- This is a production of W E D U, PBS Tampa St. Petersburg Sarasota.

- Coming up right now on W E D U, the impact of Hurricane Ian creates major obstacles to voting in November for people in South West Florida.

The January 6th committee holds its last scheduled public hearing.

Independent voters weigh in on whether Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Ron DeSantis should run for president in 2024.

And a US Senator from Nebraska's picked to head Florida's top university.

All this and more next on Florida This Week.

Welcome back.

Joining us on our panel, Ernest Hooper is the former host of, "That's all I'm Saying Here" on W E D U. Dr. Susan McManus is the USF Distinguished Professor Emerita of Government and International Studies at USF in Tampa.

Travis Horn is a Public Relations Executive and a Republican.

And Ben Diamond is a Florida State Representative from District 68 and a Democrat.

So nice to see all of you.

Great to have you here.

- Good to be here.

- Great to be here.

- Well, Governor Rod DeSantis has issued an executive order giving Charlotte, Lee, and Sarasota Counties flexibility in how they handle the November election in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

The order was issued following the destruction of many of many polling places and the displacement of poll workers by the record breaking storm.

It allows for consolidating polling locations instead of traditional neighborhood polling precincts.

It lets voters request mail ballots for an address that's not already on file.

It extends early voting times and waives some training requirements for poll workers if they've been trained for the prior election cycle.

It's just one of the many hurdles that people across south and central Florida face as they recover from Hurricane Ian.

- And they say, Oh my goodness, a million more has been sent.

And then you get peanut butter and jelly at night, and it's like, where is it going?

So where is all the funds going?

You know, that's my honest question.

- Susan.

The things are still tough down there, but this is a really important Republican area.

44% of the folks in these three counties are registered Republicans.

Only 26% are registered Democrats.

Republicans in order to win have to get the vote out.

But in the past, Republicans have complained about things like drop boxes.

This is an expansion of drop boxes.

- But I think this is a different kind of scenario.

Never have we had such devastation, and we do have an equivalent in that 2018, there was the Hurricane Michael that hit the panhandle a month before the election, and many of the protocols that were included here were ones that they utilized in that particular scenario.

I think it's also important that people understand that civil and voting rights groups sent a letter outlining all of the things that they would like to see done to ensure that everybody has a right to vote.

So it wasn't just a governor deciding, Well, these are Republicans and that's what I'm gonna do.

It's bigger than that.

And it's very important because obviously, it's one of those things that we believe so staunchly in, is that our vote counts and that we can cast a ballot.

One other thing, yes, if I don't live in my home and my mailbox is gone and whatever else, but I still wanna vote by mail, I would contact my supervisor of elections, but I would have to follow the same procedure that anybody who's applying for a vote by mail ballot would have to follow, which is to show verification of a signature and a photo.

So it's not just, these are different rules for Republicans, it's far from that.

- So the possibility of fraud or, you know, some shenanigans isn't increased by the governor's actions?

- Not in my judgment.

- Ben, what do you think about what the governor's done and what do you think about, you know, what's happened in the last three weeks since Hurricane Ian?

- Well, obviously Tampa Bay was spared, thank the Lord.

and those Floridians and our neighbors just South of us are still in a incredibly devastating situation.

And so, I think it was the right thing to do to allow, to make sure that anybody that's evacuated from the storm and their house has been destroyed.

You know, that they have a way to access the ballot box and vote.

What's frustrating to me, and the, the only thing I'd take issue within your introduction is that the Republican leadership and the Governor have done more than just complain about voting access.

They've been restricting it in Tallahassee, and I just wish that we brought the same sort of spirit to making sure all Floridians have access to the ballot in a statewide way.

And it wasn't just, you know, those counties that have been impacted by a hurricane that we are, were focused on.

- Travis, what would you say to that?

- I mean, many of these people don't have homes to even attach, you know, addresses now to attach a ballot to, and all I appreciate the representatives, you know, talk about the spirit of it.

I think that in, in Optimals, when the circumstances are optimal, of course we want to verify ballots to the best that we can.

We want to make sure they're connected to an address.

