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"Florida This Week" is made possible in part, by support from the Tampa Bay Times.

- Coming up next, President Trump will be back in the spotlight, when he speaks to the CPAC convention in Orlando.

More complaints about favoritism, and the way the governor distributed, extra COVID-19 vaccines.

And does the legislature need to fix Florida's voting system?

Our guests are Darrell Paulson, professor emeritus, from University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.

Jessica De Leon from the Bradenton Herald, and Brad Ashwell with the Statewide Group, All Voting is Local, next on "Florida This Week".

(upbeat music) Welcome back, I'm Ernest Hooper sitting in for Rob Lorei.

There were new revelations this week, as those in charge of security testified before Congress, about what they knew regarding the January 6 Capitol invasion.

The acting Capital police chief, warned that militia groups wanna blow up the landmark building, and the ex-capital chief, who was in charge during the invasion, said the rioters came prepared for war.

- I've been in policing for almost 30 years, the events I witnessed on January 6th, was the worst attack on law enforcement and our democracy, that I've seen in my entire career.

I witnessed insurgents beating police officers with fists, pipes, sticks, bats, metal barricades and flagpoles.

These criminals came prepared for war.

- That testimony comes just before former President Donald Trump prepares to step into the spotlight this weekend, at the Conservative Political Action Convention in Orlando.

Trump is widely reported to be preparing a speech, where he again, will falsely claim the election was stolen from him.

Also this week, St. Petersburg Congressman, Charlie Crist, got involved in a controversy that's rocked Manatee County.

Crist called for an investigation, as to how 3000 extra doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were handed out exclusively to people who live in two of the county's wealthiest zip codes.

Governor Ron DeSantis has said the vaccines, went to the areas with the highest concentration of seniors, and he did nothing wrong, we'll have more on that story in a moment.

Meantime, the governor announced plans to put limits on voting.

He's supporting a bill that will require more hurdles (indistinct).

And the Florida Supreme Court this week, dealt a setback to Hillsborough transportation advocates.

The high court struck down the one cent transportation improvement tax, known as all for transportation, the tax was approved by voters in 2018, and included a list of projects that will be funded by the new dollars.

The Supreme Court said that list illegally took away power from the Hillsborough County Commission, to decide which projects to fund.

Backers hope to put a new referendum on the ballot next year.

US Representative Charlie Crist, is calling on the Department of Justice to investigate, whether Governor Ron DeSantis violated federal law, in reserving two Manatee County vaccination sites for two wealthy zip codes.

The sites were set up last week, with the assistance of Lakewood Ranch developer, Rex Jensen, and Manatee County Commission Chair, Vanessa Baugh.

Reporter Jessica De Leon is a law enforcement reporter, for the Bradenton Herald, and has been covering this story, Jessica thanks for joining us on "Florida this week".

- Thank you for having me.

- Yes, so I wanted to start by asking, do you think the governor was deliberate in singling out these two specific wealthy zip codes, and now he's trying to cover his tracks?

- I think it's very clear that the governor wanted to bring the vaccine site to this area Lakewood Ranch, which is an area of gated communities.

And these two specific zip codes were actually chosen to my knowledge by Commissioner Vanessa Baugh.

These two zip codes are among the wealthiest in our county.

This all came about when Brex Jensen, Lakewood Ranch's developer received a call from Pat Neal, another developer, and the governor happened to be on the line.

He was asked about bringing in a vaccine site to his communities, and he was not comfortable with being part of the process, as far as getting the word out, and setting up these appointments.

But the county already had a system in place, and so then he reached out to Vanessa Baugh to help get these appointments set for this exclusive vaccine site.

And she in turn directed the county's director of public safety and his staff, to pool only residents who listed the two zip codes in question 34202 and 34211, from the counties random vaccine pool, which had been created intentionally to be random.

- So, Jessica, do you think this is just the media giving these elected officials a difficult time, or are there really a lot of Manatee County residents who are upset about this issue?

- No, this is not just us creating hype, far from it.

We've received more letters to the editor on this subject, than we have on any subject in years.

I myself have received countless emails and voicemails, the commission themselves have received countless emails, I'm sometimes copied on those emails, and people are angry.

