CNN political commentator Ana Navarro, co-host of ABC’s The View joined the former’s Wednesday Election coverage to react to the results from her native Florida. Ron DeSantis easily won reelection by nearly 20 points. Navarro believes that the conventional wisdom about DeSantis’s win is incorrect because he “gamed the system” to obtain the huge win by creating an “unlevel playing field.”
The standard Florida narrative was summarized by Erin Burnett, who stated that Ron DeSantis was the king of Florida. She has done what no one thought possible.
Navarro didn’t see the big deal. “Which you told me–which you told me– yesterday was going be the case.” I promised you that he would win big.”
But that’s no reason to be proud of him. “Listen, Ron DeSantis barely won 2018 by 35,000 votes against a black progressive mayor from Tallahassee. He won by 20 percent yesterday. Why?”
The obvious answer would be that 2018 was a good one for Democrats and that DeSantis had a solid record. But Navarro saw things in a different way, more conspiratorial, “Because he played the system. Because he made Florida an unlevel playing ground. They changed election laws to make it harder for people to vote by mail. They paraded a group of black people, who they had arrested for voting fraud, in front of the national media. He established an election police.
Navarro continued to answer her question. “He also was very skilled in responding to hurricanes, other tragedies, he also invests… He also laser-focused on Miami-Dade.”
Burnett tried to add that good governance is “significant”, but Navarro kept rolling, “turnout in 2018 was 10 points lower than in 2018, and it was 63 per cent in 2018. Yesterday, it was 53 percent in Florida. This is not a red-wave. Red wave is when people vote in the streets. If you have a depressed, deflated voter, Democratic vote.
Navarro, again contradicting herself, conceded that “and who can blame ’em when you nominate a corpse.” Yes, he won, but he lost against a corpse, a politically-motivated corpse, and that’s a serious insult to corpses.
It sounds like DeSantis won due to a combination of his strengths and Democratic weakness. This is not gaming the system. But Navarro doesn’t want it to be so.
Dove sponsored this segment.
Hre3 is the transcript for the November 9th show:
CNN Election Day in America
11/9/2022
12:48 PM ET
ERIN BURNETT : Hold on. Let me pause.
ANA NAVARRO : Oh, come on.
BURNETT – Ron DeSantis, the king of Florida, has done what no one thought possible. That’s the story.
NAVARRO : I told you yesterday that I was going to tell you the same thing.
BURNETT: Yes.
NAVARRO – I said he would win bigly. But listen, Ron DeSantis only won by 35,000 votes in 2018, against a black progressive mayor from Tallahassee. He won by 20 percentage points yesterday. Why?
Because he played the system. Because he made Florida an unlevel playing ground. They changed election laws to make it harder for people to vote by mail. They paraded a group of black people, who were arrested for voting fraud, in front of the national media.
He also created an election police. He was also very skilled in responding to hurricanes, other tragedies, and he also invested.
BURNETT : That’s a significant, but it’s significant.
NAVARRO: He laser-focused on Miami-Dade–
BURNETT – But you’re saying — Turnout, turnout.
NAVARRO – In the meantime, turnout was 10 percentage points lower than in 2018. In 2018, it was 63 per cent. Yesterday, it was 53 percent in Florida. This is not a red-wave. Red wave is when people get out on the streets to vote. You have a depressed, deflated voter, Democratic vote. And who can blame them when they nominate a corpse? Yes, he won, but he won against a corpse. That’s an insult to the corpses.
