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- [Rob Lorei] Coming up next, permitless carry is signed into law in Florida, Democratic party leaders are arrested for protesting the state's proposed new abortion ban, Disney's CEO has some strong words for the governor, and with a month left in the session, controversial bills are being fast-tracked in Tallahassee.

All this and more next on "Florida This Week".

(upbeat stately music) Welcome back.

Joining us on the panel this week, April Schiff is the Hillsborough County GOP State Committeewoman and the President and Co-Founder of Strategic Solutions of Florida; James Call is the Capitol Reporter for the "Tallahassee Democrat" and "USA Today Florida"; Lindsay Cross is the State Representative for District 60 in Pinellas County, and a Democrat; and Zac Anderson is the Political Editor for the "Sarasota Herald-Tribune".

And nice to see everyone.

Thank you for being here.

Well, Florida, Floridians rather, will soon be able to carry concealed firearms without a permit and without training under a bill that Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed this week.

The signing took place in a private ceremony in the governor's office.

The new law will allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry one without a permit.

It means training and background checks will no longer be required to carry concealed guns in public.

It takes effect July 1st.

A 2022 study found that around the country, right-to-carry laws increase firearm homicides by 13% and firearm violent crimes by 29%.

April, what's the reason that there should be fewer regulations on carrying guns in Florida?

- Based on the Constitution, and there are strict constitutionalists that believe that you should be able to do whatever you like, as far as carrying guns go.

This, you know, criminals don't follow the gun laws; law-abiding citizens who own guns follow the gun laws.

And so the permitless carry just, it takes away one regulation, if people choose not to participate in that.

A lot of people will still go with a permit because it allows them an easier method for purchasing firearms, and it also has reciprocity in a lot of different states.

So if they travel with a firearm, it gives them the ability to take that with them when they cross state lines, specifically to other states that have reciprocity with Florida.

But I mean, (scoffs) this is just one step.

Obviously, with the supermajority in the legislature, you're gonna see a lot more conservative values and constitutional issues that come up.

Senator Collins carried this bill all the way through and- - Jay Collins from South Tampa.

- That's right, our new senator from South Tampa.

And he did a very good job with that.

And the, you know, the people on the other side that are screaming, "We need open carry, we need this, we need that," I think one thing that people have to understand in the legislature is that you work your way up to what you want.

So you take what you can get at some point, and this is just one step, and I'm sure there's gonna be attempts to carry it further, but for right now, it's an accomplishment.

They've gotten a little bit further than they were before.

- Mm-hmm, you know, the Constitution does say, "well-regulated militia".

That's always, that's never mentioned when people talk about guns from the conservative side.

- Same thing in all political processes.

You take what you want and run with it, right?

And don't tell anybody about the other side of it.

(laughs) - Lindsay, what was the Democratic argument against the permitless carry bill?

- Well, I think some of the statistics that you showed demonstrate that when we have more guns, we are having more violence.

Gun-related crimes are not going down.

And having easier access for people to not only get ahold of guns, but to carry them in public without a permit is just gonna lead to more gun violence.

I heard, I was in the first committee stop where we heard this bill, and people talked about, you know, that the process to get a permit, it's only about $80.

It does require that background check and some training.

People were saying that the training wasn't sufficient.

Well, let's make sure that the training is ensuring that people who are carrying firearms per their Second Amendment rights are doing soú that they know how to handle that firearm.

So stripping any of these additional safeguards that we have is just gonna make it more dangerous for people in our communities.

- James, as April said, some people weren't satisfied with this bill.

They wanted to go further.

They wanted open carry in Florida.

Tell us about, who are the folks that wanted open carry, and who are they mad at that they didn't get it in this bill?

- Well, the two most active groups would be Florida 2A, Florida Second Amendment group, and Young Americans for Liberty.

Young Americans for Liberty, college/university students, they actually confronted the House sponsor, Charles Brannan, at his home, you know, when they were distributing fliers and got into an argument and put up a video.

They're absolutists.

They believe that the Second Amendment says what the Second Amendment says, and that they don't need a permission from the government to exercise a constitutional right.

They are angry with the governor for not exercising his ability, his authority to move the measure through the House and Senate.

They said that, you know, Greg Abbott over in Texas, without a super majority, was able to get open carry passed.

And they're mad at, I guess, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, because it appears that she was the roadblock that prevented it from going through, and- - James, does the governor say he plans to bring it up again next year, in the next session?

- What the governor says is if the legislature sends it to him, he will sign it.

- Okay.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- So it's, and the stumbling block does seem to be the Senate.

- Zac, the governor signed this bill in a private ceremony.

It was, I gather, invitation-only.

Why did the governor not do this in a big, bold splash?

He's known to go around the state and sign some bills.

Why did he do it in a private ceremony?