But as Dr. McManus said, I mean, he took a set of prudent steps during an obviously unprecedented situation and much like last time in the panhandle.

So I don't think that, I certainly wouldn't want us to have a partisan debate about it.

And, I don't see one happening, you know, I don't see one out in the public either, that people seem to be kind of understanding that that's what the government needed to do.

- I want to switch gears just a little bit, Ernest.

former New Jersey governor Chris Christie knocked Governor DeSantis this week because back in the day during Hurricane Sandy DeSantis voted against relief funds for Hurricane Sandy.

Chris Christie knocked him over that.

These are two potential rivals in the future for President.

- So, you know, if you drill down on that, that a supporter of DeSantis will tell you that he was not opposed to direct aid going to New Jersey, but some of the "pork" that he perceived that was in that bill.

- Right.

- And we would hope that the situation would be different this time.

But I remember the controversy over delivering aide to New Jersey, and it was disconcerting for a lot of people to see Republicans.

It wasn't just De Santis, it was a wide swath of House Republicans who voted against it.

And I always anticipated that somewhere along the way it was gonna be reversed, and then those Republicans would have to account for what they did by trying to deny aid to New Jersey.

- Okay.

Well, the congressional committee investigating the January 6th attack on the US Capitol held its ninth hearing this week and voted to subpoena former President Donald Trump for his role in the attempt to stop the peaceful transition of power.

Trump responded to the committee's subpoena with a 14 page letter, again, claiming the 2020 election was stolen.

For most of the committee's hearing on Thursday, lawmakers focused on how Trump acknowledged privately to associates that he had lost the 2020 election, and was continuously alerted to the violence unfolding at the Capitol on January 6th, but did not try to stop it.

The panel also unveiled recently obtained Secret Service messages and video footage showing agents knew that many Trump supporters were armed that day.

Also, at least 10 days before the Capitol riot, the Secret Service and other intelligence agencies had information about potential violence from far right groups such as The Proud Boys.

- In this report received on December 26th, the Secret service field office related tip that had been received by the FBI, according to the source of the tip, the Proud Boys plan to march armed into DC.

They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed, the source reported, and will outnumber the police so they can't be stopped.

The source went on to say their plan is to literally kill people.

Please, take this tip seriously and investigate further.

- In previously unreleased and dramatic footage presented by the committee, showed speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and other members of Congress reacting to the violence.

- Secret Service said they have dissuaded him from coming to Capitol Hill .

They told him they don't have the resources to protect him here.

So at the moment, he is not coming.

But that could change.

- Oh, I hope he comes, I'm gonna punch him out.

I'm to waiting for this, for trespassing on the Capitol grounds.

I want to punch him out, and I'm gonna go to jail and I'm gonna be happy.

- Travis, this was a ninth hearing.

Maybe the last, what's your biggest takeaway from it?

- There's a fatigue with it.

You know, you can't, you can't eat January 6th hearing.

You can't put it in your gas tank and run it down the road.

I think this is just another instance of the Democrat party being disconnected from the, the, the pulse of the people.

They, the people especially we're talking about later, in the middle, they don't, they don't wanna hear about this.

They want to hear about what we're gonna do to, to help make, you know, get rid of inflation, help, help lower inflation, help create more jobs.

And this is, again, more political theater.

I mean, I think we, we've beat this horse enough.

- All right.

Ernest, what do you think?

- Well, I think there's a partisan divide with this.

Like there is about almost everything in our country right now.

And I think those on the Democratic side did want to hear about this, did wanna learn the details, did want to have more information about how close they came to really upsetting the election, the electoral college process.

I think they wanted to know what the president's role may or may not have been, but I think a lot of Republicans were tuning out, and as Travis noted, we're more interested in other things that are happening right now in terms of our economy.

So this certainly didn't help bridge any divides for sure.

- So Susan, what was your biggest takeaway?

- That it's over because of the fatigue.

And I've seen polls, national polls that show that people are weary of it.

And it is clearly as, as Mr Hooper said, a clear divide between the parties.

But to me, the more intriguing thing is okay, we're done, supposedly.

