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- Coming up next, another special session of the legislature.

We'll look at what was on and off the agenda.

Some of the Republican presidential candidates meet for their third debate, this time in Miami.

A resolution calling for a ceasefire in both Gaza and Israel goes down to defeat in the state legislature.

And comedian Steve Martin has one of his books banned in Collier County Schools.

All this and more coming up right now on "Florida This Week."

(dramatic music) (dramatic music) Welcome back.

Joining us on the panel this week, Alex Sink is the former Florida Chief Financial Officer, a candidate for governor, and a Democrat.

Danny Kushmer is a real estate broker and a businessman and a Republican.

Mitch Perry is a political reporter for The Florida Phoenix.

And Kimberly Leonard is the Florida politics reporter and author for the Florida Playbook at Politico.

Nice to have you all here.

What a slow news week, eh?

So the third debate featuring every major Republican presidential candidate, except Donald Trump, took place Wednesday in Miami.

We went to the PolitiFact website to look at how they rated some of the claims made by the candidates.

Here's some of what PolitiFact found.

Governor DeSantis said this about the October 7th attack in Israel.

He said, "We had Floridians that were over there "after the attack.

"He, Biden, left them stranded.

"They couldn't get flights out "so I scrambled resources in Florida.

"I sent planes over to Israel, "and I brought back over 700 people to safety."

But PolitiFact found that this gives the misleading impression that the Biden administration failed to evacuate Americans.

But that's not the case.

On October 12th, the Biden administration announced that the next day the U.S. government would arrange charter flights to assist U.S. citizens and their immediate family members to depart Israel.

Governor DeSantis also said this.

"I already acted in Florida.

"We had a group of Students for Justice in Palestine; "they said they are common cause with Hamas.

"They said, 'We're not just in solidarity.

"'This is what we are.'

"We deactivated the group."

But PolitiFact found that this does not tell the whole story.

There were no Florida chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine that made public statements about aligning with Hamas.

And Governor DeSantis also said, "If someone in the drug cartels "is seeking fentanyl across the border, "when I'm president, "that's going to be the last thing they do.

"We're gonna shoot them stone cold dead."

Now, the experts told PolitiFact that DeSantis's proposal to send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border would not lower fentanyl flow, and the use of deadly force against people trafficking fentanyl would likely violate domestic and international law.

Well, Kimberly, you were there.

What was the tone in the room, and were there any candidates that you saw breaking through and really lighting up the crowd?

- Well, it was very clear heading into the debate who the top two candidates were, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and then still Governor Ron DeSantis.

They took, however, 45 minutes to start attacking each other, which I thought was really interesting.

There were so many news stories leading up to the debate that predicted that the two would kind of get into it right away, but they didn't.

And then what was interesting was, was that when they did fight each other, it was over a lot more past positions that they've had.

So there was Nikki Haley accusing DeSantis of being liberal on his environmental record because he opposed fracking in Florida back in 2018.

DeSantis, in turn, accused Haley of trying to attract Chinese-linked businesses to South Carolina when she was governor 10 years ago.

So I thought it was interesting that there was really that clash on their like roles as governor versus actions they've had in Congress or her positions as UN Ambassador.

- And was there much attacking Donald Trump during that debate?

- You know, the very first question that they got was actually about how they would contrast themselves with Donald Trump.

And then pretty much he didn't come up for the rest of the debate.

But of course he loomed large over the event.

There were certainly opportunities for candidates to draw a contrast with every question, to bring out former President Trump's policies and to really say how they would act differently.

We didn't really see that as much.

Now, former President Trump was about 10 miles northwest in Hialeah, holding a big rally, getting a lot of applause, getting a lot of attention.

So for him, skipping out on these debates does not seem to have any cost whatsoever.

- So Danny, with the president, former president, not showing up to the three debates so far, do these debates matter with the former president's standing in the polls?

It looks like, at least today, he's gonna be the nominee.

- You know, I really believe he will be the nominee, but I do believe the debates do matter.

We don't know what's gonna happen a year from now.

We don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow.

Things change dramatically, especially in politics.

But what I will say is, I think what was great about last night is the governor using America's Sheriff, our sheriff in central Florida, we're gonna shoot 'em.

