Has anyone checked on Charlie Crist this morning? He was left comatose and unresponsive after the beating Ron DeSantis delivered last night at the Florida Governor’s debate.
The hits just kept coming, mostly because Crist, the former Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, is a snake of a politician trying to slither and weasel away from his own positions and statements.
Let’s just start with the headline clip. The moderator asked DeSantis about running in 2024 against Biden or whoever the Democratic nominee would be. DeSantis shrewdly turned the question around and landed the answer as a smackdown of his current opponent:
This was one glorious line:
“Well listen, I know that Charlie’s interested in talking about 2024 and Joe Biden, but I just want to make things very, very clear. The only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist”
The look on Crist’s face after that delivery is priceless. It’s at that moment he knows he’s outmatched in this contest. It’s not that Crist doesn’t have answers, he’s a polished speaker in his own right. It’s that his answers are couched in mistruths and distortions of the record and facts. His brand of politics is simply not where the Florida electorate is and there’s nothing he can say to move it in his direction.
Here are some more clips of the DeSantis/Crist debate. The “Nation’s Report Card” that came out this week couldn’t have arrived at a better time for DeSantis as this clip demonstrates when talking about education and school closures resulting from prolonged Covid lockdowns:
Florida led the way in putting students first. ?
In 2020, Gov. @RonDeSantisfl fought teachers’ unions and stood up for kids by ensuring schools were open.
This protected Florida students from devastating learning loss experienced by their lockdown-state peers. #FLGovDebate pic.twitter.com/UUQ03jmICM
— Team DeSantis ? (@teamrondesantis) October 24, 2022
Ironically, perhaps Crist’s biggest flub of the night came when he decided to start painting DeSantis as the “lockdown Governor” for the short period Florida was actually closed early in the pandemic. As a rebuttal, DeSantis pointed out it was Crist, among other Florida Democrats, who put their name on a letter begging DeSantis to keep the state closed, keep schools closed, and keep businesses closed:
Charlie Crist apparently sent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a letter in July 2020 demanding a statewide Covid lockdown. The best decision of DeSantis' political career was ignoring that letter, and he's reaping the political fruits now. pic.twitter.com/y2GaKdIP9x
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) October 25, 2022
Where does Crist begin to compete with an answer and record like this:
“I rejected Charlie Crist’s lockdown letter, I kept this state open, and I kept this state free, and we now have the biggest budget surplus in the history of Florida, we have a 2.5% unemployment rate, the lowest on record, and we just did the biggest tax cut in Florida history”
Abortion was also a topic and DeSantis articulated his position well with regard to the 15-week abortion ban he signed as Governor:
Gov. @RonDeSantisFL on being pro-life: "We're better when everybody counts."
"Charlie Crist opposes [Florida's 15-week abortion ban], even though the baby is fully formed, has a heartbeat, can feel pain, and can suck their thumb." pic.twitter.com/YFzyyPklj9
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 24, 2022
According to the latest polls, DeSantis leads this race by an average of 10 points. The end result coming on Election Day probably won’t even be that close after the debate beatdown and the clear contrasts on display between both candidates. Crist represents the party of lockdowns, school closures, mandates, and Joe Biden’s inflation. The choice is abundantly clear.
In other news, an early congratulations to Gov. DeSantis on his re-election victory. Too premature? Fine. Congratulations on his likely victory.
