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Florida fight erupts after top Jewish Republican flips to Trump from DeSantis: ‘His actions have broken my heart’

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Florida fight erupts after top Jewish Republican flips to Trump from DeSantis: ‘His actions have broken my heart’


The Republican speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives has defended Gov. Ron DeSantis after the only Jewish GOP lawmaker in the state legislature switched his support in the 2024 primary to former President Donald Trump.

State Rep. Randy Fine, who once helped chair DeSantis’ Jewish outreach efforts, turned against the governor in a blistering op-ed, contending that Trump was a stronger friend to Jewish Americans.

“I got jumped by a Nazi in Florida. On video. Two weeks ago. In Ron DeSantis’ Florida, that’s no big deal,” Fine wrote in the Washington Times.

“Every piece of legislation you hear him talk about regarding Jewish issues is one I wrote,” Fine added of the governor. “I love his words. His actions have broken my heart.”

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Fine cited an uptick in antisemitic attacks across the Sunshine State in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror assault on southern Israel and accused DeSantis of paying lip service to confronting anti-Jewish hatred.

Randy Fine argued that Donald Trump has a stronger record on Israel than Ron DeSantis.
AP

“In 2020, I had an open anti-Semite run against me; she called me a ‘pest’ who should be ‘exterminated,’” Fine recalled. “So many Republican leaders came to my defense; Governor DeSantis did not. He didn’t even endorse me.”

“When [Trump] was President, Islamic countries weren’t attacking Jews over there; neo-Nazis were not attacking Jews over here because they feared him,” he wrote. “The past two weeks have made me realize our choice as Jews is simple. We can vote for the Governor who says all the right things, or we can vote for the President who actually does them. When it comes to action, Donald Trump has never let us down.”

Florida House Speaker Paul Renner jumped to DeSantis’ defense Wednesday.

“There’s never been a more staunch, pro-Israel Governor than Ron DeSantis, and his record proves it,” Renner wrote on X.

“The rhetoric suggesting otherwise is wrong, just ask any of the hundreds of Americans who made it home on flights organized by the Governor when President Biden failed to bring them home to safety,” he added.

DeSantis shrugged off Fine’s defection as “pure politics” during a campaign stop in New Hampshire and campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin defended the governor.

Ron DeSantis has been a stalwart proponent of Israel’s efforts to take down Hamas.
AP

“[It’s] shameful political theater at a time when Ron DeSantis is leading the charge to support Israel,” Griffin said, according to Politico.

The DeSantis campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post Wednesday.

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On Tuesday, the State University System of Florida ordered the dismantling of local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), whose national leadership backed the Hamas attack on Israel, leading Fine to charge the move was in response to his op-ed.

Randy Fine had been a longtime ally of Ron DeSantis.
Twitter/@VoteRandyFine

“Why did it take me endorsing @realDonaldTrump to get you to take action?” he publicly asked the DeSantis campaign on X. “I gave you all of this on October 9th. I have the texts. All I got back was a bunch of handwringing. While I am glad it is happening now, it is sad that you couldn’t do the right thing because it was the right thing and only did it to minimize the political fallout of today’s events.”

“I know you think this song is about you …” mocked DeSantis policy chief Chris Spencer in response. “News alert, hate to break it to you but this has been in the works for two weeks. Helping people is more important than politics.”

Donald Trump has feuded with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and dubbed Hezbollah ‘very smart.’
REUTERS

The 45-year-old DeSantis has long had a lock on endorsements from the Florida state legislature, while Trump has monopolized the backing of the Sunshine State’s congressional delegation.

Fine was originally one of 100 GOP Florida state legislators who endorsed DeSantis in May.

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Trump has a 46.5-percentage-point edge over DeSantis, his closest foe, in the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.





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Analysis | Arizona and Florida could send a big message on abortion rights

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Analysis | Arizona and Florida could send a big message on abortion rights


The abortion rights position has won on the ballot in 7 out of 7 states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in mid-2022 — even in red-leaning ones such as Kansas, Kentucky, Montana and Ohio.

And new polling suggests that in 2024, abortion rights measures could do even better than they did in those first seven states, as voters in states with severe GOP led-abortion bans weigh in.

The polling, from CBS News and YouGov, shows striking margins in Arizona and Florida for enshrining abortion rights into those states’ constitutions. That position leads 65 percent to 21 percent in Arizona and 60 percent to 20 percent in Florida. Previous polling in Florida also showed voters favoring the abortion rights amendment by wide margins — by 21 points in one poll and by 30 points in another.

Florida’s measure will be on the ballot; Arizona’s is still a work in progress, but organizers say they have more than enough signatures to get it there. Other states will feature such measures, but Arizona and Florida are the big ones.

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The newest polling shows not only that voters overwhelmingly favor the amendments, but even Republicans lean in favor of them — 43-38 in Arizona and 43-34 in Florida.

That 60 percent overall number in Florida is notable because that’s the threshold for passage in the state — a higher bar than the one for most states.

It’s also notable because it suggests the potential for an even more resounding affirmation of abortion rights.

While abortion rights positions have won plenty of votes from Republican-leaning voters, they have done so to varying degrees. A good way to look at this is how they have performed relative to the 2020 presidential vote.

The best relative performance for an abortion rights amendment thus far? The most recent one. In Ohio last year, it over-performed Biden’s 2020 vote share by 11.6 points. Biden got 45 percent in 2020, but the abortion rights amendment got 57 percent.

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The average overperformance across the four states: eight points.

The new Arizona and Florida polls already show support for the amendments outpacing Biden’s 2020 share in those states by 16 points and 12 points, respectively — even with a fair number of undecided voters.