And our sheriff in central Florida said, "We'll shoot 'em a lot."

So I think that was a great line that the governor threw out there, certainly red meat for his base and Republicans.

I actually liked the debate.

I thought it was was good.

It was civil for the most part.

And we got to hear a lot of what each candidate believed in.

I'm one of those that don't really like the overtalking so much.

So I thought it was a great debate.

And even though the president was not there, the former president, Donald Trump, I think America needs to see what the second round is gonna look like.

- Alex, was there much panic among Democrats this week after that New York Times-Siena poll that showed that Joe Biden was trailing former President Trump?

- Well, yes, there was an incredible amount, an incredible amount of panic, Rob, because after all, this election's gonna come down, probably, to the results of only six states.

And if Biden's running behind in five of them, that's not a good signal for us.

So the Biden people have got to figure out a different strategy here so that we can talk to the voters about what's really important in this coming election.

And I'll say something a little bit later about looking at the results of Tuesday night.

I think that could change some thinking in terms of who people are really going to go and vote for.

So I'm still encouraged that we'll have President Biden for four more years after this.

- And Mitch, one of the questions is, did any of those candidates look like they were national candidates?

Because clearly right now the primaries are all about the Republican base.

It could be that one of these does emerge if Donald Trump fails.

Did anybody at at Wednesday night's debate look like they could reach into a national audience?

- Well, I think over all three debates, Nikki Haley has been the one Republican who has emerged as somebody, and the polls show this, who does better against Joe Biden, that is, Haley.

And she did that again yesterday.

Kimberly's right.

There was a lot of back and forth between her and DeSantis about previous things because they're both competing for second place right now.

She has emerged, DeSantis is still kind of in place from where we started.

He started back in May.

But they are 35 points behind Donald Trump.

So it's kind of surreal to watch these debates and realize the main character is not there.

And I know there's another debate next month in Alabama.

I think it's gonna be a little higher criteria.

So we might not see Chris Christie or Tim Scott.

We really need to see Haley, DeSantis, and Trump, but Trump's probably not gonna be there.

But I do think what Danny said about Trump and like why this still matters.

The extent that it does matter is the fact that these trials loom for Donald Trump.

We got a civil trial this week, but next year there's gonna be all these federal trials.

91 indictments.

And polls have indicated that if there's actually convictions, maybe people will be looking differently at Donald Trump than they are right now in the polls.

That's what DeSantis is counting on, obviously, and Haley as well.

Or all of 'em are.

Because that's where they can still be relevant in a way that they're just not right now.

It's hard to really fixate on that.

- And Rob, Nikki Haley's response on abortion, pay attention to that.

She's clearly communicating to a broader national audience.

- [Rob] It was a much more nuanced answer.

- Her response on abortion.

- Okay, well, in Tallahassee, the state legislature finished a three-day special session this week.

Among the items passed, proving, providing rather, $25 million to Jewish schools and synagogues for added security.

Lawmakers also levied additional sanctions against Iran and any companies that do business with Iran.

Iran is a supporter of Hamas in Gaza.

There was money for disaster relief for some victims of Hurricane Idalia.

Legislature approved additional money for Floridians to harden their homes and for storm mitigation to lessen the impact of future hurricanes.

And the legislature okayed additional spending for Florida's school voucher program.

All of this legislation was approved unanimously.

Missing from the agenda though?

Any fix for Florida's homeowners insurance crisis.

So, Mitch, is that a fair summation of the accomplishments?

You were up there in Tallahassee.

- Yeah, Rob, I will say that that money to the Jewish schools, he actually added 20 million also for other purposes, which could be for historical Black colleges and universities, which could be tapped into later next year.

You mentioned also I was covering the Hurricane Idalia relief.

$416 million package.

A lot to those farmers who got affected by Idalia back in August, and they're really grateful for that.

$181 million for My Safe Florida Home program, which helps people harden their homes.

There's a big waiting list, 17,000 people.

That money will go to that.

There was things that were accomplished.

Did they need to happen right now and have a special session for this?

No, the governor really wanted this this week.

Obviously showed the toughness with support with Israel and target Iran there.

