'Sniping at hecklers at a fish shack': Ex-allies track Ron DeSantis' big 'fall' from grace

Some of the enemies Ron DeSantis made as during his ascent to Florida governor are relishing the reversal of his political fortunes.

The Florida Republican looked like the successor to Donald Trump and was primed for a White House run, but Axios correspondent Marc Caputo writes that DeSantis is facing "potential political obscurity" as state legislators in his own party are calling for a federal investigation into his wife's charity.

"Be careful how you treat people on the way up because you may encounter the same people on the way down," said veteran consultant Curt Anderson, a top adviser to DeSantis' predecessor and current U.S. senator Rick Scott.

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Hope Florida, the state-backed charity run by first lady Casey DeSantis, received $10 million in secret settlement money from a Medicaid provider days before the charity diverted the same amount to political groups favored by the governor and his wife, and GOP state legislators and former federal prosecutors say the arrangement seems illegal.

"This is an amazing story," Anderson said. "You see falls in politics, but not like this. It's stark, it's fast, it's a made-for-TV movie. Let's not forget: He was ahead of Trump in polling in 2022 and would've run against [the Democratic nominee] and won."

The scandal may have smothered Casey DeSantis' hopes of succeeding her term-limited husband as governor in 2026, and Ron DeSantis' ultimately ill-fated 2024 White House bid exposed his reluctance to building alliances and establishing personal connections.

"There was a time when every Republican in the nation wanted to have a beer with Ron DeSantis," said one Republican who still supports him. "The problem is that the governor didn't act like he wanted to have a beer with them, and it showed."

Florida's GOP-led legislature largely bent to his will during his time in office until he dragged them into a special session on immigration that many believed was just political grandstanding, and he was forced to back down after House speaker Danny Perez and Senate president Ben Albritton – both Republicans – passed their own bill instead of backing his proposal.

"He's the most followed and accomplished governor in the country," insisted DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin, criticizing media coverage as "bogus intrigue."

The governor himself vented about "bogus narratives" when he faced hecklers recently at a news conference at the start of snapper fishing season, and a former ally offered a brutal assessment of his current political standing.

"Ron DeSantis went from Rupert Murdoch and every Republican billionaire telling him he could be president to sniping at hecklers at a fish shack in Destin," said former GOP congressman Matt Gaetz, now a TV personality. "It's quite a fall."

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