by MATT MARGOLIS
Following President Trump’s prediction on Saturday that he would be arrested this coming Tuesday, his allies in the media and politics wasted no time in publicly pressuring Gov. DeSantis to denounce the law enforcement officials in New York. Predictably, they portrayed DeSantis’s so-called silence on the matter as nearly traitorous.
Jason Miller, a former senior adviser to Trump, blasted both DeSantis (a potential GOP candidate for president) and Nikki Haley, a current GOP candidate for president, for their silence on the issue. The Trump campaign’s “War Room” account similarly criticized “some individuals” for not speaking out, claiming, “Their silence will be judged by history.”
Much of the story about Trump’s potential indictment has been driven by rumor, leaks, and innuendo, while the facts have been, well, less than plentiful. That said, on Monday morning, a reporter asked DeSantis to respond to the reports of Trump’s potential indictment and what involvement he may have in possibly extraditing Trump to New York.
DeSantis handled the question masterfully, blasting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for being a Soros-funded DA who is committed to a political agenda, not the rule of law.
“So, I’ve seen rumors swirl. I have not seen any facts yet, and so I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do know this,” DeSantis began. “The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor. And so, he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors — they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety.”
DeSantis then attacked Bragg’s record, noting that he’s “downgraded over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors” and that he “doesn’t want to even have jail time for the vast, vast majority of crimes.”
Bragg’s soft-on-crime approach, DeSantis reckoned, has resulted in the crime rate in Manhattan skyrocketing.
Regarding the details of the Trump case, namely, the alleged hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, DeSantis said he couldn’t speak to that. But he continued to criticize Bragg’s politicizing his office to target Trump.
“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.”
DeSantis pointed out that the problem isn’t just Bragg; all Soros-funded district attorneys are following the playbook. “They ignore crime and they empower criminals, and that hurts people, hurts a lot of people every single day,” DeSantis said before calling these district attorneys “a menace to society.”