We already had sanctions against Iran, bolstered them a little bit here.

- So Alex, why do the special session now?

Why didn't they wait till January?

What's your take on that?

- Well, I agree with Mitch.

I think the driving force was the situation with the Israel and the Hamas war, to be able to have our legislature show support, mainly for the Israelis of course.

But I also think that, let me speak to My Safe Florida Homes.

That was a program that was started, and when I was the Chief Financial Officer, we ran that program, it was $350 million.

It is one of the best uses of government money, to enable homeowners to harden their homes.

And as a result, they are assured of getting reductions in their property insurance rates.

So I think the issues they addressed were very timely for the times that we're in right now.

- Danny, some people wondered though, why was insurance left off the agenda?

Should homeowners insurance been on the agenda this week?

- You know, I think as Paul Renner said and Jason Shoaf, they will address that in the regular session.

But like Alex said, My Safe Florida Home, that addresses some of the issues.

Harden our homes, helping us reduce some of our insurance costs as we go.

Certainly, we need to address homeowners insurance in Florida.

There is no doubt about it.

As a realtor, as someone that works within the state of Florida and also outside the state of Florida in real estate, homeowner insurance is a problem in our state, and we need to address it.

And if they don't step up in January, it's gonna be a disappointment.

- Kimberly, was this a way for the governor to kind of polish his national reputation and his reputation on international issues?

- Look, there's not a politician out there that doesn't make decisions and think about how it'll affect their electoral chances.

That's just a part of the package.

It did give him a few talking points, obviously, especially going into this week's debate which was very heavily focused on foreign policy.

DeSantis has very clear examples of actions that he's taken on these issues, actions that he talked about last night.

And in fact in the audience last night, he also had people that he had helped flee from Israel who had arrived in Florida.

So he was definitely showcasing his actions on that front.

I think also part of it can help to mitigate some of the criticism he might get on the state level.

There were some issues with vouchers.

Obviously, there was a waitlist with the home hardening program.

And so by addressing them, he can avoid criticism of having another candidate on stage act as though he's mismanaging the state or not doing his job.

And so a special session does allow him that kind of leverage and, frankly, gives him an advantage over the other people on stage, who, most of them, not all of them, but most of them only are running for president.

So he's able to show and not just tell, as he's running for the nomination.

- Well, a tense debate took place this week at the state capitol as lawmakers voted on resolutions concerning the Israel-Gaza War.

One representative, Democrat Angie Nixon from Jacksonville, introduced a resolution calling for a deescalation and ceasefire in both Israel and Occupied Palestine.

- A massacre is occurring now!

There are people innocent lives being lost right now.

UN, those from the UN.

(sighs) I'm just worried about...

I'm worried about the babies.

- [Rob] But others, fellow Democrats and Republicans, opposed the measure.

- Vote for this, you are putting my child and every Jewish child in this state at risk.

If you vote for this, you are an anti-Semite.

- [Rob] In the end, only Nixon and Anna Eskamani voted for the resolution.

- I'm heartbroken.

Especially for the Muslim community and the Palestinian community.

They've been demonized.

- And that was early in the week.

Later on Wednesday, the legislature unanimously passed a resolution supporting Israel in its battle against Hamas.

So Danny, on Thursday, Israel announced there is gonna be, at least a temporary humanitarian pause, a series of them.

So they don't call it a ceasefire, but there is gonna be a pause in the fighting.

Why was it so important for the legislature to vote the way it did on the Angie Nixon resolution?

- Well, what separates civil society with terrorists is that Israel did say we are going to do somewhat of a pause to allow humanitarian aid come in there.

Having the vote to vote her down.

She introduced the resolution, Representative Nixon.

She was given the opportunity to withdraw that resolution.

Leader Fentrice Driskell asked her to withdraw it, she chose not to.

And two of them, her and Anna Eskamani from Orlando, voted.

In America you can be an anti-Semite, but you can also be shown that you are filled with hate.

And just like at the national debate in Congress, I want to bring up that two of our Democrat congressmen in Florida, Jared Moskowitz and Darren Soto, voted to censor Rashida Tlaib.

And I appreciate that.

