All posts tagged "florida"

MAGA AG moves to investigate Fauci as Republicans vow revenge for invoking Fifth

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, is launching an investigation into former National Institutes of Health director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

According to Politico, Uthmeier's boss, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has concocted a bizarre legal theory for why Fauci, who testified before a hostile GOP-dominated Senate committee on Wednesday, was not allowed to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights under questioning from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

"Uthmeier has launched several investigations since he was appointed by DeSantis in February 2025, from suing health organizations over the state’s ban on transgender treatments for children to recruiting rules used by the NFL," noted the report. This follows DeSantis writing "in a Wednesday X post the former White House adviser cannot claim the Fifth Amendment since he received a preemptive pardon by Biden, and he should be held in contempt for not answering Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul’s questions about U.S. funding going to a lab in a region of China where the first Covid cases were reported."

Paul has spent years pursuing the idea that Fauci-backed "gain of function" research was responsible for engineering the COVID virus, something that has never been substantiated, and has openly called for Fauci's arrest. In his testimony, Fauci explained that while he has not broken any laws, his lawyers advised him to remain silent due to Paul's eagerness for a pretext to prosecute him.

For his part, said the report, Paul "told Fauci he will face consequences for pleading the Fifth and has scheduled an Aug. 5 committee meeting to discuss whether to declare him in contempt of Congress," while Uthmeier said weeks before the hearing even took place "that he was losing sleep over thinking of ways to prosecute Fauci."

Florida became ground zero in 2020 for political leadership defiance against public health guidelines for required masking and social distancing, during the height of the pandemic. The state became a huge vector for the spread of COVID.

'Uniquely poisonous' platform could doom Trump-backed candidate: ex-GOP strategist

A MAGA candidate is doomed by a 'uniquely poisonous' issue that will bite him in an upcoming election, an ex-GOP strategist warned.

In Florida, Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds has the endorsement of President Donald Trump and three-quarters of the Republican caucus in the state House, Rick Wilson noted in a recent Substack piece. However, he'll likely suffer from his reputation as "the data center guy," Wilson predicted.

"The data center issue is uniquely poisonous here, in a way that transcends the usual red-blue map," Wilson wrote. "That's what makes it so dangerous."

Donalds is closely tied to data centers because his donors come from AI, according to Wilson. He raised $90 million with the backing of a super PAC seeded by OpenAI's founders and "the usual tech broligarchs," Wilson wrote.

According to Wilson, Donalds has been shown on camera calling for Florida's "still pristine" land to be used for data centers. Donalds said he'd rather construct a data center "or four" and demanded "build out that stuff," Wilson noted.

"He said the quiet part into a microphone," Wilson wrote. "In a state where 'pristine' means the Everglades, the springs, the longleaf pine woods, and the vanishing farmlands along the central spur of Florida from Hendry to Lake counties."

Concerns about data centers' water consumption and quality of life are worrying Floridians, and Donalds' opponents are "hammering" the image of him as wanting to build "thousands" across the state, according to Wilson.

"Data centers have managed to unite Floridians across every line we normally see dividing them, and they've united them against the position Byron Donalds was bought for," Wilson wrote. "He might as well have a QR code on his forehead."

'Civil war' breaks out in 'reddest of red states' as MAGA coalition implodes: ex-insider

A former GOP operative warned on Monday that Republicans in red state Florida have a serious problem on their hands as November approaches.

Rick Wilson, the co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, spoke with veteran politics reporter Scott MacFarlane for a Substack live video about the growing divide among the GOP as midterms approach.

"Florida is shocking people right now because a year ago, everybody thought it was the reddest of red states, that it was Alabama with better beaches," Wilson said. "And what's happened to the Republican coalition here is absolutely shocking. You've got a civil war going on on the DeSantis wing of the party. Half of the Republican Party hates Byron Donalds. Half of them wants Byron Donalds."

The split among GOP leaders comes as Democrats in the traditionally Republican-led state make gains while two Republicans face off in the gubernatorial race.

"The David Jolly campaign for governor has been running like nobody could imagine it would work," Wilson said. "Alex Vindman is moving very quickly into being one of the most financially competitive Democrats in Florida in a long time for the U.S. Senate race against Ashley Moody. You've got a bunch of great congressional candidates out there. And the MAGA coalition in Florida has really collapsed in part because in South Florida, which was a real bastion for them, Trump decided he was going to follow Stephen Miller's lead and take away TPS status for Cubans, Venezuelans, Dominicans, Haitians. And folks down there are really angry."

The question around AI data centers has garnered more division in Republican circles.

