| | | | |  | | By Gary Fineout and Kimberly Leonard | Good morning and welcome to Thursday. In the arena — The ongoing, 24-7 scrum between supporters of former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps dividing Republicans in Florida — and what happened last night could just be the peak moment so far. The latest chapter — Rep. Byron Donalds, the Naples Republican who stood on a stage with DeSantis on election night and heralded his victory last November, found himself getting pounded from Team DeSantis over the stance he took on Florida’s contentious new African American history standards. That prompted pushback from Donalds and a furious response from Team Trump defending the congressman who previously endorsed Trump over DeSantis. Let’s walk through this — The new standards have created an outcry, including from Vice President Kamala Harris, primarily due to the portion that requires middle schoolers to be instructed that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” What the congressman added — Donalds, in a post on social media, called the standards “good, robust & accurate.” But … Donalds — a Black Republican who has railed against critical race theory — added that the “attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn't the goal & I have faith that (the Florida Department of Education) will correct this.” The reaction — This opinion did not sit well with DeSantis backers who proceeded to tear into Donalds, suggesting he was just trying to tear down the governor to help Trump. Christina Pushaw, who works on the DeSantis presidential campaign, responded tersely “Did Kamala Harris write this tweet?” Never Back Down, the super PAC, tweeted out a meme suggesting the Trump campaign and Harris were working in concert to attack DeSantis. And still more — But those in the DeSantis administration — including the governor’s press secretary — and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. also blasted Donalds. Diaz said the standards would not be changed “at the behest of a woke @WhiteHouse, nor at the behest of a supposedly conservative congressman.” The reply — By evening Donalds responded with another tweet that said “what’s crazy to me is I expressed support for the vast majority of the new African American history standards and happened to oppose one sentence that seemed to dignify the skills gained by slaves as a result of their enslavement. Anyone who can't accurately interpret what I said is disingenuous and is desperately attempting to score political points.” Point of emphasis — And he added this — “Just another reason why l'm proud to have endorsed President Donald J. Trump!” And then there’s this — Jason Miller, a senior adviser with the Trump campaign,added his own pointed rejoinder by calling Donalds a “conservative hero” who ‘calls it like he sees it.” “For the OFFICIAL office of the Governor and (what’s left of) Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign to smear Congressman Donalds like this is a disgrace — and it’s indicative of why DeSantis has plummeted faster than any presidential candidate in history.” Oh, and Miller called on DeSantis to get out of the race. — WHERE'S RON? — Gov. DeSantis is kicking off a two-day bus tour with the Never Back Down PAC. Today he’s doing a meet-and-greet in Chariton, Iowa, then he’s heading to a town hall in Osceola. Just the News will also air an interview DeSantis did with John Solomon. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch: kleonard@politico.com. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | |  | CAMPAIGN MODE | |
$1 MILLION — That’s how much Democrats are getting ready to spend on a Florida voter outreach initiative through the end of the year, the Miami Herald was first to report. “The tour and voter registration push is set to launch next Wednesday with an event in Orlando. But the initiative will also focus heavily on South Florida, most notably in Miami-Dade County, where Democrats are scrambling to bounce back from a series of high-profile losses in 2022.”
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before — Democrats of course have previously promised efforts to overcome the ever-widening voter registration gap with Republicans. (The GOP now has a nearly 542,000 lead among active voters.) Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told Florida Playbook the main difference is that this effort will be done in-house instead of “farming it out” to other groups. The party is also handing out grants to county parties that will also help with the effort while FDP staff will do it in other counties.. She said “we are tailoring the program to be county specific.” — “While DeSantis struggles with his run for president, who's next for Florida governor?” by USA Today Network-Florida's John Kennedy HALEY DIG — The former South Carolina governor and 2024 presidential candidate subtly piled onto DeSantis in a tweet last night that drew attention to DeSantis' private jet use. She told a story about nearly missing her flight at the airport and added the hashtag "#Weflycommercial." | | | DESANTISLAND | | |
— “Some Utah Republicans endorsing DeSantis speak out about Florida slavery standards,” by KSL NewsRadio’s Lindsay Aerts
PUSHING BACK — Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for the governor, dug up a copy of the framework for the AP African American history course, which Florida rejected under intense criticism a few months ago, and pointed to a section that reads similar to the language of the standards developed in Florida, the one that's now at the center of the latest firestorm. "In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South," said the section he highlighted online. "Once free, American Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others." ‘NAUGHTY THINGS’ — Get ready for cuts in funding to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, Chair Martin Garcia said during Wednesday’s board meeting. On the chopping block is $8 million the district spends annually for off-duty law enforcement provided exclusively to Walt Disney World properties. “That doesn’t make any sense to me and it doesn’t make any sense to anybody on our team that’s looked at it,” Garcia said. DEFUND THE POLICE? The proposed cuts come from Glen Gilzean, the district’s administrator, Garcia said. He thanked Gilzean for putting “egg on my face” by “finding that wasteful spending.” That’s just the beginning. “As we are doing more work it appears there are a number of naughty things this old board did with district funds, and we are going to look for further savings,” Garcia said. Another meeting to watch today: At 8:30 a.m. EST, councils for the City of Bay Lake and the City of Lake Buena Vista will be meeting to vote to raise the property tax rate. — “Disney rejects Ron DeSantis’ desire to kill retaliation suit; ‘The governor seeks to evade responsibility for his actions,’ Mouse House says,” by Deadline’s Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson | 
Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivers remarks at the 2023 Christians United for Israel summit on July 17, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images |
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD — “DeSantis to attend fundraiser on Cape Cod, near site of migrant flight, by POLITICO’s Lisa Kashinsky and Kimberly Leonard: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to attend a fundraiser for his presidential campaign on Saturday on Cape Cod, where the migrants he had flown to Martha’s Vineyard last year were voluntarily taken to receive services on a military base. DeSantis is due to hobnob with deep-pocketed donors in Cotuit, Mass., just 10 miles from Joint Base Cape Cod, where the 49 migrants were given shelter and access to free legal services.