I appreciate their stance in Florida as a Democrat to stand strong for Israel.

And I'm very disappointed in our state that we would have two people that we elected and would go up there and go to Tallahassee and want to show, honestly, their hatred.

And so I appreciate Israel, what they're doing, but honestly I think Israel has a right to be Israel.

On October 7th, 1,500 of their people were slaughtered.

Babies killed in the street.

Atrocities that took place.

Representative Nixon, did she cry over that?

No, she did not.

That's very disappointing.

- But Danny, is it anti-Semitic to say that there should be a deescalation on both sides?

You think that that is anti-Semitic to say that?

- Does she call for Hamas to release the hostages?

No, she's calling for a deescalation right now because of Israel.

Did she call for a deescalation on October 7th when Hamas entered into Israel illegally, terrorists flew into Israel, they slaughtered people?

Did she call for a pause on October 8th?

No, she did not.

- Mitch, I was looking at the AP poll that came out late in the week, finds that 46% of Democrats in the U.S. disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling the situation in Israel.

They lean kind of against the military support that he's giving.

But 50% of Democrats do approve of what Biden is doing in Israel.

But I'm just wondering, what was the mood up there?

You were up in Tallahassee.

Only Anna Eskamani, as Danny pointed out, supported Representative Nixon.

- I was informed that there was a group of a few more Democrats, not a whole lot, maybe about seven Democrats, who were working on a resolution similar to what Nixon did, but maybe a little bit more encompassing, maybe mentioning, calling Hamas a terrorist organization, maybe making it more palatable.

And that Nixon and Eskamani were part of that group and then Angie Nixon went ahead then Monday night and put that out on her own.

And so you saw that.

It was kind of painful to watch when she was up there by herself and all the Republicans had their back to her.

But you mentioned it, Rob.

I think the word occupied was in there.

I think that really was offensive to a lot of folks.

But the difference between, there is a humanitarian pause versus a ceasefire because really that is what she called for on both sides.

But yeah, I mean, it was considered radical.

Rashida Tlaib, who Danny mentioned, was censured this week in the House.

I think you could argue was much more offensive in terms of what she said than what Nixon's resolution was.

But I think people, they were offended by it.

They thought it went too far.

There was really nobody other than Anna Eskamani who was there to vote with her.

- Okay.

Well, another topic.

Actor and comedian Steve Martin sarcastically boasted this week about the Collier County School District pulling his novel, "Shopgirl," from school library shelves.

Martin's book was one of 313 books removed from libraries in the school district to comply with the new Florida law prohibiting titles that contain sexual conduct.

Martin reacted to the banning with sarcasm on Instagram.

He posted, "So proud to have my book 'Shopgirl' "banned in Collier County, Florida.

"Now people who wanna read it will have to buy a copy!"

His 2000 novella is about a department store sales clerk who falls for an older man.

Martin also adapted it into a 2005 movie and starred as the older man, with Claire Danes playing the clerk.

Martin has prominent literary company.

Collier County is also reportedly banning books by Stephen King, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, and Ernest Hemingway.

So Alex who benefits when these books are removed from school library shelves?

- Nobody benefits.

And thank you to Steve Martin for issuing a little bit of comedy in this.

But seriously, this is a serious business, and my opinion is let people read what they want to read.

And if they don't want to read these books, then they shouldn't be reading them.

But they should not be removed from school libraries, public libraries.

I mean, he's right.

The bookstores you walk in and the first display you see anymore is, "Here are all the banned books "that you can buy and read."

And everybody's curious, and I think it's very concerning, particularly that a county like Collier would remove 300 books.

Let us read what we wanna read!

- Danny, have we gone too far in Florida in removing books from shelves?

Or are we protecting young people?

- Well, I believe we are protecting young people.

And I would say what COVID did to our society, it brought a lot of light.

It brought sunshine into our public schools and in our libraries.

And personally, I think we've allowed parents the ability to have more say-so in their children's lives.

So I don't believe a seven-to-10 year old should have the ability to access a sexually-graphic novel or even a graphic novel depicting the Holocaust and the war.

A seven-to-10-year-old should not have the ability to even get that book to read.

So we have restored the power to the parent.

