Fox & Friends did their best to kickstart Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential run.
DeSantis visited Fox News to start his “pro-police tour” on New York’s Staten Island.
Before touting his anti-woke, anti-crime record (no mention of his fascistic anti-books, anti-civil rights, anti-gay record), cohost Brian Kilmeade helped showcase DeSantis supposed foreign-policy chops. Referring to President Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine today, Kilmeade asked, “Is this a good move?”
Of course, that was an opening for DeSantis to blame his likely future campaign rival for the whole war and, for extra malice, attack Biden on immigration, Afghanistan and China.
DESANTIS: I’m reminded of when he was vice president. Obama and Biden opposed providing lethal aid to Ukraine during those years, and then I’m also reminded that I don’t think any of this would’ve happened but for the weakness that the president showed during his first year in office, culminating of course in the disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan.
So, while I think he’s over there, I think I and many Americans are thinking to ourselves, OK, he’s very concerned about those borders halfway around the world, he’s not done anything to secure our own border here at home. We’ve had millions and millions of people pour in, tens of thousands of Americans dead because of fentanyl. And then, of course, we just suffered a national humiliation of having China fly a spy balloon clear across the continental United States.
Nobody mentioned that Biden didn’t immediately shoot down the Chinese balloon because of concerns about falling debris.
Cohost Lisa Boothe did her part for the DeSantis cause: “Great to see you, Governor. As a Floridian, nice to see you, sir,” she said. “We’ve seen incoherence from this administration. No defined policy on Ukraine, no defined objective of what winning looks like. I think a lot of Americans are asking how much more money? How much more time? How much more human suffering?”
“They have, effectively, a blank-check policy with no clear strategic objective identified,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think it’s in our interest to be getting into a proxy war with China getting involved over things like the border lands or over Crimea.” He asked, “what is the strategic objective” in Ukraine and called U.S. assistance “an open-ended blank check, that is not acceptable.”
Steve Doocy asked, “What does a win look like for us in Ukraine, for Ukraine?”
DeSantis suggested Russia is no threat to us and, therefore, there’s no need to defend Ukraine. He called Russia “a third-rate military power.” He said they’ve suffered “tremendous losses” and has been “really, really wounded.” He added, “I don’t think they’re on the same level as a China.”
Then the show segued to selling DeSantis on domestic issues. Kilmeade called DeSantis “very strong” on law enforcement and asked about his “mission” on Staten Island.
“You see Florida’s success, number one in net migration, fastest growing, all these things that people have said, and yes, taxes, COVID, all that helped,” DeSantis said, which had nothing to do with Staten Island.
DeSantis went on to credit “law and order and support for the people that wear the uniform, and we’ve done that in Florida. We’re now recruiting more and more people from other states. We’ve done 1,000 different officers, have gotten $5,000 signing bonuses since July. We want more people from New York and Chicago.”
DeSantis then attacked what he called the “woke approach” to law enforcement. “Being anti-police, those policies have failed. Florida’s policies have succeeded.” He urged cities to “abandon this woke nonsense like just releasing these criminals or electing prosecutors that don’t follow the law.”
Boothe claimed places like New York and Illinois “see criminals as the victims. I mean, how did we get here?”
“It’s all putting ideology over public safety,” DeSantis replied. He claimed New York was “the safest big city probably in the world under Giuliani and under Bloomberg, and people loved it, and now they’ve thrown that all away, and you’ve had crime spike. … These left-wing policies have failed. They’ve empowered criminals. They’ve put the public at risk.”
FACT CHECK: Eight out of 10 states with the highest murder rates voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Six states with the highest per-capita murder rates.
Furthermore, Florida is hardly at the top of the list for lack of crime. From The Capitolist:
Florida’s violent crime rate of 384 incidents for every 100,000 people ranks near the middle of all states and in line with the overall violent crime rate nationwide. Of the 83,368 incidents reported in the state in 2020, the majority — 73% — were cases of aggravated assault.
Though violence is about as common in Florida as it is nationwide, there are parts of the state where it is far more common. In the Gainesville metropolitan area, for example, the violent crime rate stands at 760 incidents for every 100,000 people.
Instead of getting into any of those pesky details, the show focused on promoting DeSantis’ likely presidential campaign. Doocy said, “You could get some positive feedback if you just stood up, turned around and said hey folks, I’m going to run for president. Just saying, you would wind up with a standing ovation right now. We’ll give you 20 seconds.”
DeSantis responded, “Wouldn’t you guys like to have that announcement on Fox & Friends?”
“Of course we would,” Doocy said.
“Governor, I’m a Floridian,” Boothe added. “Help me out.”
“That’s called a standoff,” Kilmeade said. He promoted a “Who’s Ron DeSantis” special coming up on Fox Nation.
You can watch the pre-campaign commercial below, from the February 20, 2023 Fox & Friends.
It is certainly long past time for a focus on the history of blacks, if only because their ancestors did not volunteer to migrate to the New World. And it’s also long past time for a focus on the real history of the Native Americans (not what’s been related in the cinema), who were already here when the Europeans arrived. Neither group had much to say about what happened to them: the former were kidnapped and brought over as slaves; the latter were overrun and slaughtered.
Germany did a pretty good job of analysing their own history after WW2 and several other countries, including Canada and Australia, have started the process. It’s time for the USA to do the same.
My brief stint in Central Florida gave me the idea that it’s the po’ white trash who hate blacks the most: no matter how poor or ignorant they are, that white skin (under the filth) allowed them to think they were socially above the most intelligent of non-whites (my favourite hero was George Washington Carver). In the film called “The Green Book”, a world famous black pianist on tour in the deep south is not allowed to sleep or eat in the hotels that had been thrilled to accommodate one of his concerts. That’s the deep south I remember from the late ’50s/early ’60s.
I just shook my head while thinking, that’s really a cool subject considering most of what I know about Pacific Islanders I gleaned from devouring James Michener’s various novels.
BUT WHAT ABOUT BLACK HISTORY YOU, YOU ARRGGH??!!
One of my Black friends once turned to me and said, “why do White people hate us so much Marge?”
It made me want to cry.
I told her he reminds me too much of the type of people my dad and uncles dragged their asses across North Africa and Europe trying to kill 80 years ago.
She really didn’t know what to say. I fear that as we lose the last of the WWII generation, their voices and experiences will be conveniently forgotten in pursuit of too close for comfort 1930’s policies being implemented in this country.