MAKING TRANSITION PLANS? — DeSantis suggests he could pick RFK Jr. to lead the FDA or CDC, by POLITICO’s Andrew Zhang: Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might have an offer to run a federal agency in 2025 — but not for the party he is running to gain the nomination from. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is struggling to gain steam in the GOP primary, mused on Wednesday in an interview with Clay Travis on OutKick that he generally aligns with Kennedy’s conservative views on Covid-19 policies and vaccines. Those views, DeSantis indicated, could make him a pick to lead a federal agency with medical jurisdiction. NEW YORK STATE OF MIND — ”Ron DeSantis’ Hamptons fundraiser flops — while RFK Jr., Trump rake it in,” by New York Post’s Lydia Moynihan: “Ron DeSantis scrapped two Hamptons fundraisers last weekend due to a lack of interest — while rival Donald Trump and upstart candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raked in massive piles of cash … ‘This weekend broke DeSantis’ campaign,’ one political fundraiser said.” YOU’RE FIRED — “Ron DeSantis drops a prominent ‘wartime conservative’ from the campaign,” by Semafor’s David Weigel: “Will Chamberlain, a prominent conservative figure who co-published Human Events, was among the 38 staffers let go by the DeSantis camp in recent weeks … In March 2019, Chamberlain bought Human Events, a once-influential conservative magazine that had struggled for relevance online. As publisher and editor, he pushed it in a populist, pro-Trump direction, adding influencer Jack Posobiec as a podcaster and senior editor.” — “Ron DeSantis changes his story about watching the Jaguars come back versus the Chargers,” by Florida Politics’ A.G. Gancarski — “A rebooted DeSantis campaign sticks to familiar themes,” by USA Today’s John Kennedy — “Ron DeSantis on being Donald Trump’s VP: ‘Would you take it?’” by Florida Politics’ A.G. Gancarski
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | TRUMPLANDIA AND THE SWAMP | |
‘TOO MUCH POLITICAL BAGGAGE’ — “Republican attacks ads in Iowa show conservative voters who turned on Trump,” by The New York Times’ Lisa Lerer: “A Republican group that opposes Donald J. Trump is unveiling an advertising campaign featuring voters who supported him in the past two presidential elections but have now turned against him, in an effort to put questions of electability at the center of the G.O.P. primary race. The group, the Republican Accountability Project, is spending $1.5 million on ads in Iowa to try to persuade likely Trump voters that the former president would struggle to win the 2024 general election.”
— “The very private life of Melania Trump,” by The New York Times’ Lisa Lerer and Katie Rogers | | DATELINE D.C. | |
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE — “Matt Gaetz says photo of UFO ‘orb’ not of ‘human capability’ taken by Eglin Air Force Base,” by Pensacola News Journal’s Jim Little: “U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz asked a House Oversight subcommittee to subpoena radar data and images from a UFO encounter with U.S. Air Force pilots off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. Gaetz said from the images he saw of the object, he was ‘not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries.’ The comments came during a House Oversight subcommittee Wednesday as it heard testimony on UAPs or 'unidentified anomalous phenomena,' the U.S. government’s preferred term for what is more popularly known as unidentified flying objects or UFOs.”
— Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson is hosting a briefing at 3 p.m. EST with medical experts about addressing health disparities among Black men. — “FL’s local and state officials call on President Biden to prevent new offshore drilling leases,” by Florida Phoenix’s Mitch Perry — Reps. Frost, Gomez introduce bill to help renters, by POLITICO’s Mia McCarthy | | PENINSULA AND BEYOND | |
ON THE CALENDAR — “Town hall to discuss Florida’s new Black history standards coming to Miami Gardens,” by Miami Herald’s C. Isaiah Smalls II: “Pastor Arthur Jackson was hesitant. The thought of hosting a town hall that could possibly turn into a platform to peddle the same problematic rhetoric about African American history was very concerning. Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz will potentially be in attendance, something that might upset his congregation. Then the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church pastor realized the opportunity before him. ‘There are some who don’t want him there,’ Jackson said, ‘but you can’t fix what you can’t face.’”
EXPLAINER — “‘Permanent’ alimony no longer exists in Florida. Understanding the state’s new law on divorce payments,” by the Sun-Sentinel’s Rafael Olmeda: “The law, which went into effect July 1, restricts the ability of women (and sometimes men) to collect alimony for the rest of their lives for marriages that ended after July 1." — “Miami-Dade police chief shot himself after offering resignation, mayor says,” by Associated Press' Freida Frisaro — “Surfside mayor, families clash over memorial ‘special favor’ to Champlain site developer,” by Miami Herald’s Catherine Odom — “Oldest Black fraternity pulls 2025 convention out of Florida citing 'hostile' policies,” by Tallahassee Democrat’s Ana Goñi-Lessan — Environmentalists mount challenge to new DEP springs cleanup plan after court win, by POLITICO’s Bruce Ritchie — “Failed Miami-Dade commission candidate faces long list of campaign-finance charges,” by Miami Herald’s Grethel Aguila | | ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN | |
BIRTHDAYS: Retired Admiral Craig Faller, former commander of U.S. Southern Command … Journalist Eric J. Lyman
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