But the fascinating thing is now the law.

Can a president be forced to, with a subpoena, to come testify?

And I've already started listening here, you're a lawyer here.

A lot of the lawyers are already arguing about does he have to, does he not?

Meanwhile, people just want a, the election to be over.

and this too.

- Ben, what did, what was your biggest takeaway?

- Well, I, I unfortunately don't think the extremism and the violence that we saw in January 6th in our politics is over.

And my biggest takeaway is that I think that the Congress has done a good job with the hearings in creating a record.

I mean, we have never had a threat to the peaceful transfer of power in this country like we witnessed on that day.

And the committee's work is, first of all, it's been a bipartisan committee work, and people from both sides of the aisle, regardless of the political reactions to the committee's work need to take seriously the fact that we have extremist elements in this country that continue to want to threaten these elections.

And we're gonna have to learn what we can do going forward to make sure that something like this never happens again.

- And Travis and Susan, you talked about fatigue, but I mean, I think the big question here is the one that Ben raised, and that is, is our democracy at stake?

Is it still threatened by this?

- This country will endure.

You know, the only thing I worry about on a practical level is our adversaries abroad saw how easy it was to take the capital.

I've always assumed as a former infantryman in the Army that maybe we had a battalion infantry on call around there somewhere.

But, you know, certainly there was no, no real great security on the ground.

- Nancy Pelosi in that video of January 6th committee was trying to get the National Guard to come into Washington and having a hard time.

- Well, there's some debate about that, but I think to the bigger picture, and we see it aside from January 6th, one of the biggest challenges that we are facing this election cycle is fear by poll workers and election officials of violence at the polling place.

We're having trouble recruiting poll workers.

People are really fearful.

And I know several supervisors of elections in this area that have gotten death threats at their home already.

- I think that's true.

So Ernest, who do you think is causing these threats?

Who is threatening the poll workers and the election supervisors the most?

- Well, I think it's probably coming from the right because President Trump continues to at least publicly say that the election was stolen.

And so that plants seeds of distrust among his supporters and his supporters are losing faith in the election process.

And so they feel compelled to take these extreme actions.

And it's sad if you've ever worked in a poll, I have, or you ever talked to supervisor of elections, regardless of what party they're from, I would say the vast majority take this process very seriously.

They're very non-partisan about it, and it's a really sacred trust for them.

And to have them questioned and threatened is, is really kind of sad.

- Okay, well this will continue.

Well, even though they do not appear on the November ballot, how voters feel about President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is an issue in this election.

Their names are frequently mentioned in campaign ads and in mailers because they arouse deep emotions on issues such as inflation and January 6th.

So, when we recently convened a panel of independent voters, we asked them about whether Biden and Trump should run for President in 2024.

And we also asked about another possible contender, Governor DeSantis, here's what the independents told us.

- Who thinks that Joe Biden should definitely not run in 2024?

Definitely not.

Okay, we've got two.

Josh, why do you think he should not run in 2024?

- When I go to football practice and a junior comes up to me, he's like, Coach, president can't even read the prompt screen.

Right?

That's a problem.

When our youth are looking up to our president and they, the youth, I'm not talking about me perspectively, I'm talking about the future, is looking at our president and saying like, Is he alright?

- He's too old and we could get a strong candidate.

He wanted to be president.

He got that opportunity.

I believe that they could get another strong Democrat.

- Who thinks that Donald Trump definitely should not run.

Let's start with you.

- January 6th.

They attempted to stop the certification of the election.

It, nothing more needs to be said.

That's it should, there should have been a peaceful transfer of power.

- I mean, at the most basic level, I don't believe he fundamentally understands how government works.

I think he doesn't care.

I've worked with many corporations I've worked in a lot of corporations, small and large, and I've worked with a number of people at the top of the corporation who had a bunch of "yes" men around them and everyone catered to them.

And every whim that they wanted, it's like it was fulfilled for them.

And I, and I think that's the issue with him.

- A lot of people, especially conservatives and Republicans, think that Ron DeSantis should run for president in 2024.

