Florida Governor Ron Desantis is continuing his middle path approach in staying out of the muckraking scrum when it comes to former president Donald J. Trump; even as Trump appears to be on the ropes with a potential arrest coming down the pipeline, tied to former porn star, and thorn in Trump’s side, Stormy Daniels.
Although details are scant, the potential indictment is related to an alleged payment to Stormy Daniels, by Donald Trump, in return for her silence on an extramarital affair between the two.
In a press conference on Monday, in Panama City, Florida, Desantis maintained his recent approach to Trump’s woes and public insults: stick to the issues. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” DeSantis quipped during the conference. “I just, I can’t speak to that.”
And, indeed, Desantis cannot speak to these issues, and many more, facing the former president turned political rival. In recent months, Trump has taken to the campaign trail to slowly rally his constituents for a second run at the Oval Office. In this time, swipes at Desantis have come from Trump’s side, needling at numerous real or perceived weak points in potential threat to his reelection; hoping to diminish the star power of the quickly growing GOP darling, who has yet to declare for the presidency in the next election.
Meanwhile, Desantis has chosen to point to his record as governor; and declined to trade barbs.
In Monday’s conference, Desantis promised not to interfere in the legal process in any way, referring to his ability to interfere in the extradition of Donald Trump from Florida to New York City if he were to be indicted.
However, Desantis took more liberties in addressing the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, insinuating ulterior motives behind the nearly decade-long investigation:
“If you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, you know, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office, and I think that that’s fundamentally wrong”.
Law enforcement has erected barricades, and increased security measures, in Manhattan, ahead of the potential public unrest should an indictment be handed down.
