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‘Divisiveness. Anger. Marginalization’: Top Florida Paper Warns What DeSantis Would Do ‘to the Whole Country’

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The editorial board of one of the largest newspapers in Florida, the Miami Herald, on Tuesday published a scathing indictment of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, warning should he become president, “Imagine what he would do if he exported his vision to the whole country.”

“Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has used the power of government to assault the freedoms of anyone he and his supporters consider different,” the Herald’s Editorial Board writes. “Black people, gay and trans people and immigrants have all felt the unmistakable hostility of the state. In his pursuit of a far-right record that could outstrip Donald Trump’s, DeSantis has systematically — during five years in office, with a lockstep Republican Legislature — turned Florida into an unwelcoming place for many.

They add, “voters across the country only have to look at Florida to understand what he’s pushing. Divisiveness. Anger. Marginalization of anyone who might not be white, Christian, straight or whose family doesn’t go back generations in the United States.”

READ MORE: Federal Court Issues Scathing Unanimous Ruling Against Alabama After ‘Unlawfully’ Reducing Power of Black Voters

They warn of “DeSantis’ well-documented attacks on the rights of trans and LGBTQ people. The best known of those policies is his parental-rights law, known as ‘Don’t say gay,’ banning the teaching of gender identity or sexual orientation in public schools and threatening teachers with a felony charge if they do. He’s also backed laws to make gender-affirming care illegal and exercised control over which pronouns students use and even which bathrooms.”

Pointing to DeSantis’ response to Disney’s opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” law, the Herald writes he “will use the power (and money) of the state to try to crush those who disagree with him.”

And calling the Florida Governor “the same leader who refused to condemn neo-Nazi demonstrators in Florida for years,” the Editorial Board slams “DeSantis’ actions toward Black people,” including his “2021 ‘anti-riot’ bill [that] masqueraded as an attempt to keep public order but was actually aimed at squelching Black Lives Matter marches in the wake of the George Floyd murder.”

READ MORE: ‘Why So Much Hate From You?’: Mark Cuban Smacks Down Stephen Miller, Twice

“It’s no wonder DeSantis was booed when he showed up to speak in Jacksonville about the shooting of three Black people by a killer with swastikas on his gun,” they write. “All things considered, booing seems like a rather restrained response.”

The paper also warns of DeSantis’ anti-immigrant policies: “Immigrants seeking refuge here are among DeSantis’ favorite targets. There were those infamous migrant flights starting last year, when he used Florida tax dollars to fly asylum seekers from the border to “blue” places like Martha’s Vineyard. He has pledged to support an end to birthright citizenship, something generally believed to be unconstitutional.”

They note that “Key businesses like construction and agriculture have started losing workers. And as Hurricane Idalia made landfall last week, the new law raised fears that immigrants and their families wouldn’t seek shelter from the life-threatening storm.

Also Tuesday the Herald’s Editorial Board published: “Florida’s new immigration law isn’t just cruel. It’s an awakening to our hypocrisy.”

Read the full editorial here.

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Judge Rebukes Trump Admin for Defying SNAP Payment Deadline

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A federal judge chastised the Trump administration for defying his order issued last week to fully distribute SNAP payments by Monday, or at least partially by Wednesday. The administration had said it would release 65 percent of the funds but offered no timeline for doing so.

Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island sharply rebuked the Trump administration “for what he said was defying his order to make full SNAP payments by Nov. 5,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported on Thursday. “He has ordered USDA to make the *full* payment to states by tomorrow.”

“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said, according to Cheney.

READ MORE: ‘Make Lots of Trump Babies’: Dr. Oz Highlights Midterm Goals

The judge alleged that “Trump and his allies have admitted to withholding SNAP benefits for ‘political reasons’ rather than to preserve child nutrition programs, which the judge said was a pretext,” Cheney also reported.

Judge McConnell cited a Truth Social post President Trump made in which he vowed to hold up the SNAP funds. The President wrote that food stamp benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The White House later walked back the President’s remarks, claiming he was referring to any future shutdowns.

The judge “said Trump’s Truth Social post was essentially an admission of his ‘intent to defy the court order,'” according to Cheney.

“The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP,” McConnell said, according to the Associated Press. “They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial Snap payments and failed to consider the harms individual who rely on those benefits would suffer.”

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’

 

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‘Make Lots of Trump Babies’: Dr. Oz Highlights Midterm Goals

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shared a few of his goals for next year’s midterms with reporters.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Oz promoted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

“We’ve dropped the [price of] infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies — I’m hoping by the midterms,” he told reporters, as HuffPost reported.

READ MORE: ‘Clown Show’: House Dem Leader Slams ‘Divorced From Reality’ Senate GOP Head

Praising President Donald Trump’s plan to lower prices on popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, Oz said, “America will have to get fit in order to rightsize the health care system.”

Dr. Oz has talked about making “Trump babies” before.

“Now I know what you’re all thinking, and you’re probably right, that there are going to be a lot of Trump babies,” Oz said in October at a White House event focused on making in vitro drugs more accessible. “I think that’s probably a good thing.”

“But it turns out the fundamental, creative force in society is about making babies,” he continued. “It’s about creating. And this country, the one that President Trump is leading so beautifully has been a country of abundance, not scarcity.”

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’

 

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‘Clown Show’: House Dem Leader Slams ‘Divorced From Reality’ Senate GOP Head

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As the federal government shutdown enters its 38th day with no end in sight, the Speaker of the House and the House Democratic Minority Leader appear united — on one aspect only: blaming the Senate.

Amid reports that a few Senate Democrats might agree to vote to reopen the government if Republicans guarantee a date-certain vote on restoring the Affordable Care Act subsidies, Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to attempt to scuttle that potential bargain on Thursday.

Asked if he would assure that the House would vote on restoring the Obamacare subsidy funding, which would be the basis of a Senate deal, Johnson refused.

READ MORE: ‘Really Hurting’: U.S. Job Cuts Surge to Decades-Level High Amid Trump Recession Fears

“No, because we did our job, and I’m not part of the negotiation,” the Speaker told reporters on Thursday. “The House did its job on September 19th” when it passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has effectively declared that legislation is dead, unless he can change the end date.

“I’m not promising anybody anything,” Johnson continued. “I’m gonna let this process play out.”

Over on the Democratic side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted the Senate Majority Leader.

“Not a partisan thing, a patriotic thing: We have to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” Jeffries declared.

“And John Thune is divorced from reality,” he charged.

“I mean, it’s a clown show over in the Senate,” Jeffries continued.

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’ 

“Fourteen, fifteen times, you bring the same partisan Republican spending bill?” he said, referring to the House-passed continuing resolution that Leader Thune has been putting before the Senate several times a week.

“Expecting a different result? That’s the classic definition of legislative insanity. Doing the same thing, over and over and over again,” he said while blasting Thune, saying he “has no ability to actually negotiate in good faith.”

Weeks ago, Jeffries told MSNBC, “what I’m saying is that we need an ironclad path forward that decisively addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”

“In terms of the Affordable Care Act, you know, this is a group of people, Republicans, who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care more than 70 different times since 2010. They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer. We need a real path forward to address the crisis that Republicans have visited upon the American people in terms of healthcare, the cost of living, and affordability.”

READ MORE: Trump to Talk About Cost of Living Next Year White House Says

 

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