Biden faces the Florida Republicans
Ability to work together put to test after several state GOP members objected to president’s win
President Biden called for unity at his inauguration Wednesday, but working with the Republican leaders of Florida is likely to put that desire to the test.
Twelve of 16 GOP U.S. House members and a U.S. senator voted to object to his victory, and the Republican governor who was one of President Donald Trump’s closest acolytes suggested the results be overturned.
Many state GOP leaders have only grudgingly acknowledged the fact of his presidency. The few who have pledged to work with him have paired their olive branches with criticism about his agenda.
“Biden will be able to work with them to the degree that they are willing to work on anything with him,” Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. “And
I don’t know that most congressional Republicans in Florida are going to be willing.’’
Trump lost reelection and faces an upcoming second impeachment trial on the charge of inciting a mob’s attack on the Capitol.
“Trump is still a force within Republican politics, and maybe even more so in Florida than other states since he’s decided to make Florida his home,” Jewett said. “So Republicans in Congress will always be looking over their shoulder to make sure they have not offended President Trump or his supporters, for fear they might face a challenge in a Republican primary.”
Republican House members across Central Florida, including U.S. Reps. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, Daniel Webster, R-Clermont, and Scott Franklin, R-Lakeland, were asked if they would work with Biden, acknowledge his win and push back on conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the false allegation that Antifa or other left-wing groups were behind the Capitol assault.
Only U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-St. Augustine Beach, answered. Waltz was not one of the 12 Florida Republican House members who voted to overturn the results in one or more states, having changed his mind after the Capitol riot.
“I’ll work with the Biden administration on any issue that advances the needs of Floridians in my district and the nation,” Waltz said in an email. “Especially as it relates
to reopening our economy safely, improving COVID19 vaccination distribution, holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable, sustaining the environment through sensible policies, and advancing our space exploration programs.”
But, he added, “I object to the litany of progressive priorities including the Green New Deal, amnesty, socialized health care, and decreasing funding for our military “
Waltz said he acknowledged Biden’s victory as legitimate, saying that while he believes there were “constitutional issues regarding states and courts changing election laws shortly before Election Day … the 2020 election has been certified and Joe Biden is our president for the next four years.”
Waltz added he had “no patience for extremists on either end of the political spectrum that promote or condone violence,” and said there had been no law enforcement or intelligence reports indicating left-wing groups had anything to do with the Jan. 6 riot.
The same questions were asked of Florida’s two Republican senators.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s office responded with recent quotes from Rubio, including a letter he sent to Biden last week.
“Although I will disagree with your administration frequently over the next four years, I am committed to working in good faith to advance critically important and effective policies on behalf of the people of this great nation,” Rubio wrote.
In a Senate floor speech Wednesday, however, Rubio said “pursuing a radical agenda in a divided country will not contribute to unity. It’s cynicism that destroys trust.”
“Demanding that the other side agree to all of your demands isn’t unity,” Rubio said. “It’s the arrogance of believing only those who agree with us are good and anyone who disagrees is not just wrong, but actually are evil.”
Rubio did, however, praise Biden’s decision to invoke the Defense Production Act to speed up the manufacture of vaccination and testing supplies and personal protective equipment.
Rubio, one of the first Republican senators to refer to Biden as “president-elect” in November, did not object to Biden’s win on Jan. 6.
His office cited his Martin Luther King Day message that “we cannot allow the most insidious actors — white supremacists, armed militia groups, and dangerous, conspiracy-driven groups like QAnon — to determine America’s future.”
He also told Fox News that QAnon believers, white supremacists and members of the right-wing group Proud Boys were involved in the Capitol riot. But he also has compared the attack with Black Lives Matter protests last year, by calling Democrats hypocrites for not condemning the violence that occurred at some of the BLM demonstrations.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was one of eight Republican Senators who objected to Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6.
His office did not respond to the questions. He issued only a brief statement congratulating Biden on his inaugural before quickly moving on Twitter to criticize his administration’s decision to add “West Bank and Gaza” to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel’s title.
M o r e c r i t i c i s m followed, including tweets that “Biden is throwing the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement [on climate change] just to appease his liberal friends,” and that “Democrats, the media and Big Tech are trying to use the events of Jan. 6th to go after all Republicans and all Trump supporters and silence dissenting views.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP Senate fundraising arm that Scott chairs, also had harsh criticism of Biden on Wednesday.
Biden’s immigration proposal, said spokesman Chris Hartline, a former longtime Scott staffer, “would give amnesty to eleven million illegal immigrants with no effort whatsoever to secure the border.”
“The result, as anyone with a brain knows, would be open borders and a permanent cycle of illegal immigration and amnesty that would hurt hard-working Americans and the millions of legal immigrants working their way through the legal immigration process,” Hartline said.
In Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis was one of the first in the nation to suggest overturning election results in Pennsylvania, which was blasted as radical at the time but soon became the norm for Republican Congress members.
In one of his few comments about Biden’s win, which he would not acknowledge for weeks, DeSantis decried the access to the White House he would soon lose.
“I may not be a phone call away from getting everything done soon,” DeSantis said on Dec. 15. “It’s unfortunate, I think, for Florida.”
Even before Biden took office, he did not lose time in slamming the Biden administration’s plan for FEMA to help distribute coronavirus vaccines.
“This stuff Biden’s putting out, that he’s going to create these FEMA camps, I can tell you that’s not necessary in Florida,” he said at a news conference in Cape Coral on Tuesday. “To try and reinvent the wheel at this point I think would be a big mistake.”
Asked about the election results on Friday, DeSantis twice said that while he was disappointed, “We’ve got to stay in the fight.” He also again questioned results in other states, calling their electoral process “shenanigans.”
DeSantis’s office did not return repeated requests for comment.
In the end, Jewett said, “occasionally, if there’s something that’s actually a Republican priority, or something that’s specifically helped Florida, then I’m sure that they can find some bipartisanship. You couldn’t find too many times Democrats voted for anything that Trump did, but there were a few, and the same thing with Barack Obama before that.”
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Winter Park, for example, was named to Trump’s COVID-19 recovery panel even after voting to impeach him.
“Not every bill is partisan and controversial,” Jewett said.