot.

[9 July 2023 10:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump vows to keep ‘communists and markers’ out of the US

Donald Trump fumbled his words while speaking at his largest campaign event in Iowa on Friday.

The former president appeared in Council Bluffs in the western part of the state that hosts the first caucus in approximately just over five months.

Speaking about immigration, Mr Trump was relaying a campaign promise to deny entry to leftist ideologues when he accidentally referred to them as “communists and markers” rather than Marxists.

Read on...

[9 July 2023 09:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Comment: What bringing Trump back would mean for Ukraine – and conflict in the rest of the world

Mary Dejevsky writes:

Joe Biden’s visit to the UK this weekend, when he will meet the prime minister and the king, could serve as a welcome reminder about where political power – and responsibility – currently resides on both sides of the Atlantic.

I say this, because some of the recent running on arguably the most urgent international issue of the day has been made by someone who has no power whatever, but eyes a return. Step forward (as if he needed any invitation to do so) Donald Trump, who spoke at some length this week about wanting a peaceful outcome in Ukraine, even if this entailed territorial concessions on the part of Kyiv.

Read on...

[9 July 2023 08:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

‘What the hell is a Blizzard?’

[9 July 2023 07:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

DoJ Trump probes have cost more than $9m

Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s investigations of President Donald Trump‘s retention of classified records and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election have cost more than $9m over the first several months, according to documents released Friday.

Read more...

[9 July 2023 05:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Here’s what you need to know as the GOP gears up to investigate Hunter Biden

The Republican chairmen of three key House committees are joining forces to probe the Justice Department’s handling of charges against Hunter Biden after making sweeping claims about misconduct at the agency.

Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees opened a joint investigation into the federal case into President Joe Biden‘s youngest son days after it was announced last month that he will plead guilty to the misdemeanour tax offences as part of an agreement with the Justice Department.

Read on...

[9 July 2023 04:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

Judge rules Don Jr can be subpoenaed in Trump Organization case

A judge allowed for Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to introduce one of the former president’s sons as a witness in his case against the Trump Organization, according to his attorneys.

Mr Cohen’s team had asked to use testimony from Donald Trump Jr in his case, as he served as a Trump Organization executive vice president.

“We would like to introduce testimony about what Mr Trump Jr. paid his lawyers in the exact same matters,” said Mr Cohen’s attorney, Hunter Winstead.

Jury selection will begin on 17 July, Mr Winstead told reporters.

Kelly Rissman reports.

[9 July 2023 03:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

Fox News host gives blunt assessment of poll numbers to DeSantis

A host at the usually Ron DeSantis-friendly Fox News asked the Florida governor about his low poll numbers as former President Donald Trump still dominates the Republican primary polls.

Mr DeSantis is currently the runner-up in the GOP polling, but he’s behind Mr Trump by a substantial margin with recent polls showing Trump leading by 27 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Here’s what Will Cain asked Mr DeSantis:

[9 July 2023 02:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

Voices: The Freedom Caucus booting Marjorie Taylor Greene looks worse for them than it does for her

The Independent’s Eric Garcia explains the real divide between Rep Greene and the Freedom Caucus.