- "Wait two weeks, Florida's gonna be next.
"Just like Italy, wait two weeks."
Well, hell, we're eight weeks away from that
and it hasn't happened.
- [Yedoye] That's Ron DeSantis.
He's the 46th governor of Florida
and a close ally to President Trump.
During the coronavirus pandemic
he declared a state of emergency in Florida
which helped secure federal funding
approved by Trump himself,
but initially DeSantis refused to shut the state down.
So who is he?
I'm comedian Yedoye Travis
and this is the story of Ron DeSantis.
Ronald Dion DeSantis was born in 1978
in Jacksonville, Florida.
In 1991, DeSantis was a pitcher and third baseman
on a Little League team that went all the way
to the Little League World Series.
The team lost, but DeSantis was good enough to keep playing.
He attended the elite Ivy school Yale
where he was a four year starter on the baseball team.
During his senior, he was captain of the team
and batted .336 from the plate
which, although the competition wasn't nearly as tough,
is technically better than Sammy Sosa's best year.
DeSantis graduated in 2001.
He left the diamond for good and attended Harvard Law.
During a stint at yet another elite Ivy school,
he received his Reserve Naval Officer's commission
with an assignment
to the Judge Advocate General's Corps, or JAG.
The next year, in 2005, he finished Naval Justice School
and was assigned to a station in Florida
as a prosecutor for JAG.
He graduated from Harvard around the same time.
At Guantanamo Bay, DeSantis' job was to advocate
for the fair and humane treatment of the detainees
and to make sure the US military complied with the law.
- The Christmas of 2006, I wasn't home with my family,
I was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
at the terrorist detention facility.
Not as a detainee, as an officer.
- [Yedoye] But it's unclear how good DeSantis was at his job
of making sure detainees were treated humanely
because, of course, the US military
has been accused of torture, violating international law,
and mass human rights abuses
in their detention center in Guantanamo Bay.
Many of the detainees held there
have not even been charged with a crime
and some of the prisoners have been cleared for transfer,
yet still remain imprisoned.
- [Announcer] Ron DeSantis, Iraq war veteran,
JAG officer who dealt with terrorists in Guantanamo Bay.
- [Yedoye] In 2007, DeSantis went to Iraq,
serving as a legal advisor to SEAL Team One.
He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service
and received an honorable discharge in 2010.
A few years later, in 2012,
DeSantis announced he was running for a congressional seat
in Florida's 6th district.
He won the race by a landslide.
In the House, DeSantis signed a pledge
backed by fossil fuel profit obsessed billionaires,
the Koch brothers,
vowing to vote against any global warming legislation
that would raise taxes.
DeSantis was reelected two more times in 2014 and 2016.
During his time in the House,
he became a founding member of the Freedom Caucus,
the far-right group within the House
which advocates for extreme conservative legislation.
He also spoke about super important issues
on Fox News frequently,
like Beyoncé and Jay-Z taking a trip to Cuba.
- It's not really an educational trip
if you're going there on a wedding anniversary.
That's basically just pure tourism.
- [Yedoye] In 2016, DeSantis ran for Senate
after Marco Rubio announced his bid for the presidency.
But after Rubio's failed campaign,
DeSantis withdrew from the running
and focused on getting reelected to the House.
In 2018, after Trump tweeted
that DeSantis is a "brilliant young leader,"
who would, "make a great governor,"
the former baseball star announced his candidacy
to succeed the unfinished,
escaped AI from "Westworld," Rick Scott.
- Well, as you remember a few weeks ago,
the president tweeted support for me
as a candidate for governor of Florida,
so today we're going to be filing the paperwork
to begin that effort.
- [Yedoye] During the Republican primary,
DeSantis leaned heavily into Trump's endorsement.
- [Casey] Ron loves playing with the kids.
- Build the wall.
- He reads stories.
- Then Mr. Trump said, "You're fired."
I love that part.
- He's teaching Madison to talk.
- Make America great again.
- [Yedoye] On August 28th, 2018,
DeSantis was named the Republican nominee for governor.
He'd go up against the Democratic Tallahassee mayor,
Andrew Gillum, in the general,
who would've been Florida's first black governor.
The race was heated from the start
and just mere hours after the primary results,
DeSantis made a racially charged comment
against Gillum, obviously.
- The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up
by trying to embrace a socialist agenda.
- [Yedoye] After the interview,
a Fox News host made an announcement
on behalf of the company, saying on-air,
"We do not condone this language."
Which says a lot coming from Fox News.
Soon after DeSantis' racial slur,
his association with racism was brought to the forefront.
The Washington Post reported DeSantis,
"spoke four times at a conferences
"organized by conservative activist David Horowitz,
"who has said that African Americans
"owe their freedom to white people
"and that the country's 'only serious race war'
"is against whites."
DeSantis praised the work of Horowitz in a speech,
saying, "David has done such great work.
"I've been to these conferences in the past,
"but I've been a big admirer of an organization
"that shoots straight, tells the American people the truth,
"and is standing up for the right thing."
DeSantis was also criticized for taking a donation
from someone who once called President Obama
a (beep) Muslim (beep) on Twitter.
The DeSantis campaign condemned the comment,
but he didn't return the money.
- But what do you say to Florida voters
who have concerns about your keeping the money
from that contributor, your comments,
and about your tolerance?
- Because he made a mistake, he apologized.
- [Yedoye] But the donor,
who has contributed at least $22,920
to DeSantis' campaigns over the years, didn't apologize.
In fact, he defended his racist comments,
saying, "So somebody like Chris Rock,
"can get up onstage and use the word and there's no problem?
"But some white guy says it and he's a racist?
"Really?"
Gillum called DeSantis out on all of it.
- Now I'm not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist,
I'm simply saying the racists believe he's a racist.
- [Yedoye] Despite his close association to racists,
and spewing rhetoric that pleased them,
DeSantis initially won the race by a count of 100,000 votes.
Gillum conceded, but he took back his concession
as late-counted ballots poured in,
bringing the race within a margin of .4%.
A recount was triggered,
but three counties missed the recount deadline
and it wasn't extended.
DeSantis was named the winner
with at least 584,000 ballots left out.
The next gubernatorial election in Florida
will take place in 2022.
But until then, keep your eye on this elite,
Ivy League school educated,
former Guantanamo Bay-based lawyer
who loves accepting campaign donations
from folks who tweet out the N-word, Ron DeSantis.
(quirky folk music)
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