The governor claimed when he came out to the site, that he just wanted to bring this to a site, where a lot of 65 plus and older folks live, to get in and out and vaccinate as many people as possible, and as quick amount of time as possible.

If that were the case, he could have easily just given this 3000 allotment to the county who has proven was out here visiting that site just last month, and touted how good of a job the county had did in setting up their drive-through.

- So Jessica let me ask, I know you've done some reporting on this, and I understand you unearthed a really interesting email that Commissioner Baugh has sent out.

- Yes, this email went from Commissioner Baugh, to the county's director of public safety.

The subject line of which was, names for lists, names for vaccination requested.

And then below that she listed Rex Johnson, Johnson's father, two of her former neighbors whom support her politically and do business with her, and then Vanessa Baugh herself.

- So Vanessa Baugh is facing a criminal complaint, that's been filed by a Sarasota paralegal, how do you see this playing out for her?

- Well, they're looking into it, the Sheriff's office is investigating it to see if she misused her power as a public official, to not only secure vaccines, or to potentially secure vaccines for herself or others, and would violate state statute, misusing her position and power.

- I know some people have called for her to resign, do you see that as a possibility?

- Definitely not.

Vanessa Baugh has made it clear, she will not resign.

There were dozens of protesters outside the county administration building on Tuesday, where she made clear she will not resign.

There was a motion made during the meeting for her to step down as chair, or to be replaced as chair of the commission, that motion failed.

But Vanessa Baugh is not willingly stepping down.

- Well, Jessica, it seems like this story is far from over, we really appreciate you joining us here on "Florida this Week" to share some insight, thank you.

- Thank you so much, and thank you again for having me.

(upbeat music) - The organization, All Voting is Local, fights for access to the ballot for all voters, regardless of who they are.

They have affiliates in several states across the US, who are facing proposed voting changes.

Brad Ashwell is the Florida state director, and joins us now, hi Brad?

- Hi, thanks for having me.

- Yeah, thanks for being here.

So Brad, we have talked a lot about this proposed bill that's come out of the legislature in Tallahassee , has there been any evidence of widespread voter fraud, that would make this bill a necessity?

- Not that I'm aware of, I haven't heard anybody from the right or the left, any supervisors of elections, the people running our elections, I haven't heard anybody complain about fraud this past cycle.

- So what do you think is driving the creation of this bill?

- Well, I think one of the big landmark issues this past cycle was the the degree of misinformation.

There was a lot of misinformation coming from a lot of sources, voters were bombarded by it.

Part of that, one big piece of it, was this myth that the vote by mail system was ripe with fraud and problematic.

And that seems to, that myth, that notion that, you know, there are all these bad actors trying to manipulate the process and get extra votes, I think that's motivating a lot of this.

I think legislative leaders, our governor, and others are trying to pander to that base, who are misinformed, frankly, there's just no issue there.

- So this bill has been proposed by Dennis Baxley out of Marion County.

And does this bill have the chance to start out small and become something much bigger?

- Definitely, I think what we saw with the governor's announcement last week, is that they're working on a large, a much larger bill, much more ambitious with a lot of different pieces.

He's already outlined some of the general topics he wants to address, all in the name of election integrity, but the devil's gonna be in the details, and nobody that I know of is seeing that legislation yet, in terms of, you know, the groups that we typically work with, and supervisors of elections we've spoken to.

So we're all poised and ready to see it, we're waiting on pins and needles.

- So the supervisors of election association, was not consulted in the crafting of this bill, which is usually a tradition in Tallahassee, and they are actually opposed to it, what does that say about this bill Brad?

- Well, it just really makes one question where it's coming from, if they're not consulting with the people who are running our elections, or really generously taking their feedback when they propose amendments, you know, where is this really coming from, and what's the real motives behind it?

I mean, the other undeniable factor, it's hard to talk about this without getting political, we're non-partisan organization, but sometimes you have to call a duck a duck.

And in this case, if you look at the numbers, vote by mail was a little different this cycle, typically Republicans way out pace Democrats in the use of vote by mail ballots, this cycle was a little different.

