Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference with First Lady Casey DeSantis at Pensacola State College on Tuesday.
The event was held amid growing questions about how a charity spearheaded by Casey DeSantis received $10 million in state funds — and how that money was spent.
On Tuesday, DeSantis lashed out at a bill that would reduce his power to influence leadership at Florida’s public colleges and universities, calling out fellow Republicans and defending his Hope Florida initiative in the process.
The measure, House Bill 1321, is co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Michelle Salzman and Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani. It would make presidential searches at state colleges and universities public again, rolling back a recent change DeSantis has supported. A companion bill is also moving through the Senate.
DeSantis said the proposal is part of a broader effort to undermine his administration’s agenda in higher education.
“Florida House of Representatives are weaponizing that to attack our administration. Trying to empower the left,” DeSantis said. “Nobody has done better than Florida in beating the left and beating the Democrats.”
The governor didn’t hold back in criticizing his own party, claiming some Republican lawmakers were working against him and the voters who support him.
“When they’re attacking me, they’re attacking you,” DeSantis said, before adding that Republican legislators were “stabbing you in the back to push their political agenda.”
He described the current legislature as “the least productive Florida House of Representatives in the modern history of the Florida Republican Party,” and accused lawmakers of using the bill to shift focus away from a local official who’s raised questions about alleged corruption and money laundering tied to First Lady Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida organization.
“Something is rotten in the Florida House of Representatives,” he said. “This bill is designed to unravel all the success we’ve had.”
The governor’s sharp comments largely overshadowed the official focus of his press conference: the announcement of 28 Hope Florida on-campus liaisons at state colleges. He said the new positions will provide support services to “single moms” and others facing hardship when “misfortune strikes.”
DeSantis defended Hope Florida as a model of compassionate, conservative leadership.
“Since Hope Florida has been up and running,” he said, “I’ve been doing this for six years, but you have Republicans in the Florida House that are stabbing you in the back to push their political agenda.”
The bill has stirred tensions within the Republican Party as DeSantis continues to push his influence in the state’s higher education system.
Local 10 News viewers can watch the news conference in the video below.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is holding a press conference at Pensacola State College on Tuesday.
PENSACOLA, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is holding a news conference at Pensacola State College on Tuesday.
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He is expected to be joined by Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis.
The remarks come amid growing questions about how a charity spearheaded by Casey DeSantis received $10 million in state funds — and how that money was spent.
“I do think it’s really sad to see manufactured smears against the First Lady (Casey DeSantis) and the program that is Hope Florida,” the governor said at a press conference on Monday.
It is unclear what topic or topics will be discussed on Tuesday.
Local 10 viewers can watch the news conference by clicking here.