"The problem for Byron Donalds is this is his campaign money is funded by AI companies, data center builders, developers of properties that are going to be used for data centers," Wilson said. "And the super PAC that's been supporting his campaign — guys like Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel types from Silicon Valley. So Donalds is really in a hole on this."

Jolly's campaign has attacked Donalds for this, and Republican pollsters are warning this "may be the issue that kills the party in Florida because everyone hates data centers," Wilson added. "We saw Pensacola, which is Escambia County, one of the most conservative parts of the state, banned data centers. Titusville this week, very red area of the state, banned data centers."

Trump's growing unpopularity has also impacted the party.

"Although he's still more popular in Florida than a lot of other states, independent voters, who were about 60 percent of the electorate in Florida, are now about two to one against Trump, and that's starting to bleed out onto Republican candidates," Wilson said.

Trump's Political Crisis Deepens - Live with Scott MacFarlane & Rick Wilson by Rick Wilson

A recording from Rick Wilson and Scott MacFarlane's live video

Read on Substack

Floridians bash Trump's 'patently absurd' airport vanity project: 'Do not like it at all'

Florida travelers did not mince words after Palm Beach International Airport was rebranded as the Donald J. Trump International Airport on Thursday.

MS NOW interviewed several people at the Florida airport to get their reactions.

"I think it's patently absurd that we're spending taxpayer money to rename an airport after a criminal that's sitting in the White House," one traveler said.

"I think it's disgusting, ridiculous, pompous and a lot of other bad things," another person said. "I do not like it at all."

"I resent that the name is on every institution that we have, this included," another traveler told MS NOW. "I resent that we have to have every institution in this country being named after Donald Trump."

Palm Beach is home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump is the first president seeking to trademark an airport. The Trump Organization has filed for trademark rights to the airport. No other sitting president has named an airport or roadway after himself during his current term — most are named after former presidents once they have served their term, and in some cases, after they have died, MS NOW reported.

Federal court thrashes red state's 'breathtaking' attempt to ban 'unpopular ideas'

Federal judges Tuesday smacked down a controversial Florida law that aimed to control what professors discuss in their classrooms.

In a blistering 2-1 decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals torched Florida's "Individual Freedom Act," a law barring public university instructors from "endorsing" a list of eight banned concepts about race, sex, and privilege, ruling it violates the First Amendment.

The law sought to prohibit specific concepts, including that one race or sex is morally superior to others, a person is inherently racist or sexist, or that a person is an oppressor or is privileged based on their race or sex.

Judge Britt Grant wrote that the Sunshine State cannot ban instructors from endorsing viewpoints the state disfavors.

"Though the government has plenty of ways to promote its own viewpoint, puppeteering every university professor in the state is not one of them," Grant wrote.

"For its part, Florida seeks to evade any First Amendment limitations at all by rigging together several speech doctrines to create a new rule that would quietly remove all free speech protections from the classroom," according to the court opinion. "Because the government pays the professors’ salaries, Florida says, their speech is the State’s speech. Emphatically no. The Florida defendants cannot 'put together half a donkey and half a camel, and then ride to victory on the synthetic hybrid.'"

GOP group kicked off campus over antisemitism fails to prove free speech violation: NYT

A GOP group failed to prove a university violated its First Amendment rights by banning it for alleged antisemitism, the New York Times reported.

The University of Florida College Republicans were banned by the school from its Gainesville campus in March after a photo circulated showing two people giving a Nazi salute, the Times reported.

Members denied involvement with the photo, but the group was already accused of antisemitic and racist behavior, according to the Times. The University of Florida argued that it booted the group because a statewide campus Republican organization withdrew its charter, and the Gainesville branch no longer had any official affiliation, the Times reported.

Federal judge Mark Walker, from the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, tossed a lawsuit brought by the group after finding that they didn't have enough evidence to show the University of Florida violated its free speech rights, according to the Times.

Walker also determined that the university had cause because the Republican Party of Florida or its campus affiliates never gave the group permission to use the term "Republican," per the Times, which couldn't immediately reach the lawyer for the college Republican organization for comment. The University of Florida declined to comment for the Times.

Rock singer humiliates red state crowd chanting 'U-S-A' as audience storms out

Chris Robinson, lead singer for The Black Crowes, hit back at a crowd booing his band during a show in Florida over the weekend, TMZ reported on Monday.

The red state crowd started chanting "U-S-A" at a Tampa show where the band's backing video showed the "Black Crowes character dressed as Uncle Sam," just before the band started playing its hit song "She Talks to Angels."

Robinson told the crowd, "Thanks for the geography lesson."

