Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis are countering questions about Hope Florida finances in a familiar area of the state.
Appearing at St. Augustine’s Anchor Faith Church, the First Couple told a crowd in what once was his congressional district not to believe what they’ve heard about Hope Florida.
Roughly an hour after a House subcommittee’s probe into the program was frustrated by not getting voluntary witnesses to show up, the Governor addressed critics of the Hope Florida Foundation.
Gov. DeSantis said a letter from the Agency for Health Care Administration’s lawyer, which said the unorthodox fund transfer was legal, “totally debunks the bogus media narratives that were out there” about the money being diverted from the program’s core function of helping people emerge from what the Governor and First Lady call “the culture of dependency.”
At issue is the funneling of $10 million (that the Governor called previously a “cherry on top”) of a $67 million settlement payment in Medicaid settlement funds through the Hope Florida Foundation. That money then went to political committees that used a bulk of it to message against constitutional amendments in 2024.
In response to a reporter’s question, DeSantis said the media pushed “phony narratives” for nefarious and political ends.
“Why are they doing narrative? They’re not doing it because they really care about that. They’re doing it to try to impugn Hope Florida. They’re trying to smear this program,” DeSantis told reporters.
“Some of these lefty journalists don’t like it. They don’t like you working with the faith-based community. Some of these people view it as a way to attack the First Lady and all the great things she’s done because they view her as a threat. So that’s what’s motivating this.”
Ahead of the press exchange, both Ron and Casey DeSantis offered more aspirational variations on the same theme.
“When you see some of these political attacks, that’s just because people know this is effective. That’s because they’re threatened by this mode,” the Governor said.
“Some people are threatened politically because the First Lady’s been so good at doing this, but that’s what that’s about. It’s not about the actual substance of this. And shouldn’t we, as Floridians, put aside political agendas to embrace things that have actually lifted people up, offered them hope and put them on a pathway to self-sufficiency? You should not wield a political agenda to try to kneecap something that is helping people do really, really big things.”
The First Lady addressed the “misunderstanding” about “what Hope Florida is,” saying it’s “not a program” but is an “idea” or a “philosophy” intended to drive people down a “pathway to economic self-sufficiency” with the help of “navigators.”
“What we are doing is good. What we are doing is just. Sometimes you have to put on the full armor of God and you fight, because you know what you’re doing is righteous,” Casey DeSantis said.
She offered one more high-road framing of the ongoing scandal.
“No matter what is written, don’t ever let politics get in the way of purpose,” she counseled.
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