- Yeah, that bill signing tells you everything you need to know about the politics behind that bill.

As you said, DeSantis loves to go around the state and do these bill signings where he has these big public crowds and the media, and these are carefully scripted for maximum political benefit.

The fact that he didn't do that this time shows that he's worried about the politics of this bill.

And the reality is, is that nationally, people don't want to loosen restrictions on guns.

And if DeSantis wants to run for president and win a general election, you know, running as somebody who really dropped these gun restrictions is not necessarily a winning argument.

So this is something where he feels like he has to do it to play to the Republican base.

He is determined not to get out-flanked on the right by Trump.

And maybe it is something that he really wants and believes in, but the politics of it at the national level probably do not help him.

And so he signed this bill pretty quietly.

It seems like he doesn't want to be too closely identified with it, and too closely have his brand identified with it.

And the reality is on open carry, the governor gets whatever he wants from the legislature.

So the fact that he's not pushing to get open carry, he could get open carry if he wanted to get open carry.

The fact that he's not pushing for that also tells you something about the politics of that bill.

- Well, let me ask April, real quickly.

Are there repercussions for the governor for not going to open carry?

Does he lose out with the far right in his party because he didn't push for open carry?

- Maybe a little bit, but probably not enough to matter.

- Okay, all right.

Well, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party and the top Democratic state lawmaker were charged with trespassing after refusing to leave a peaceful protest in Tallahassee Monday against the bill to ban abortions after six weeks.

Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried and Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book were among a group of protestors arrested near the State Capitol Building.

The demonstration came hours after the Republican-controlled State Senate approved a proposal to ban abortions after six weeks.

The bill, which has the backing of the governor, is expected to become law.

Videos on social media show people chanting, "Shame!"

as police officers led protestors away in handcuffs.

The Tallahassee Police Department issued a statement that said protestors were told that they would have to leave after sunset, but 11 people refused to go.

- We are going to be showing back up, showing back up on people's doors, back into our communities, making sure that we're organizing on the ground, and that we are getting candidates up and down the ballot that are truly reflective of the values of the people of our state.

- James, you talked to these two top Democrats, Nikki Fried and Lauren Book.

What did they say about why they did it?

And why this technique?

Why this protest?

- Well, they did it, they say they did it to show solidarity with the women who are protesting the six-week abortion proposal that is making its way through the Florida legislature.

This story is very Tallahassee.

It's a very Tallahassee story, because it's also dividing the city about over the city's reaction to what happened.

Why did they do it this way?

Well, you know, it wasn't up to Fried and Book.

They were invited to speak at a news conference that was going to be held at that time.

They showed up, they saw the women sitting in a circle singing, they joined in.

It was a song about community.

It is part, Nikki Fried says that this is part of her effort to rally Democrats to oppose the Republican agenda on multiple fronts.

That this is about more than abortion; it's about democracy itself.

And Lauren Book said that this is what the Senate Democratic Caucus does every day: They show up and they fight against overwhelming force, they help each other, they lean on each other.

The song was very appropriate.

- [Rob Lorei] Hmm.

- And this was, it was street theater, and Tallahassee loves street theater.

The city's reaction, though, is very curious, because right now, Tallahassee has a history of debate, of open arguments, and right now the City Hall is barricaded off.

It looks like a place under siege, and to many residents, it's kind of humorous.

- Zac, the governor was out-of-state late this week and took some shots at the Democratic Party here in Florida.

Talk about what the governor said, and you know, what happened there in Tallahassee on Monday.

- Yeah, DeSantis was giving a speech in Michigan, and he said that the Florida Democratic Party is "a dead carcass on the side of the road", and that he has basically, you know, destroyed the party.

And he's not totally wrong, I mean, his victory at 19 points this last election cycle was just overwhelming, and really dramatic for a state like Florida.

And it really made it seem like Florida is really a red state going forward and that the Democratic Party is just at the absolute bottom, and really irrelevant.

And so for the party to, I think this episode actually shows some signs of life in the party, some spunk, that the, you know, it's never bad to get caught advocating passionately for what you believe in.

And for the party chair and the Democratic leader in the Senate to get arrested for protesting a six-week ban on abortion that people in their party are vehemently opposed to, and is not really popular statewide or nationally, I think that shows that they're willing to go to bat for what they believe in.

And so the politics of this could actually help the party and show that there's still some signs of life there.

- Lindsay, what's the, if this, we're assuming the governor will sign this bill.

What's the reality for women in Florida once this law goes into effect?

- This is essentially a full-on abortion ban.

Six weeks, by that time, most women or young girls do not know that they're pregnant.

There's already onerous restrictions in Florida law that requires a woman to have two appointments within 24 hours, or 24 hours apart before she's able to seek an abortion.

And there's no exceptions for telehealth.