When the crowd kept chanting, he quipped back, "I don't know what you have to be so proud of right now."

People in the crowd started booing at the band and walking out of the venue.

But Robinson didn't let up over the heckling.

"For those of you f------ booing us, some of us are not afraid. And we most assuredly are not f------ ignorant," he said.

😬 EXCLUSIVE: The Black Crowes were booed for dissing a crowd chanting "USA." https://t.co/Jt8xBLYTG4 pic.twitter.com/CettxXyqWv
— TMZ (@TMZ) June 1, 2026

'Disgrace': Horror as red state's new history course calls slavery a 'necessary evil'

A red state sparked backlash after announcing that it will offer an alternative version of advanced history classes meant to combat the "woke."

Historian Kevin Kruse warned on Bluesky that Sunshine State students could have "to suffer through the Florida Man version" of Advanced Placement U.S. History, and called out a curriculum that frames Florida as always having been Christian, anti-slavery and on the right side of history.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported on Tuesday that Florida will start offering the alternative course as a pilot program in the fall. The state-developed course will offer credit at Florida colleges and universities to compete with the AP course, which offers credit at colleges and universities across the country.

Commentators like Kruse pointed out that the curriculum will describe slavery as a "necessary evil," frame Plessy v Ferguson as a result of "the failure of Reconstruction" after the Civil War, and credit federal law that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for "decreased slave power representation."

"Yes, allowing slave states to count their slaves for the purposes of political representation and thereby gain additional power was an *anti* slavery measure," Kruse sarcastically said. "Yes, no questions there."

Others similarly reacted with alarm. "It begins," Nicole Shuman wrote on Bluesky.

"What a godd--- disgrace," wrote Carly Goodman. "Oh no," Adam Rothman posted, highlighting a section of the curriculum that described "Black indentured servants" as "languishing" even though they "could earn their freedom."

Florida has been trying to battle "woke" ideologies since passing state laws in 2023, the Tallahassee Democrat noted.

'Oh my god': Trump triggers wave of ridicule asking crowd to imagine a moron as president

Trump asked people to imagine a scenario where "all of a sudden you're stuck with a man who's a moron," triggering immediate mockery from critics who said that that's already the case.

Trump made the comment while speaking in The Villages, Florida, on Friday. He was plugging his proposed cognitive test, saying it would screen out idiots.

"I mean, you get a guy who gets in there, he's got a good line of crap. He gets in, and all of a sudden, you're stuck with a man who's a moron,” said Trump. "This is not good."

He then took a swipe at his predecessor.

Commentators quickly called out what they saw as irony.

"That would be bad if that ever happened," Meidas Touch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski sarcastically said on X.

"We know. He's president right now," quipped @DianeSevenay.

"Amazing," the Tennessee Holler posted. "He must be feeling like people think he’s a real dummy to be talking about this so much lately."

"OH. MY. GOD," wrote the account @AntiToxicPeople. "No words imaginable for the lack of self awareness."

"He doesn't know he's talking about himself," @GeoffBrown82 posted. "He’s totally clueless."

"You're a [expletive] moron," @AesPolitics1 wrote.

Trump says anyone running for president should take a cognitive exam because you could end being stuck with a moron for years.

“I mean, you get a guy who gets in there, he's got a good line of crap. He gets in and all of a sudden you're stuck with a man who's a moron” pic.twitter.com/WvH265e2YC
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 1, 2026

Fuming Dem armed with bullhorn derails red state legislative proceedings

A Florida Democratic lawmaker interrupted state House proceedings in protest to the approval of a redistricting map that could give the GOP four congressional seats.

"You're destroying our democracy," state Rep. Angie Nixon, who's also running for Senate, could be heard in videos yelling into a bullhorn on the Florida House floor. "This is a violation of the Constitution! It is!"

The GOP-controlled Florida Legislature approved Gov. Ron DeSantis' map to redistrict the Sunshine State. The move is the latest counterattack in the redistricting wars, after the Democrats won a battle in Virginia to persuade voters to approve a gerrymandered map that waters down Republican power there.

Although the Florida House speaker tried to talk over Nixon's shouting and move forward, Nixon continued. "This is out of order," she kept repeating.

Nixon defended her actions in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

"I'm so upset because I had to disrupt the House proceedings," Nixon said. "They were trying to push through illegally drawn maps that diminish representation in the Black community."

She added that it threatens the representation of Florida's Latino and Jewish communities as well.

“This is a slap in the face of voters everywhere in our state," Nixon said. "Republicans are only doing this so that they can look out for Donald Trump and allow him to have unfettered power."