On Tuesday night, as returns from Virginia poured in showing the blue state had voted for the GOP and given them the governorship, the lieutenant governorship, the attorney general’s office, and possibly control of the state assembly, the spokeswoman for Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, Christina Pushaw, delivered a rousing message for Virginia voters: “Dear Virginia, Welcome to the Resistance! Love, Florida.”
Dear Virginia,
Welcome to the Resistance!
Love,
Florida 🐊
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 (@ChristinaPushaw) November 3, 2021
DeSantis has been a constant critic of the Biden administration, defying them repeatedly while charting a conservative path for the state. Even before he was Florida’s governor, he was targeting Democrats in Washington, D.C. In January 2018, appearing on Fox News’ “Lou Dobbs Tonight” with host David Asman, he slammed Democratic members of Congress refusing to consider supporting a spending bill to fund the government, saying, “They care more about illegal immigrants than they do about our American military.” He stated:
Here’s the thing. The House, we’ve already passed bills to fund the government for the whole year. We did that months ago. The Senate is just dysfunctional. They’re not able to really do the basic tasks of being in the Congress. So we are where we are. I think it would be absolutely hazardous for Democrats to block funding for our troops, for our military equipment simply because they’re demanding benefits for illegal immigrants. It just shows you that they care more about illegal immigrants than they do about our American military. So I think we should call their bluff. I think a lot will end up folding. But if they don’t and you have Chuck Schumer filibustering funding for the military because he’s worried about more benefits for illegal immigrants, I think that would end up blowing up in their face.
In February 2021, DeSantis reacted harshly to speculation that the Biden administration might institute travel restrictions on the state. DeSantis fired: “I think it would be unconstitutional, it would be unwise, and it would be unjust,” adding that “restricting the right of Americans to travel freely throughout our country while allowing illegal aliens to pour across the southern border unmolested would be a ridiculous, but very damaging farce.”
He continued: “We will not back down, and if anyone tries to harm Floridians or target us, we will respond very swiftly.”
Soon after that, DeSantis took aim at President Biden regarding his policies on school closures, charging, “It’s a pathetic failure of leadership to not stand up for these kids and for these families.” He said, “This is just purely being subservient to a special interest and Biden has been one of the worst in it, because when he says, ‘My goal is to get 50% of the schools in person in 100 days,’ we’ve already had that. His goal should have been yesterday to get everybody back in school, but he can’t do that because he doesn’t want to upset the teachers’ unions. It’s a pathetic failure of leadership to not stand up for these kids and for these families.”
In April, DeSantis called Biden an “aggressive left-wing culture warrior.” He said of the political Left: “I think they’re very caustic and nasty. I think unless they make us a complete socialist country, these people are never going to be happy, and I think that even though Biden’s been the most left-wing president of our lifetimes, I would say, even more than LBJ —LBJ wasn’t as left-wing on the culture as Biden is, and Biden is an aggressive left-wing culture warrior — but I think anything short of complete domination of conservatism, making sure people that have conservative views are shut out, anything short of that, they’re just not going to be happy.” He added of the Democratic party, “I think they’re captive to that part of their base and I think that’s ultimately going to be their undoing in 2022 and then I think probably in 2024.”