One of my colleagues, Representative Kelly Skidmore, actually offered amendment that would allow women who live more than 100 miles away from an abortion clinic to do their first appointment over telehealth, which we're seeing increasing use of that in other medical and mental health fields.

Perfectly acceptable to use that.

Of course, that amendment was voted down.

So this really leaves women with no other option but to leave our state.

We are seeing people who are already talking about leaving the state of Florida.

I actually spoke with four USF medical students last week, in their fourth year at USF medical program.

The OB/GYN specialist, she is leaving Florida to do her residency because of the onerous restrictions that we already have.

Two of them were at Tampa General when an 11 week-old girl, or I'm sorry, an 11 year-old girl came in complaining of stomach pains.

Her family members thought that she was constipated because she had this, you know, bloat; she was starting to gain weight.

It turns out she was pregnant.

It was a family member.

That person has fled the state.

It was past 15 weeks.

Her family did not have the money for her to seek an abortion out of state.

So this 11 year-old girl ended up having to go through a C-section.

This is the reality of what's happening in Florida.

It's impacting women across our state.

It's only gonna get worse, because people will seek drastic measures because this is a drastic, full-on abortion ban.

- And April, what are your thoughts about the six-week ban?

- I think that abortion in and of itself is an extremely difficult, difficult situation for anybody to have to face or to try and make a decision on.

And I think that this does make it a little bit more difficult.

We're gonna see court challenges on this, just like we have every other abortion legislation that's come through the legislature.

So we'll see where it ends up at the end of the day.

- Would you agree with Lindsay that this is essentially a full-on ban?

- It's pretty close.

- Okay.

- It's pretty close.

- All right.

- Yeah.

- Well, the relationship between the Disney Corporation and the Republican-controlled government in Tallahassee is getting worse.

Disney is the largest taxpayer and one of the largest employers in the state.

It's been at odds with Governor DeSantis over the "Don't Say Gay" bill and over the governor's attempt to take control of the district which oversees the Walt Disney World property.

This week, during the annual shareholder's meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger accused the governor of retaliating against the company and interfering with the company's freedom of speech.

Iger said the governor's actions against Disney sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida.

The governor, meantime, accuses Disney of being a woke corporation, and he's calling for a criminal and a civil investigation into how the Disney district's board is attempting to block DeSantis' takeover.

Zac, I want to ask you about the fallout from this.

The governor was a recipient of at least $100,000 in donations from Disney between 2019 and 2021.

They used to be, Disney was a big supporter of the governor.

What do you make of of Iger's statement this week about Governor DeSantis?

- It's a pretty remarkable statement to have the CEO of a company that is really synonymous with your state going after you like this.

And it shows that there's some signs of life for Disney as well here.

I mean, they seemed to be kind of rolling over and sort of just letting DeSantis do what he wanted and take control of this board overseeing the company's properties in central Florida.

But lo and behold, secretly they were working behind the scenes, not secretly, they did it actually in public, and the DeSantis administration just didn't get wind of it, to undermine the governor's efforts to take control of this board and to basically nullify his authority over them.

And it was a pretty big deal.

It was very notable that they were able to out-maneuver DeSantis like this.

Disney has been a huge talking point for him about how he's going after these woke corporations, and it's been really central to his political identity.

This whole war on woke Disney's right in the middle of it.

And for Disney to get the better of him on this, I think it sort of shows that he is a little bit, you know, on his heels right now, you know.

He's been sliding nationally in the polls, he's had some stumbles, and I think this Disney episode just adds to it.

- April, who's winning this battle, Disney or DeSantis?

- Well, we'll see at the end of the day.

Because DeSantis has ordered an investigation, both criminal and civil, into what they did to change this.

But at the bottom line is that this special taxing district, which is what it is, was created a long time ago to entice Disney to come here to start with, which is what got us all these theme parks that we have in Orlando and has basically created Orlando to be what it is today.

So it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out once those investigations are concluded.

- And undoubtedly legal battles- - No question.

- Over who can control the property.

- Yes.

- Well, the permitless carry gun bill and the six-week abortion ban, which we covered earlier, are just a few of the controversial bills making their way through the legislative session this year.

The legislature's halfway through its annual two-month regular meeting, and bills favored by the Republican majority have been quickly passed, or are on the verge of passage.

Among them, the law expanding the private school voucher program to all parents in Florida, regardless of income; a tort reform bill that some say will make it harder for injured people to hire an attorney; a bill making it easier to dismantle some labor unions, aimed at teachers and some public employees, but it would exclude police and firefighters.

There's a bill that would prohibit public investment in corporations that have environmental and social governance policies.

There's an effort to make school board races partisan, and the "Don't Say Gay" law could be expanded to all grades.

Lindsay, I want to ask you about the environment.

Because I gave that list there, but the environment's not on it.