One interpretation is bill, that I tend to agree with is that the powers that be in the legislature, are trying to kind of level the playing field in their favor, or put their fingers on the scale, and eliminate any advantage the Democrats might've gained last election cycle, in registering a really significant number of vote by mail applications, which typically lasts for two election cycles.

So one of the big negative parts of the bill, is that it would wipe out all those applications that were made last year, and it would be a reset button, we just start from zero, and I think they believe they can outpace the Democrats.

- All right, well, Brad, we appreciate you joining us, good luck as you continue to advocate for voters, with All Voting is Local, thank you.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - There's a long history in Florida of law makers making it more difficult for citizens to vote, that includes discrimination against black voters.

Darrell Paulson is the Ameritas xx professor of government, at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and has written extensively over the years about this subject.

Darrell, welcome back to "Florida this Week".

- Hey, I'm glad to be here Ernest.

- It's good to see you.

So in light of the CPAK convention this weekend in Orlando, I wanna read some numbers from a new USA Today Suffolk Poll about the Republican party.

More Trump voters are loyal to Donald Trump than they are to the party, 54%.

Even though he would be 78 years old in 2024, a big majority want him to run for president again, 59%.

And 58% believe in the conspiracy theory that says it was not Trump supporters who stormed the Capital on January 6.

Darrell, what does that say about the Republican base?

Is there a danger to our country from holding these beliefs?

- Well, there's always a danger when people uncouple themselves from political reality, other things on that poll that you didn't mention, 75% percent of Trump supporters do not think Joe Biden is a legitimate president, even though he won by more than seven million votes.

Their response to that is simply to continue to deny that, based on everything that Trump has said about election fraud, which he alleged took place.

And so they're buying into this, and they're also saying that, oh, they support Trump, because Trump is a different kind of Republican.

As I said in the poll, Trump fights for us, the Republican establishment doesn't, in fact they compare the Republican establishment, to the democratic establishment, saying there was no difference between the two.

It started like the old Tweedledum Tweedledee theory of politics, there's not a dime's worth of difference between the party, and that's the way many Trump supporters see it.

So a lot of his support is drawn from these disaffected individuals, who want something different, and boy, did they get that.

- Yeah, so I wanna play a sound bite, and this is a warning from the third highest ranking Republican in Congress, Liz Cheney, she is not a Trump fan.

This is a warning she made this week about the GOP.

- It's very important, especially for us as Republicans, to make clear that we aren't the party of white supremacy, you certainly saw anti-Semitism, you saw the symbols of Holocaust denial for example, at the Capitol that day, you saw a Confederate flag being carried through the rotunda.

And I think we, as Republicans in particular, have a duty and an obligation to stand against that.

- So Darrel, is the party moving toward being the party of white supremacists and insurrectionists?

- Well, they are both by their words and by their deeds, and in a moment, we'll talk about election laws, and specifically what Florida is doing with respect to election laws.

And a lot of those changes are quite quite honestly designed at black voter suppression, to make it more difficult for blacks to participate in the election process.

Because one of the things that we've seen in the last several election cycles, is that black voters which turned out at a higher rate than white voters, and then particularly with respect to mail in voting, blacks have taken over, in terms of being the majority of vote by mail individuals.

And it used to be, this was an area that Republicans completely dominated.

And then along comes President Trump, and he tells people to vote at the polls, you know, there's too much fraud going on, vote by mail was nothing more than fraud.

And what he did was to discourage many of his own supporters from, you know, engaging in what the the Republican party had dominated.

And so now Democrats have this complete domination of the vote by mail, and in Florida right now, just one example, there's over 800,000 more Democrats who have requested vote by mail for 2022 than Republicans.

That's a huge advantage and of course, Ron DiSantos is gonna be in that particular election, and he's the one who supports this, making it more difficult to vote by mail.

And it's hard to see that as nothing more, than an attempt to suppress democratic voters, many of whom are African-American voters - Darrel, what kind of comparisons would you draw between the bill that's being proposed right now, and what we've seen historically in Florida?

- Yeah, well, Florida has had a long history of discriminating against the African-Americans, in fact, it's almost a 200 year history of voter discrimination against African-Americans.

