MSG blowback hits Florida

Presented by Uber: Kimberly Leonard's must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the Sunshine State

Oct 29, 2024 View in browser   By Kimberly Leonard and Kierra Frazier Presented by  Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe speaks before former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. | Evan Vucci/AP Good morning and welcome to Tuesday. Election Day is in one week. Florida’s political world is ablaze after pro-Donald Trump comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” on Sunday during an insulting comedy set at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York. Several Florida Republicans are incensed by Hinchcliffe’s remarks. Rep. María Elvira Salazar called them racist and said she was “disgusted.” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart praised the island territory as “integral to our country’s success.” And Rep. Carlos Gimenez called the set “completely classless and in poor taste.” Florida is home to roughly 1.2 million people of Puerto Rican heritage. While many Florida Hispanics have trended toward Republicans, Puerto Ricans tend to favor Democrats. A Mason-Dixon poll published this month found Puerto Ricans in Florida support Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump by 58 percent to 33 percent, even as Florida Latinos overall break for Trump. Democrats quickly tried to capitalize on the Sunday's comments , saying the former president had a history of incendiary remarks. Rep. Darren Soto, who’s of Puerto Rican descent, said on a call with reporters Monday that Hinchcliffe’s comments had gone “viral across our community in a matter of minutes.” He encouraged Puerto Rican voters in Florida to respond through voting to show their “electoral might.” And Democratic state Sen.-elect Carlos Guillermo Smith called the outcry from Republicans “too little, too late,” in a statement to Playbook, accusing the GOP of endorsing “Trump’s extreme policies and rhetoric.” Some GOP lawmakers disagreed with the rhetoric but thought the backlash was disproportionate. GOP Rep. Byron Donalds told POLITICO’s Brakkton Booker that much of the news coverage had focused on the comedian versus what Trump himself said at the rally. “Democrats are race baiting because they know they're losing,” Donalds said. “If you're going to follow a comic to now decide what your vote is going to be, I think that's misplaced.” Rep. Matt Gaetz dismissed the matter as a joke while other Republicans said policy issues were more important. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, the lone incumbent in a tight reelection race, accused Democrats of being more offended by a “comedian making a bad joke” than over immigration issues, including the fact that the federal government failed to adequately monitor the whereabouts of migrant children. GOP Sen. Marco Rubio said on X that he understood why people were offended but “Harris destroyed our economy and allowed dangerous criminals to illegally enter our country and terrorize, rape and murder Americans.” Sen. Rick Scott was among the first Republicans to condemn the joke as “not funny and not true.” The senator, who is up for reelection, has long courted the Hispanic vote and campaign senior adviser Chris Hartline said “Scott has been a friend and ally [to the Puerto Rican community] throughout his time in office.” Scott had also publicly disagreed with Trump in 2018 when the then-president falsely accused Democrats in Puerto Rico of inflating the death toll from Hurricane Maria to damage him. The storm was a long-lasting crisis for the island territory, where power took almost a year to be restored in some areas. Scott said he’d surveyed the devastation numerous times. Still, Scott’s early rebuke didn’t stop Florida Democrats from highlighting the comedian’s comments. And the Harris campaign launched a new TV ad blasting Trump’s handling of the recovery from Hurricane Maria when he was president. “The only thing that is trash — I want to say to Rick Scott and Donald Trump — is these extremists’ lack of leadership in the Senate and the current Republican extreme MAGA party's refusal to stand up for the Puerto Rican people,” Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell sad in Monday’s call with reporters. Democrats are hosting another press conference on the issue today in Orange County that will include Mucarsel-Powell, Soto and Rep. Maxwell Frost. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget in the campaign reporting that Playbook should look at? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com.   A message from Uber: Thank You, Florida Uber Drivers For stepping up during Hurricanes Milton and Helene by helping thousands of Floridians get to shelters and support centers. Your efforts helped keep our communities safe. Learn how Uber drivers stepped up.   ... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ... SOCIAL MEDIA BAN — “Tech giants sue Florida over law blocking kids from social media,” reports POLITICO’s Andrew Atterbury . “According to [trade associations for major tech companies], Florida’s efforts to police social media use for minors are restricting their ‘constitutionally protected speech on some of the most popular online services.’ In pushing to have the law shut down, the groups contend that states like Florida are cutting children off from ‘access to valuable sources for speaking and listening, learning about current events.’” AGREEMENT SET — “Seminole Tribe settles legal challenges to online sports gambling exclusivity in Florida,” reports The Associated Press . “The Seminole Tribe of Florida and a group of businesses that operate racetracks and poker rooms have settled a yearslong legal dispute over whether the Seminole Tribe should have exclusive rights to online sports betting in Florida, the tribe announced Monday. The Seminole Tribe, along with West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., have entered into a comprehensive agreement where the companies have agreed to end litigation against the tribe’s gaming operations and instead will begin a new partnership to offer Jai Alai waging on the tribe’s Hard Rock Bet app. PENINSULA AND BEYOND TO OPT-IN OR OPT-OUT — Orange County to consider opting out of Florida’s Live Local Act,” reports Central Florida Public Media’s Lillian Hernández Caraballo. “One provision of the law gives jurisdictions a way out — if municipalities can show they already offer enough affordable housing or have a surplus of affordable housing for the people who need it, they don’t have to participate.”   