Gov. Ron DeSantis and his family likely won’t have security funded by taxpayers once he leaves office next year, with the House not agreeing to a Senate proposal to subsidize it.
DeSantis acknowledged that it’s not his call to make, but said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement recommended the state pay to keep him safe as a private citizen due to a “nasty undercurrent” of threats.
While he said he wouldn’t have needed “round-the-clock” security, DeSantis added that if he’s speaking at “certain types of functions,” then “having folks there to be able to assist would be justified based on the types of threats that they get.”
DeSantis did not say what those functions might be. It is rare that former Governors are called upon to speak at state events, and speculation continues to swirl about his next move, which could include another run for the presidency.
However, while he said legislators have “got to do what they got to do” and can make “judgments accordingly” about whether taxpayers should pay for a former elected official’s security detail, he implied that his situation is unique given his own prominence and what he has done for the state.
“Florida has occupied a pretty unique part of space in the country over the last decade, particularly since COVID. You know, I’ve been the face of that,” DeSantis said in Tampa on Wednesday.
He also suggested that his conservative ideology makes him a target given the current “era of some pretty disturbing political violence” that is “going in one direction by and large, unfortunately.”
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