- If Ron DeSantis wants to be the Governor of Florida elected in 2022, then he should assure the voters of Florida that he has no intention of running for President in 2024.

In answer to your question, no, he should make it abundantly clear that he's the governor of Florida and he will finish out his term.

- You know, but the fact is, I mean, Governor DeSantis says he's focused on this election and this election alone, and then he's got no intention, you know, of looking at a race past this race right now.

- Ernest, I think it's clear that these voters, these independents didn't want to see Joe Biden or Donald Trump run for president 2024.

What's your takeaway from that?

- Well, I, I think the economy is such a big part of this.

And right now we are dealing with post pandemic inflation.

We appear to be headed towards a recession, and that is going to weigh down Joe Biden's chances of winning reelection.

And in the end, this is all about who can win.

And the people who are saying Joe Biden shouldn't run, are saying that because they don't believe he can win.

The Democrats who are saying that.

And it's the same, I think, with Donald Trump to a certain extent, I think there's a lot of Republicans who are saying they don't think he can win.

I mean, he has no shortage of civil and criminal investigations attached to him.

Now, he didn't win the last election.

So there has to be at least some segment of Republicans who think we need to find a different candidate.

- But Susan, I think it's fair to say that if the election were held today, the primary election for the Republicans were held today, and Donald Trump were in the primary, he would win.

- I don't know about that.

I think DeSantis is building a base across the country.

That's pretty impressive.

But what I was gonna say about this whole issue, people forget that now 57% of Florida's registered voters are the three youngest generations, and it's over 33% of the millennials and the Gen Zers.

What do those young people want in a candidate besides youth?

They want diversity and they want someone who's going to be on the same page.

They are about the issues that are relating to them right now.

I see, when I look at young people's polls, they're interested in climate change and obviously student loan forgiveness.

And so, but I think it comes down to the fact that both parties now, if you look at the share of registrants in Florida, there's almost an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.

It's 36, 35 with Republicans, one up.

Everybody else is a no party affiliation.

Most of those are young people.

The parties themselves are going to have to get with the program and examine this generational replacement issue and pay more attention to young voters, or they're going to lose.

- Ben, Susan just said that Governor DeSantis is developing a base around the country, yet we heard from one of the voters, one of the independents who said, Look, the governor is only focused on getting reelected.

He's not focused on the next election.

What's your take on what Governor DeSantis is up to?

- Well, I mean, he's been running for president since he took office.

I mean, that's my perspective on it from my perch in Tallahassee.

I mean, he's one of probably the most polarizing governors we've had in the history of our state.

He's pursued a culture war agenda to make national headlines.

And he's made a lot of national headlines, whether it's the Don't Say Gay Bill or, you know, fighting with Disney or whatever else he's been doing to get on Fox News.

I think going back to Susan's point about young voters and, and the 2024 election, you know, Americans are optimistic and we want to find a leader that's also forward thinking and is gonna present an agenda for the future.

And on those issues you mentioned, which I think are key issues, you know, I think the President is going to have a great set of issues to talk about if he does decide to run for reelection.

That's my perspective, because on the issues with regard to addressing climate change, taking us out of this pandemic, student loan forgiveness, I mean, he has a record that I think is better than Democrats running in 2022 are articulating right now.

- Travis.

- Come on.

Infrastructure's the governor's.

He's proven, he's, he's a can do kind of guy.

He's obviously smart, well trained.

He has a great partner and the first lady, former news person, and she's, I think, probably one of his closest advisors.

And I hope he, you know, he's listening to her too, because they make a great couple and he's, I mean, as far as the Don't Say Gay Bill that was spun up by the Democrats, it was spun up by the Democrats.

It wasn't, it was, don't expose my child to this, this type of lifestyle that I want to be able to explain and then myself, that's what we're doing.

That's what the party was doing.

Well, my, so as far as polarizing, that's a polarizing issue.

Could we get onto the economy?

Could we get onto roads and infrastructure rebuilding Florida?

That would be the, the types of issues that he's gonna prove.

I mean, he's, he rebuilt a bridge and what they rebuilt, rebuilt a bridge in 24 hours down South Florida.