There's 67 counties in the state of Florida.

Every county has created their own basic group.

Some in Collier County have have banned more books than, say, in Columbia County or Union County.

I was looking at the list.

So it's up to the parents.

Isn't that what we want, is our parents to have the authority over their children?

And that's what this has done.

This is not a ban, this is a realization that some of these books are truly inappropriate for younger children.

- Okay, Mitch, it's not a ban.

Go ahead.

- Well, Governor DeSantis has said all year it's a hoax to say this.

But Danny just said seven-to-10-year-olds.

Well, according to the Naples Daily News, the majority of these 313 books that are being removed from the Naples Public School, or Collier County Public School System, are for students between the ages of 14 and 18.

So that is significant.

I mean, I read racy novels and intense literature in high school, and thank God I did, or maybe things didn't work out well.

But the point is that is a little different.

I definitely think... Ron DeSantis, I was at the press conference in Tampa when he had this infamous, with Manny Diaz, the ban the books hoax, he called it.

And it's true that WFLA was there recording it live on their internet channel, and they did have to cut the feed.

He always mentions this.

There was some sexually-explicit material they were talking about there.

"Shopgirl," I think I said it right, the Martin novella, is not that.

So I think that's one thing for very sexually-explicit material for young people.

I can see that happening.

But for some of the stuff, and you mentioned some of these high-caliber authors that are being removed, maybe we are going too far.

- So Kimberly, Florida is in the national spotlight because we are a leader in removing these books from school library shelves, whether you call it a ban or something else.

This has drawn us national attention.

- Yeah, and I think that other districts are coming as well.

I've also heard of schools in parts of the country who are opposed to "To Kill a Mockingbird," for example.

So this is a conversation that I think is gonna be happening a little bit more on various sides of the issue.

One of the things that I think about a lot is that a lot of these students do have access to their own phones.

They have access to the internet and they have access to a lot of material that probably the same people who are asking for these books to be banned would object to.

So I'm a little confused about the focus on individual books and so forth when there is probably more content that people have access to when they're young.

But it is also probably a worthwhile conversation for different communities.

It's hard because every family is different on these issues.

I personally was not allowed to watch MTV growing up.

So every family has ideas about what their children are ready for developmentally and so forth, but it seems as though it's not a conversation, it's just a decision in a lot of these cases.

- Okay, well, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to?

Alex, the other big story of the week?

- Oh, yes, I do have a big story of the week, Rob.

The results of Tuesday's elections in Ohio, in Virginia, and in Kentucky.

Particularly Ohio.

Very Republican red state put abortion protections in their constitution.

And that has meaning for us here in Florida because there's an effort underway, there will be, abortion will be on the ballot.

And the point about this issue what's so overwhelming for Tuesday night, is that people do not want the government making their personal medical decisions.

And it's not a partisan issue, it is a personal issue.

And so I am very encouraged about the results for Florida for next November.

- All right, Danny, your other big story of the week?

Well, you know, I personally have to go along with Ms.

Sink.

That is a huge story, and we do need to talk about this more, but she said something I think is very important.

People do not want the government making medical decisions for us.

Well, after COVID, the government has made a lot of medical decisions for us when it comes to getting vaccinated against a disease.

So I think that ship has sailed.

But what I would say is, yes, Tuesday night was huge.

It was a big thing.

And I've always believed you cannot legislate morality.

There is no way we should do that.

However, we need to understand abortion's murder.

- [Rob] Mitch, 20 seconds.

- Very quickly, I would just say, Alex, I know a lot of Democrats are thinking abortion's the way to win next year, but going back to what you said at the beginning of the show, that poll, New York Times-Siena, Democrats are in trouble with Joe Biden as president.

I think that Dean Phillips, maybe there should be some other candidates running against him.

- Kimberly, 20 seconds.

- Yes, I'm really closely watching mental health bills that are being filed in the legislature.

Every time I talk to members on both sides of the aisle, this is an issue that they're fired up about for the forthcoming session.

- Hey, thank you all for a great show.

Thank you for joining us.

Send us your comments at ftw@wedu.org.

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You can see more of the show at wedu.org.

We'll see you next week.

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