Gov. DeSantis visits Staten Island to talk crime

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited Staten Island, New York this morning as part of a tour reportedly meant to present himself as a potential law and order candidate. Here's some of what he told a group of law enforcement officials. Why is crime a big issue in New York or Chicago or all these other places? The reason why you have what you have in some of these other jurisdictions is because they're putting woke ideology ahead of your safety. So what have we done in Florida when they were talking about defunding police and slashing budgets? We said not on my watch. Now for those of you who might be wondering why DeSantis chose Staten Island, it is the only reliably Republican leaning borough in New York City. Let's discuss with Basrel Smykel, Democratic Strategist and former Executive Director of the New York State Democratic Party and former political strategist, Sharma Michael Singleton. He has worked on three Republican presidential campaigns and hosts serious XM's Urban View.

All right, as Stephanie Ruhle likes to say for facts sake, New York City's police budget is well over five billion dollars. So Basrel, why is DeSantis implying that they're underfunded? Yeah, well, I add to that the fact that I believe since New York's only voted for a Republican in the general election six times since the Great Depression. So what's the strategy in coming to New York? You know Staten Island is the most conservative borough. It has the most police officers and firefighters living within that borough and it's not lost on me that he was in the same borough in which a police officer killed Eric Garner. So the issue here for that, and I think the reason he comes to New York is because he wants to send a message to two constituencies. One, potential voters to say in other parts of the country that he's willing to come into big bad liberal New York and send a message to the rest of the country that he's willing to take on the woke liberals on the left. The second message is directed with that same message to donors.

Let's not forget, need a lot of money to run for president of the United States. New York doesn't necessarily factor into the primary or general election calendar, but it will help them raise money. So coming into New York I think has some benefits for him, but the message that he's sending for the rest of the state and the city will fall on deaf ears. You know, sure, Michael, Ron DeSantis likes to position himself as anti-vote. What exactly does that mean? I mean, look, it's the idea that certain opinions on certain cultural political topics have gone too far. Which ones? Any that they claim. You've even seen people like Bill Maher consider himself still to be a Democrat, often talking about this on his show.

I know some people may differ on that, but from a Republican perspective, he's sort of seeing this guy who's standing up against cultural issues about gender, cultural issues about religion, political issues about not being able to be open enough or outspoken enough on your political position without being ostracized or outcast. And within the Republican camp, that is something that registers and resonates very well. So it was seen to me, I mean, look, DeSantis has said that he has not announced a presidential campaign, right? But this looked like a campaign stop to me. I mean, look, you and I have done this for three presidential campaigns. We've both worked for presidents. We know why he's doing this, right? You know, why announce when at this point, I mean, he's under Trump, he is the guy to really beat, although Trump is still the presumptive person at this point in time. And DeSantis is untested on that floor.

He is, but I think, Simone, if I'm advising DeSantis, I need to see, does this message have resonance outside of the state, which you and I were talking about on the break? I need to see, can I articulate a strong enough message to potential donors, as Bowser pointed out, that this is someone that is palatable with those suburban voters that we know Republicans have lost because of Trump? Can they win them back? That's the only way they can mathematically regain any edge, potentially, to try to out seed Biden. And I think it's going to be a pretty tough mountain to climb. But again, to the point that you raised, Simone, I think it was really, really important. Can Ron DeSantis distinguish himself enough from Trump? I don't think he can. He's like a second version of Trump. And I don't know if people necessarily want that, but let's see how this works out. Basil, I hear you.

DeSantis has leaned very hard into the cultural wars. Now, I have noted that I think that cultural wars have been the playbook for the modern day Republican party apparatus for a while now. And that might get him traction in a primary. But do you think it's a winning message in a general election that is not in Florida? Well, first of all, I think the primary is important because that's why Donald Trump needs Mickey Haley to be on that race, because he doesn't necessarily want to go up against Ron DeSantis to make it a one-on-one fight in my view. But will it work? It has worked, to be clear, from state to state. I do think that message can resonate. If it's tied to other things, listen, you know, when we talk about the attack against AP, African-American studies and the anti-war, recognize there are over 500 bills across the country that have that same goal to sort of take African-American studies or culturally inclusive studies out of the curriculum.

So if you ask me, does it have resonance, it has resonance because we can see its impact in state houses across the country and in school districts across the country. And so the concern that I have is that even if the voters of Florida reelected and essentially rewarded him for the positions he has taken, Democrats need to create a beachhead in so many other parts of the country to prevent that same mindset from sinking in and being pervasive within the policymaking. That's really the concern that I have because if we're not careful, that will gain some traction. I mean, you said a lot there, sir. Basil, this honestly just made me think of, do we have that Marjorie Taylor Green tweet from today? Because earlier today she tweeted in favor of a quote, national divorce between red and blue states. This is an actual member of Congress calling for the dissolution of the Republic. And I think about what you just said about what is happening across the country, how Democrats are and are not reacting.

And then we get this from Marjorie Taylor Green. How are we supposed to react to things like this? Well, I would tell you the same thing that I say all the time is we have to create a culture of civic engagement with young people as early as K-12 education because we need different people elected to office. The problem is when you have folks, I mean, look, we can talk about gerrymandering and the impact of that over time, which gets you a Marjorie Taylor Green. But the reality is if there is no alternative, if Democrats don't contest in every single district and every single race across the country, a lot of these folks are just going to slip into office. Consider the fact that you've got election deniers now running Republican parties in state. And so, you know, the protection against that kind of pervasive mindset and policymaking is you can test in every race and you create a culture of civic engagement that keeps people from being cynical. And, you know, that's what we've spent my whole career fighting against.

I know you and Michael have done the same. So we just got to keep up that fight.

Stephanie Ruhle