And for much of Florida's history, it's been the Democrats who led that discrimination, quite honestly from the end of reconstruction, about 1870 in Florida until the 1990s, a period of 120 years, Democrats dominated Florida politics, and they put it into effect most of the worst voting discrimination barriers the state has ever seen.

The white primary, the poll tax, the literacy tasks, grandfather clauses, Eight Ballot Box, which Florida alone uniquely created against it's African-American citizens.

So there's a long history of discrimination by the Democrats, but Republicans had the opportunity when they took over in the 1990s, and have dominated Florida for the past 30 years, to change things, to once again become the party of Lincoln, to connect with its roots on protecting and preserving African-American voters, and instead what they've done there is to continue that process of voter discrimination, but they've just moved in different directions.

And they've done it by voter purges, and by trying to cut back at the vote by mail efforts, and of course this whole issue of the felon vote, where Florida has a terrible legacy.

You know, 1/4 of all individuals who are denied the right to vote in the United States, because of the felon vote issue, reside in the state of Florida.

Anytime you have 1/4 of the entire nation being based in Florida and denied the right to vote, because they have a felony conviction, primarily for the fact that Florida makes more things felony than any other state, you know, that's not a sign of progress, that's a sign of voter discrimination, that's a sign of vote suppression, and it's not a good thing for Florida to be proud of.

- Yeah, so Darrell, what do you see happening with the GOP party, particularly in terms of those who want to bring the party back to being the party of Lincoln, who are closer to the center?

What happens to people like Liz Cheney?

- Yeah, well, the options are not good, you've already Kevin McCarthy, who supported Liz Cheney after she came out, and said that she would vote to impeach the president.

She was one of about 20 house members that did, so he sort of backed away from his endorsement of her.

You've now more recently seen Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, also backing away and saying that if Trump was the Republican nominee in 2024, he'd support Trump in that position.

And so there's a lot of fear of Trump and his power.

And so the difficulty for the Republicans who wanna disassociate themselves from President Trump, is that the Trump supporters control most of the party machinery, they're in the positions of power in each of the 50 States to take full control.

And you've seen what happened to the individuals who have not sided with Trump, you know, they've already been chastised by party officials for their actions, and it's gonna make it very difficult for them to put together a significant following.

So one of two possibilities, either Trump factions dominate the Republican party, or somehow the anti-Trump forces do, and right now you'd have to say the money is on the Trump forces, just given their complete tactical advantage, so to speak, within the Republican party at this point in time, it's very difficult to run an insurgent campaign, when you in fact are supposed to be the people running the party, and you see somebody else completely taking over the party and dominating it.

The one thing that might intervene, that could effect this of course, is all of the legal suits that are in process against Donald Trump, whether it's an income tax issue in New York state, or some of the other issues about trying to change the vote in the state of Georgia, and apply your legal pressure on the voting officials in that state.

You know, if Trump is found guilty of some of those violations, and that in itself may resolve the issue, as to whether or not Trump will be a viable presidential candidate for years.

But right now, you know, the Trump bytes say clearly, if Trump runs in four years, we'll back it.

And in fact, 85% of Trump supporters said they want him to run and they would back him in 2024.

- So Darrell, in the last minute we have, what can the Democrat party and others who feel like votes are going to be suppressed by this new bill, what can they do to counter that?

- Well, historically the avenue for African Americans, and to a great extent, the Democratic party used the courts, I mean, the courts have been the most friendly institution towards African-Americans, primarily in the past, it was the NAACP, but now you're seeing this attempt to suppress early voting, to make it that you no longer, if you requested early voting, it doesn't apply to two elections like it did in the past, but the new law says it will only apply to one election.

And all of these are designed to suppress the black vote, because they see the trend lines, they see how the Democrats have used this to their advantage, they saw what happened in Georgia, the two Democrats won in Georgia, the Senate races primarily, because of the huge black turnout, in both by mail in that state, and they don't want it to happen in the state of Florida.

- Right, all right, Darrell Paulson, USF St. Petersburg Ameritas professor, thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it.

- Good to see you Ernest, always a pleasure.

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