There have been states where the abortion rights position over-performed Biden by more than it did in the four states above: Kansas, Kentucky and Montana. But importantly, those states weren’t voting directly on enshrining abortion rights.

Montana’s measure was narrowly about infants born after failed abortions. Kansas’s and Kentucky’s measures asked voters to affirmatively state that the state constitution didn’t protect abortion rights. In those last two states, the measures over-performed Biden by 17 and 16 points, respectively — the biggest overperformances to date.

And that could be instructive.

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These were situations in which voters were effectively being asked not to add a right, but to foreclose one.

Indeed, what could set Arizona and Florida apart from the four states that have previously voted to enshrine abortion rights is how much those rights have been curtailed in those states.

The Florida Supreme Court last month greenlit the state’s six-week abortion ban, which even former president Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from. Then the Arizona Supreme Court last month revived a harsh 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions — even in the cases of rape and incest — and made providing one punishable by two to five years in prison. (This set off a panic in GOP circles which eventually led to the law’s repeal. A 15-week ban remains in place.)

This has set up a situation in which voters could effectively view the abortion rights amendments as referendums on the harsh GOP-backed laws and an opportunity to register their discontent. The same YouGov poll, for instance, shows 72 percent of Arizona voters approve of overturning the 1864 law.

Or, at the very least, the stakes of allowing their representatives to restrict abortion rights could be more real to them than to voters in California, Michigan, Vermont and Ohio, where similar laws weren’t in play.

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It’s that dynamic that makes these potentially resounding votes in Florida and Arizona particularly important for the future of abortion rights in America.



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Florida ranks in list’s top 10 states for most adults living with their parents. Here’s why

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Florida ranks in list’s top 10 states for most adults living with their parents. Here’s why


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In 2020, the Pew Research Center conducted a study that found more than 50% of young adults in the U.S. were living with their parents for the first time since the Great Depression.

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And that trend hasn’t slowed down, according to a newer study. 

Ahead of the mid-May Mother’s Day rush, trucking industry website Truckinfo.com analyzed data from the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Federal Reserve to find how many young adults would only have to step out of their bedroom to wish their mother a happy Mother’s Day.

The study revealed that the number of young adults who live with their parents has continued to increase. And Florida ranked in the top 10 states where the most young adults are still living at home.

Here’s where Florida ranked on this list and why.

What percentage of 25-34 year-olds live with parents?

“Both men and women between the ages of 25 and 34 are twice as likely to live with their parents than in 1967,” the study said. 

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“While there was a steady increase until the early 2010s, the figure has grown significantly in recent years.” 

According to the study, around 32.1% of adults between the ages of 25 and 34 live at home with their parents. Florida’s state average is a little higher, at 34.8%, ranking the Sunshine State tenth in Truckinginfo.com’s list of states where the most young adults still live with their parents.

Which state has the largest percentage of adults still living with their parents?

New Jersey emerged as the state with the largest percentage of young adults living at home. California placed in second and Connecticut in third. Florida ranked at the bottom, in 10th place.

“Compared to the national average, adult children in coastal cities and the south are much more likely to live with their parents,” the study said. 

“Conversely, states in the Midwest and Mountain West are more likely to live with their spouses than the rest of the country”

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Here are the rankings, with the percentage of adults between 25 and 34 living with their parents in each state:

  1. New Jersey, 43.3%
  2. California, 38.6%
  3. Connecticut, 38.6%
  4. New Hampshire, 37.4%
  5. New York, 37.0%
  6. Delaware, 36.9%
  7. Maryland, 36.1%
  8. Rhode Island, 35.9%
  9. Mississippi, 35.8%
  10. Florida, 34.8%

The study also found that high housing costs have the biggest influence on why so many young adults are living at home for longer.

“Even for men gainfully employed, many struggle to afford a home. Since 1984, the home-price-to-income ratio in the U.S. has nearly doubled,” the study said. “Meaning homes are twice as expensive today than in 1984.”



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Florida man drunkenly steals school bus, drives 4 hours to Miami: police

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Florida man drunkenly steals school bus, drives 4 hours to Miami: police


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A Florida man allegedly stole a school bus while drunk and drove to Miami in a wild Saturday night outing, police said.

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Land O’ Lakes resident Daniel Saez, 32, was charged with grand theft auto on Sunday, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. 

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) told the outlet that the suspect stole the bus, which belonged to Hillsborough County Public Schools, near Tampa on Saturday night.

Saez then drove the vehicle to Miami, which is roughly 280 miles from Tampa. It’s about a four-hour drive.

FLORIDA MAN PRAISED BY POLICE FOR FATALLY STABBING INTRUDER WHO SHOT HIS WIFE

Land O’ Lakes resident Daniel Saez, 32, was charged with grand theft auto for allegedly swiping a school bus while drunk. (Florida Highway Patrol | iStock)

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The suspect was stopped in Sarasota, the FHP said. He told authorities that he was on his way back to Tampa from Miami to return the stolen bus.

Sarasota is approximately 60 miles south of Tampa.

The suspect allegedly admitted to stealing the bus and was reportedly both drunk and high when the crime took place.

FLORIDA MAN LEARNS HE’S NOT A CITIZEN AFTER LIVING, VOTING IN US FOR DECADES: REPORT

After being arrested, Saez was placed in a county jail.

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Hillsborough Co. school bus next to police car

The stolen bus belonged to Hillsborough County Public Schools. (Florida Highway Patrol via FHP)

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Fox News Digital reached out to FHP for additional information but did not immediately hear back.



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