DeSantis still won't condemn Nazis

But there's a silver lining. Plus, a key new Senate poll

Welcome to a Tuesday evening edition of Progress Report.

When I launched the satirical site Nazis For DeSantis last week, my goal was to call out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s steadfast refusal to condemn neo-Nazi hooligans, even when they’re very clearly acting as his unofficial goon squad. I spent the weekend getting the site in front of reporters and Democratic officials, and on Monday, Charlie Crist called on DeSantis to condemn the jackbooted losers that spent the weekend swarming events across Florida.

Charlie Crist @CharlieCrist

It’s been 2 days since anti-Semitic messages were displayed across Jacksonville and @RonDeSantisFL still refuses to condemn them. Why is it so hard for him to speak out against hate?

A full three days after the incident spokesperson for the governor said issued a maddeningly tepid and disingenuous statement that said DeSantis “rejects attempts to scapegoat the Jewish community” and touted his opposition to the BDS movement. Even after a weekend of white nationalist threats, demonstrations, and stunts, DeSantis still couldn’t bring himself to explicitly disavow Nazis. Instead, DeSantis’s spokesman used a cynical bait-and-switch that has revealed itself to be a special form of right-wing Evangelical bigotry.

I didn’t expect DeSantis to ever actually condemn Nazis — they’re a big part of his base — but this is the first time that he’s addressed antisemitic attacks with anything other than complaints about how he’s the real victim of the bigots who march with his campaign flag. DeSantis is famously disciplined and able to stay on message, so forcing him into improvising in unfavorable territory is a win in and of itself.

I’m glad to see Democrats going after him for his habit of coddling of white nationalists. At the very least, they’ve won days of headlines connecting DeSantis with masked anti-semitic losers. This should have been happening months ago, but I’ll take what we can get Baby steps.

It’s not going to be enough to stop him this year, but it’s never too early to start creating the narrative ahead of his presidential run. This is why I spend so much time on projects like the website — it takes years of work and persistence to build sustained public narratives, especially ones that could actually change opinions or latch on with the press.

All of these additional projects require a significant investment of both time and resources, the latter of which comes from paid subscriptions and donations to this newsletter. That revenue is also put toward paying the growing number of contributors to Progress Report,

Tonight, I’ll share some of the stories that I’ve been reading — it’ll be mostly politics, policy, and related topics, but I contain multitudes, so I'm mixing in some other subjects as well. I’m thinking about making this a regular feature for premium members, especially in the post-election downtime. Let me know in the comments what you think.

Tomorrow, we’ll be back with a look at consequential under-the-radar ballot initiatives from all around the country, as well as some breaking election and polling news that you may have missed.

---

---