What is it about Ron DeSantis that makes Democratic mayors’ heads explode?
DeSantis blew into Chicago on Monday, and the city’s mayoral race will never be the same. Democratic candidates lined up to see who could outdo the other in frothing, hysterical denunciations of the Florida governor.
The next stop for DeSantis was New York City. Prior to his arrival, New York’s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams “welcomed” the Florida governor with a sarcastic tweet.
Welcome to NYC, @GovRonDeSantis, a place where we don’t ban books, discriminate against our LGBTQ+ neighbors, use asylum seekers as props, or let the government stand between a woman and health care.
We’re happy to teach you something about values while you’re here. https://t.co/o2CgOt1SES
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) February 20, 2023
They don’t “ban books” in Florida either, but they do make it harder for children to get their hands on age-inappropriate literature. The rest is typical leftist bombast that DeSantis and his team were able to deal with simply by reminding Adams where Americans preferred to live.
Nice rhetoric — but here’s reality: More Americans fled NYC than any other metro area last year.
More Americans moved to Florida than any other state.
You know this, Mayor Adams, and you’ve talked (accurately) about crime pushing people out of NYC. Florida’s crime rate… https://t.co/gHru8I12PS
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) February 20, 2023
DeSantis let it all roll off his back.
"If people are not firing at me, then I must not be doing my job. So I view it really as positive feedback." – Governor @RonDeSantisFL 🔥👀 pic.twitter.com/ChdkcYt1lN
— Team DeSantis 🐊 (@teamrondesantis) February 20, 2023
And in his speech to law enforcement in Elmhurst, DeSantis reminded Adams and everyone else that certain truths are undeniable.
“You’re not going to have a good economy if the streets aren’t safe. You’re not going to have a good education if people don’t feel safe,” DeSantis said. “None of it works unless you have a foundation of public safety.”
Related: ‘DeSantis the Destroyer’ Blows Up Chicago’s Mayoral Race
DeSantis is on a three-city tour comparing and contrasting Florida’s crime rate with the crime rate of Democratic big cities. He’s also on something of a recruiting drive for police officers. He made a pitch to cops in Staten Island.
DeSantis met with local law enforcement in Staten Island on Monday morning. He was joined by Lee Zeldin, the former New York congressman who lost a heated battle for governor to Democrat Kathy Hochul.
“We’re doing it right in Florida, and my message is — if you’re disenchanted, if you don’t think things are gonna turn around wherever you are, not just in New York, wherever, just know that there’s a state that that’s doing it right,” DeSantis said Monday. “There’s a state that that will value your service and more importantly than just someone like me going out there and doing it.”
DeSantis also took a shot at New York’s bail law that was amended after several high-profile violent crimes were committed by criminals who would ordinarily have been locked up.
“I read that New York is the only state that doesn’t allow judges to consider — when they’re making a bail determination — whether someone’s a danger to the community,” the 44-year-old said.
“How does that make any sense? Is that making your community any safer, to be doing that? Of course not. So you need to do things like repeal these failed pieces of legislation.”
DeSantis’s next stop is the suburbs of Philadelphia, where Democrats will almost certainly take the opportunity to show how passionate and committed they are to getting hysterical over the visit of a single Republican governor.
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