Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) mocked House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) after the Democrat warned of “maximum warfare” if Florida Republicans opt to move forward with redistricting plans.
Doing an impression of Jeffries’ threats, DeSantis mocked, “‘We gonna do maximum warfare against Republicans. Florida Republicans, you f around, you going to find out.’ All this stuff. And you know what I said was, listen, and he’s like, oh, if you do the redistricting, we’re going to take out all your members. We’re going to do all this stuff.”
“And what I said was, go ahead, make my day,” the Florida governor said.
“You want to come down here and spend money and in Florida? Roll the dice and take your chances, but don’t think that you can come down here, issue threats to us, and somehow you’re going to make us flinch,” he said.
“That is not happening. And in fact, it did not happen, because as soon as he came out and started doing that last week, Florida legislature turned around and they passed a new map,” DeSantis pointed out.
WATCH:
The Florida legislature this week approved a new congressional map offered by DeSantis, which would likely result in a 4-seat pickup for Republicans in the Sunshine State, bringing the GOP congressional delegation in Florida from 20 representatives to 24.
DeSantis said the proposed map “more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today.”
As for Jeffries, he issued his warning to Florida Republicans last week in the wake of Virginia voting to approve a plan that would grant Democrats four additional U.S. House Seats.
“If Florida Republicans proceed with this illegal scheme, they will only create more prime pick-up opportunities for Democrats, just as they did with Trump’s dummymander in Texas,” Jeffries stated, listing out the Florida Republicans Democrats would plan to “aggressively” target.
“We will aggressively target for defeat Mario Díaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, Kat Cammack, Anna Paulina Luna, Laurel Lee, Cory Mills and Brian Mast. We are prepared to take them all on, and we are prepared to win.” Jeffries said, previewing “maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”
While historically a swing state, Florida has cemented itself as a solid Republican state in recent years as Republican registered voters far outnumber Democrats, formally overtaking them for the first time in 2021. Even historically blue Miami-Dade County turned red for the first time in 30 years in the last presidential election cycle.
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