A message from Uber:   ...HURRICANE HOLE... BILL DUE — “Cost of back-to-back hurricanes now exceeds $4B in Florida,” by Florida Politics’ Drew Dixon . “The [Office of Insurance Regulation] website that tracks Catastrophic Claims Data and Reporting shows the mounting estimated cost of the back-to-back storms that slammed the state within two weeks of each other has now climbed to $4.285 billion combined. OIR uses the Insurance Regulation Filing System to compile estimates and dollar costs for lost property and other factors.” TROPICAL STORM PATTY — “Hurricane center ups odds Caribbean system will develop,” reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Richard Tribou. “The hurricane center gives it a 40 percent chance to develop in the next seven days. If it were to gain enough steam it could become Tropical Storm Patty.” FOUR-FIFTHS OF FLORIDA — “Hurricanes and Florida’s messy insurance market,” reports Bloomberg’s Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal . “‘So, insurance companies are getting sued in Florida more than anywhere else in the country. Let me give you a statistic here,’ said Jerry Theodorou, policy director of finance, insurance and trade at R Street Institute. ‘Florida has got about 8 percent of the country's population. So, it's got about 8 percent of the homes and the homeowner insurance policies in the country. But it has 78 percent of the homeowner's litigation. So, the state of Florida alone has got four-fifths of the entire country's litigation.’” CAMPAIGN MODE Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. | Mike Stewart/AP CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP — The Trump campaign will hold its Election Night party at the Palm Beach Convention Center … Former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks this morning from Mar-a-Lago … GOP Sen. Rick Scott will be at a Get Out the Vote rally in Ormond Beach and Daytona, and then on Laura Loomer’s podcast … Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is campaigning in Orlando and Gainesville and has two new TV ads out attacking Scott on the issues of abortion rights and property insurance. TURNING RED — “Florida stopped being a swing state slowly, then all at once,” by The New York Times’ Patricia Mazzei. “Florida’s days as a presidential battleground are bygone. No longer do candidates drop in every few days during campaign season. No longer do voters get bombarded with their ads. Nor is there more than a whisper of doubt that the state will vote Republican. Presidential elections in Florida used to be decided by the slimmest of margins — none slimmer than the 537 votes that, after an infamous recount, won George W. Bush the White House in 2000. Republicans and Democrats waged fierce campaigns during the two decades that followed as Florida, rich in electoral votes, became the largest swing state. In the past four years, the Florida Democratic Party has withered and struggled to rebuild. Democrats have lost their edge in registered voters and are now outnumbered by more than one million Republicans. They have not won a statewide seat since 2018. National fund-raising has all but dried up.” HARRIS P.R. PITCH — Vice President Kamala Harris promised if elected president that she would launch a “Puerto Rico Opportunity Economy Task Force ,” which includes proposals like making the electric grid more resilient against storms and extending tax credits to pay for energy-efficient appliances and electric vehicles. The initiative would be overseen by a senior presidential appointee. SHAPING SWING STATES — “Americans in Puerto Rico can’t vote for U.S. president. Their anger at Trump is shaping the race,” by The Associated Press’ Dánica Coto . “Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but they can exert a powerful influence with relatives on the mainland. Phones across the island of 3.2 million people were ringing minutes after the speaker derided the U.S. territory Sunday night, and they still buzzed Monday.” POLITICO reporter Jessica Piper also did a story laying out how many people of Puerto Rican heritage live in swing states. LGBTQ+ REPRESENTATION — “Trans candidates demand their seat at the table in the Florida legislature,” reports Jacob Ogles for the Advocate . “Trans woman Ashley Brundage and trans man Nathan Bruemmer, both Democrats, are taking on Republican incumbents in the Tampa Bay area. Meanwhile, trans woman Vance Ahrens, also a Democrat, will challenge one of the greatest sources of anti-transgender rhetoric in the state, running against Florida Rep. Randy Fine for an open seat in the Florida Senate. … The hope is that the next time the Florida legislature convenes and considers taking rights away from transgender Floridians, lawmakers will have to do so with a transgender member on the floor for any vote.” CAMPAIGNING FOR OLD JOB — “Did DeSantis get it right? Orange-Osceola state attorney candidates make final Election Day pitches,” reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Cristóbal Reyes . “[Former Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique] Worrell’s suspension, which was upheld by the Florida Supreme Court, made her one of two progressives seeking to get jobs back as their region’s chief prosecutor. The other is in Hillsborough County, where State Attorney Andrew Warren also was suspended by the governor and is running against his appointed replacement — and questions remain over whether either will again be suspended by DeSantis should they win.” ON AMENDMENT 4 — “Will Latinos be the decisive vote on abortion access in Florida?” by WLRN’s Jimena Romero. “Supporters are looking for a swing vote — and that bloc is likely Latinos. While some might associate Latinos with the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion, a new AP poll shows 67 percent of Latinos oppose abortion bans.” — “Ron DeSantis expects majority to support abortion rights and recreational pot, but predicts amendments won’t pass,” reports Florida Politics’ A.G. Gancarski. ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN BIRTHDAYS: Former Sen. Connie Mack … state Rep. Melony Bell … Kristen Bridges, communications director for GrayRobinson.   A message from Uber: Thank You, Florida Uber Drivers In the face of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, Uber drivers gave Floridians rides to shelters and support centers. We thank the thousands of Uber drivers who went above and beyond, ensuring that during a time of crisis, no one was left behind. Your dedication made a difference when it mattered most. Learn how Uber drivers stepped up.     Follow us on Twitter Kimberly Leonard @leonardkl   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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