Despite Gov. Ron DeSantis’ favored position at center stage, the second Republican debate was already 16 minutes old by the time he first spoke Wednesday night.
When he did, it was to parrot Chris Christie, who criticized Donald Trump for not showing up.
“Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight,” DeSantis said. “He owes it to you to defend his record.”
DeSantis was right, of course, but it was too little, too late. DeSantis and his rivals have been so unwilling to confront Trump on anything, for fear of offending his MAGA base, that this mild rebuke qualified as news.
Over the course of two hours at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, DeSantis did nothing — zero — to reverse the nosedive of his presidential hopes. He came across as humorless, rehearsed and stilted. He fudged the facts and told only part of the story, and his trailing challengers missed their last good chance to point out the myriad ways he’s ginned up bigotry and wasted tax dollars in pursuit of his all too apparent personal ambition.
One good example: His self-serving statement that he “vetoed wasteful spending” in Florida. What he didn’t say was that he also vetoed essential spending for programs such as flood control, homelessness, hunger prevention and to help victims of gun violence, this year alone.
The rest of the story: As Mike Pence noted on stage Wednesday, spending in Florida under DeSantis has ballooned from $92 billion in his first full year as governor to $116.5 billion for next year, a growth rate of 21% in four years’ time.
Reagan would weep
The debate was framed by frequent quotes by, and references to, Ronald Reagan. But he’d be appalled by this shambolic affair — an unwatchable spectacle of crosstalk, personal insults and non-answers.
The moderators from Fox Business lost control of the proceedings — and worse, introduced false narrative themselves, particularly with their assertions that crime was increasing sharply under Biden. (It’s not. By many measures, crime rates are dropping.)
They did ask some good questions, however, including pressing candidates on the intricacies of immigration issues such the border and birthright citizenship. One notable exchange: Stuart Varney’s grilling of DeSantis on the 2.5 million Floridians with no health insurance — a rate that exceeds the national average. He has done nothing as governor to expand Medicaid, the health care safety net.
In fact, DeSantis appeared to equate Medicaid expansion with charity. “We also don’t have a lot of welfare benefits in Florida,” DeSantis said. “We’re basically saying, this is a field of dreams.”
For once, the governor spoke the undeniable truth. Anyone who still believes DeSantis has any empathy for the hard-working, low-earning labor force that fuels Florida’s chief industries of hospitality and agriculture is clearly dreaming.
Time for change
This debate that wasn’t was such a monumental disappointment that the time has come to scrap the entire format, with its rigid 30- and 60-second time limits, and to reflect on whether these extended shouting matches do more to hurt democracy than to help it.
Candidates fudge their answers or worse, lie, as DeSantis did when Nikki Haley challenged him on energy and he denied favoring a ban on fracking in Florida.
Oh really? On his third day in office, Jan. 10, 2019, DeSantis signed an executive order that directed the state environmental agency to “take necessary actions to adamantly oppose all offshore oil and gas activities off every coast in Florida and hydraulic fracturing in Florida.”
DeSantis could have proudly embraced that action, to the delight of independent voters who care about the environment. Instead, he ran from his own record.
A failure of leadership
What America saw Wednesday was a dirt-track debate, with second- and third-tier candidates at the kids’ table, shouting over each other about sanctuary cities, TikTok and Obama-era mandates.
The debate changed nothing in the weird dynamics of this Republican race, and solidified Trump as the presumptive nominee, even hobbled by four criminal indictments and a new finding of his long history of fraud in his business dealings.
With the sole exception of Christie, the Republican candidates failed a fundamental test of leadership by refusing to declare Trump unfit to occupy the White House. Their collective timidity is in itself disqualifying.
Biden, by the way, was in Arizona Thursday to again issue a dire warning about the threats Trump presents to the future of democracy, his fourth such address since the second anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
As for the Republicans, their next primary debate is scheduled for Nov. 8, and it will be in Miami.
Is there still time to cancel it?
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