Everybody in Florida, I think, really cares about the environment.

How is the environment doing this legislative session?

Is it winning?

Are bills being passed to save Florida's environment?

- So Rob, I would say it's a mixed bag there.

We haven't seen any proactive environmental legislation that's come to the House or the Senate floor yet.

There is a bill that would direct DEP to make some improvements in how it manages water quality that was tied directly to the governor's Executive Order 2306, that he announced earlier in January.

But there are still concerns by myself and other people in the conservation and environmental field that it doesn't go far enough.

We still do not have inspections for septic systems.

We have about 2.7 million septic systems around our state and we are making investments in trying to convert septic over to sewer.

There was a study done in 2021 by the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research that suggests we have about $26 billion worth of infrastructure needs that we have for septic-to-sewer conversion infrastructure around wastewater treatment plants.

And we're not making large enough investments in that.

We're also not funding our conservation programs, like Florida Forever, to the level that they require.

This is the first year that the House has recommended reoccurring funding for Florida Forever, but it's only at $100 million.

For nearly two decades starting in 1990, we were funding the Florida Forever program at $300 million, which with inflation, in today's dollar, that would be about $690 million.

So we're celebrating some of these small wins, but taken in context, it's nowhere near what the investments are needed to protect land with the rapid development that we're having, making sure we are cleaning up our water and trying to stem some of these horrific algae blooms that we're seeing really at unusual times of the year, like the red tide off the coast of Pinellas and other counties, the blue-green algae, which is, you know, making people and pets sick.

So there is still so much more work to be done and I haven't seen enough happen this year.

- James, with permitless carry and the six-week abortion ban and vouchers for everybody, the governor is gonna be able to take this nationwide, isn't he?

And be able to go to Republican primaries and say, "Look what I did in Florida"?

- Yeah, we should back up and go back to what the representative was saying.

What Representative Cross said, it could be the whole program in and of itself.

So sure, Governor DeSantis has put all these major items on a fast track and got them through a very compliant legislature.

But just like with the Disney thing, with the Disney dispute, and just like with our water problems, they are moving so fast, they are making all kinds of fundamental mistakes.

And in the end, well, Disney shows you what happens in the end.

All the court suits that have resulted from the legislation that DeSantis has pushed through the legislature, all the court battles show what happens with their fast-track approach to government policy.

At the same time, they're moving so quickly, and the Capitol press corps is so depleted, that nobody can keep track with what is actually going on in Florida.

One of the things that's going on in Florida, as the representative very clearly pointed out and suggested, is that we have poisoned the water supply.

We are not spending anywhere near enough money on cleaning up the water supply.

And I'm sorry, I'm ranting.

- Okay, all right.

(group laughs) Well, let me give you heads up.

We're probably not gonna be able to get to the Story of the Week, but let me go to Zac.

Zac, if Ron DeSantis happens to become the candidate for, the Republican candidate for president next year, his main rival, another governor, Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, was in Sarasota this week.

Why was he in Sarasota?

Was he campaigning?

- Well, I asked him that, and he says that he's not campaigning for president; he's just trying to meet the moment and that he is really trying to put more pressure and give more pushback to what he views as a real erosion of rights in Republican-led states, including Florida.

And he pointed to things like abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, things like that.

He doesn't think that there's been enough of a focus, too much focus on Trump by the Democratic Party and not enough of a focus on what some of the governors in some of these red states are doing.

I think though that he is also trying to stay in the spotlight, stay relevant.

He has been talked about as a candidate for president if Joe Biden doesn't run, or maybe in the future if he does run.

And, you know, he has been able to get a lot of attention by sparring with Ron DeSantis.

They seem to have a sort of mutually beneficial feud going on, where they, you know, kind of jab at each other and get some headlines and appeal to their bases by going after each other.

And so I think that he was kind of, again, having another chapter in that and getting a little attention for it.

- And taking the students' side at New College against the governor.

April, what do you think about Gavin Newsom as the Democratic candidate?

- Gavin Newsom can come and go.

I don't think that's a problem.

But I think what we are seeing here is that this is what you're gonna see as part of the Make America Florida program.

And that's why so many people are flying into Florida and moving to Florida every day.

There are thousands of people coming here because of the environment that this governor's created, the freedoms that we have, the way we live our lives, and the way that we're governed.

And I think it's all a good thing.

So he's doing a very good job and it shows by the number of people that are moving to this state every single day.

- All right, well, thank you all for a great show.

I wish we had more time, as always.

And thank you for joining us.

Send us your comments at FTW@wedu.org.

You can view this and past shows online at wedu.org or on the PBS app.

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And from all of us here at WEDU, have a Happy Easter and a Happy Passover.

(upbeat stately music) (upbeat stately music continues) - [Announcer] "Florida This Week" is a production of WEDU, who is solely responsible for its content.