Some in GOP worry DeSantis has overstepped against ‘wokeness’

This morning, Florida Governor Rhonda Santis is in New York where he spoke at a rally there supporting law enforcement. We support strong policies to keep our communities safe and we back the blue and we support their mission and we back it up with money and all kinds of stuff to be able to do it. 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 as New Yorkers or as people from Illinois or wherever you have this type of policy taking place. Well US police and NYPD do say that they need better gun safety measures as well to fight crime. The governor has not announced that he is running for president. He seemed to be courting however New York voters this morning. His visit comes as some conservatives were concerned about how does Santis is using his government powder in Florida in his fight against what he calls their wokeness.

Celent Steve Conturno joins us now. Steve what specifically are Republican leaders worried about? Jim, there are a couple factors at play here. First is you have conservative donors and organizations that generally believe that government shouldn't be in the business of businesses and that some of the steps taken by Governor Santis have inflicted his conservative ideology on state institutions, on businesses and sometimes even punishing businesses that run afoul of his point of view. We've seen obviously that has played out publicly in his fight with Disney over the so-called don't say gay bill but we've also seen him punish businesses for their vaccination and mask policies. We've seen him put restrictions on how businesses can train their employees around issues of racism. We've seen him now say he wants to go after banks that lend in ways that he doesn't agree with. So there's that part of it but there's also Republicans including his supporters who are worried that he might be flying a little bit too close to the sun with his war on wokeness.

This most recent spat with the college board over this AP African American studies class. He is now talking about potentially pulling AP classes out of Florida entirely, finding alternatives to the SAT. These are things that parents around the country use to help their students get into good colleges to save a bit of money on their higher education. And there are concerns that they don't know how this is going to play out nationally when he starts campaigning in a national campaign. And what we're seeing is Republican candidates starting to seize on this a bit, especially those who are starting to want to turn the page from these Trump era politics. We've seen Governor Sununu of New Hampshire, former Governor Hogan of Maryland, Governor Hutchinson of Arkansas. They have all raised concern with how DeSantis has been so heavy handed with businesses.

Now Jim, Governor DeSantis remains very popular in Florida. He's growing popularity across the country. He has quite a bit of support among those who want to see him challenge President Donald Trump. But these are the questions he is going to face from Republican voters and from his potential competitors if he does jump into that race. Steve Contorno, thanks so much. Joining us now, Molly Ball, a national political correspondent for Time Magazine. So Molly, the conventional wisdom, which I generally hate, had been to some degree that DeSantis was the kind of anti-Trump candidate, someone who could get the MAGA voters to back him but not be Trump, in effect.

You would hear that from some Republicans. But to hear some conservatives now concern that DeSantis' positions in Florida might be too out there, what are we seeing within the Republican Party right now? Well, I think a lot of it is that without an official candidacy by DeSantis, a lot of this is just filling a vacuum with sort of speculation and rumor. Look, a lot of the things that Republican voters really like about Governor DeSantis are the similarities with Trump. Chiefly, his willingness to use the force of the state, state coercion in some cases, to punish businesses and to enforce the sort of culture war initiatives that he has his eye on. And so that is, I think, viewed as a strength by many of DeSantis' fans. And it is a sort of similarity with Trump. He's been able to, and I think this is also a sign of how the Republican Party has sort of realigned itself ideologically around the Trump axis since Trump first became a candidate now nearly a decade ago.

His concerns about the size and scope of government and the sort of ideological libertarianism that used to underlie a lot of Republican doctrine is really not as much on people's minds as it used to be. And so a lot of the candidates who are more overtly against the sort of legacy that Trump has left in the party are of course going to object to that. But I think that is one of the things that for many Republican base voters is a strength for DeSantis. Yeah, interesting you noted, it is eight years since that ride down the escalator for Trump. I want to play something that Nikki Haley, of course, has already announced her candidacy for 2024 said during her travels through Iowa this week regarding Social Security and Medicare. Have a listen, I want to get your reaction. There is an issue of entitlements and I think that we do have to address entitlements.

However, I don't think we take away from anyone that we've promised things to. I think we focus on the new generation coming into the system because they already know they're not going to get anything from it. And we need to get in front of that. And that means you go and you look at the new ones coming in and you keep your promises to those that have already been in the system. I listen to that. That sounds a lot to me like saying, OK, you're already receiving Medicare so skewered, you won't be touched. But the promise to those of us who are paying right now may not be kept, right? I mean, that sounds to me like entitlements are on the table.

And this is a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024. Well, and again, I feel like I'm having flashbacks to 2015, right? I mean, this is exactly sort of the Paul Ryan line of the old Republican Party, which was very determined to enact some sort of entitlement reform. And it is still the case that a lot of Fitzgultonservatives, party donors, sort of old school Republican types do believe that the spending on these programs is unsustainable and there does have to be some reform. And it has always been the case that these sort of plans to reform entitlements for the most part have targeted future beneficiaries, not current beneficiaries who are already receiving or who are potentially about to receive these benefits. But it is obviously something that Trump has made a litmus test for the party and has made a dividing line in the party and that we have seen become a source of tension in the party between, for example, Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott. Because these entitlement programs are incredibly, incredibly popular, you know, 80, 90 percent of voters do not want to see any changes to Social Security. They're just viewed as a guarantee and something that many Americans feel like they've earned.

So, you know, that was a big part of Trump's success in 2016. And I think it's something that, again, the party has sort of realigned itself around to the point where it's become, well, it's always been sort of a third rail and it's become something that is seen as sort of untouchable. So this is going to be, I think, a live debate in the party in the primaries this year. Yeah, they're not describing it as untouchable. And by the way, we're all paying into it now, right? Just watch your paycheck every two weeks. Those contributions still go in wherever the discussion is. Molly Ball, thanks so much.

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