RESPONDING TO A QUESTION ABOUT TRUMP'S IMMINENT ARREST, DeSANTIS SAYS "SOROS" SIX TIMES BUT NEVER SAYS "TRUMP"

Under pressure from Donald Trump's campaign to speak out on Trump's imminent arrest, Ron DeSantis took a question on the subject from the very DeSantis-friendly Florida Standard at a news conference today. In his response, he spoke for three minutes and two seconds, received two ovations (!), and never uttered the name "Trump" -- while invoking George Soros six times:



The answer begins:

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: 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 goes on to say:

I also think it's important to point out, when you're talkng about these Soros-funded prosecutors, yes, they may do a high-profile politicized prosecution, and that's bad, but the real victims are ordinary New Yorkers, ordinary Americans in all these different jurisdictions, that they get vicitimized every day because of the reckless political agenda that these Soros DAs bring to their job.

In fact, as Ronald Brownstein noted in The Atlantic last fall, research shows that "homicides over recent years increased less rapidly in cities with progressive prosecutors than in those with more traditional district attorneys." Also, "per capita murder rates in 2020 were 40 percent higher in states that voted for Donald Trump than in those that voted for President Joe Biden," and "eight of the 10 states with the highest per capita murder rates in 2020 have voted Republican in every presidential election in this century."

DeSantis continued:

The Soros district attorneys are a menace to society, and I'm just glad that I'm the only governor in the country that's actually removed one from office during my tenure.

DeSantis received a round of applause for this, as well as a second round of applause at the end of his response, which seems like something that should happen at a politician's press conference only in a dictatorship. DeSantis is referring to state attorney Andrew Warren, who sued DeSantis over his suspension and is now appealing the dismissal of that lawsuit.

The question asked by the Florida Standard reporter was whether DeSantis would intervene in a Trump arrest in Florida. When he finally addressed that question, he managed to say "Soros" one more time:

I have no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA.

So the key word is "Soros." Shockingly, however, in this answer at least, DeSantis didn't say "woke" even once.