They're making strides to repair the area and then, you know, he's.

- Ben you get the last word.

- Well, basically that's my point.

Exactly.

I mean, you know, for, for Bill, after bill session, after session, we've been working on these polarizing culture war issues and we have not been working on the key issues, in my opinion, in terms of the affordability in this state.

You know, we got a housing crisis, we got a property insurance crisis, and those are getting bandaid treatments from Tallahassee.

They're not getting serious treatments right now.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, Nebraska's US Senator Ben Sasse faced pointed questions in loud protests from at least a thousand people Monday during his first visit to the University of Florida as the lone finalist to become the school's new president.

Sasse, a Republican, announced last week, he's resigning from the US Senate.

He's drawn criticism from some in Gainesville for his stance on same sex marriage and other LGBTQ issues.

Others question his qualifications to run such a large school with more than 50,000 students.

Previously, he had been president of Midland University, that's a private Lutheran school in Fremont, Nebraska, which has about 1500 students.

Some UF students were concerned about the secretive process used in selecting Sasse.

A new Florida law allows universities to conduct much of the hiring process outside of the state's open meetings and public records sunshine laws.

The Nebraska Senator was one of just seven Republicans who voted to convict then President Trump last year for his role in the January 6th insurrection.

So Ben, you went to the University of Florida Law School and we only have 30 seconds.

Would Sasse be a good fit?

- Well, unfortunately, I don't really know the answer to that because the whole process was conducted behind closed doors, which is really the problem.

I mean, from my perspective, there needs to be a public vetting and there needs to be an opportunity for the top finalists, more than one person to be interviewed by all the constituencies that matter.

You know, we have alums, we have students, we have faculty.

These are, this is our flagship university.

This is a statewide leadership position.

And the idea that the whole search is conducted in secret and we're just gonna rubber stamp the one person that comes out, it's really disappointing.

- Okay, I wish we had more time, but before we go, what other news story should we be paying attention to?

Ernest, let's start with you.

Your other big story of the week.

Well.

- My employer, United Way Sun Coast will be partnering with Water Street Tampa and Sparkman Wharf to have a supply drive for hurricane victims.

October 21st through October 23rd at Sparkman Wharf.

You can come out and bring hygiene products.

We have a list on our website of what we're looking for.

The needs are specific and I hope people can come out and support that.

- That's United Way suncoast.org.

Is that close?

- Yes, that's exactly it.

Very.

- Good.

All right.

- Travis, your other big story?

- You know, you and perhaps some of your viewers saw the young quarterback at Miami Dolphins.

The quarterback that was hit in the head and then hit in the head again, secondary concussion syndrome could have killed him.

I think, and, and lawyers are gonna love this.

My trial attorneys in Tallahassee are going to love this.

I think eventually we will see lawsuits, lots of lawsuits against the professional football league, perhaps even the NHL, any kind of sports league where you're hitting people in the head and we're gonna have to take care of those people.

- Let's hope it reduces.

And if we don't see so many more injuries, Ben, your other big story.

- Well, next week is the sole debate for our United States Senator from the state, our sole debate in selecting who will be Governor of Florida.

And I just think it's amazing and disappointing really, that voters are getting such, so few opportunities to see these candidates for such important offices.

Square off, answer questions from voters, and from my perspective in Tampa Bay, I just haven't seen these candidates out and about a lot.

- All right, Susan, your other big story.

- Re-look at the death penalty.

The Parkland verdict has absolutely pushed the button for both Democrats and Republicans from that area to say, We need to re-look at the death penalty and reexamine whether we need a unanimous verdict or not.

The passion is there.

You can imagine the 17 parents and students and so forth and teachers that were killed, that that issue is, is really suddenly hot.

- It was just devastating to see the looks on the parents' faces as the verdict was being read.

Well, thank you all.

What a stellar panel.

I'm so glad you were here.

Appreciate that.

Thank and thank you for joining us.

Send us your comments@ftwwedu.org.

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

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From all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend.

- Florida This week is a production of W E D U, who is solely responsible for its content.