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- Coming up next, North Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is successful in removing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from Office.

Richard Corcoran is selected as the Official President of New College, children are among the biggest victims of the drop in Medicaid coverage in Florida, and does former Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, removed from Office by the Governor, plan to run again?

All coming up right now on "Florida This Week".

(dramatic music) Welcome back.

Joining us on the panel this week, April Schiff is the Hillsborough County Republican State Committeewoman, Stanley Gray is the President and CEO of the Hillsborough County Urban League, and is not currently affiliated with a political party, Matt Newton is an attorney and a columnist for La Gaceta, and a Democrat, and Darryl Paulson is the Emeritus Professor of Government and Politics at USF in St. Petersburg.

So nice to have you on the set, it's good to see you all.

- Good to be here.

- Well, in a historic move, Pensacola Area Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz led the effort this week to remove US House speaker Kevin McCarthy from Office.

It was the first time in American history that this has happened.

Gaetz, an ally of former President Trump, called for McCarthy to be booted after the speaker worked out a last minute deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown last weekend.

Just three days later, Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate the speaker's chair.

That motion passed, 216-210.

Eight Republicans, mostly members of the far right Freedom Caucus, joined all Democrats in voting to remove McCarthy.

No other congress members from Florida voted with Gaetz.

Since the vote, many GOP members have expressed anger at Gaetz for throwing the chamber into disarray.

A number of them have called for the ramping up of investigations into the allegations of sex trafficking against Gaetz.

- You gotta think about this guy.

This is a guy that didn't have, that the media didn't give the time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with a underage girl.

And there's a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the house floor that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with, he'd brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.

This is obviously before he got married.

And so, when that accusation came out, no one defended him.

And then no one on the media would give him the time of the day.

All of a sudden, he found fame because he opposed the Speaker of the House back in November and he's always stayed there and he was never gonna leave until he got this last moment of fame by going after a motion to vacate.

- April, there was a federal investigation, no charges were brought against Gaetz.

There is this ongoing ethics investigation in the US House of Representatives, but how do Florida Republicans feel about Matt Gaetz at this moment?

- I think there's a division in Florida Republicans.

He has his supporters and he also has his detractors, and obviously, there's reasons for that, right?

Because he appeals to some people with the things that he's doing and the things that he's saying and his behavior.

However, I think the bad part is just what this is doing to the country.

We elected those people to go up there and govern and pass a budget and pass the laws and pass stuff that really keeps this country going forward.

And it's been at a stalemate and it's been stopped for quite some time because of this type of behavior, which is wrong.

I think that a lot of Republicans that are fiscal conservatives would really like to see us get back to a balanced budget, a real budget that's done properly to stop the continuing resolutions, to stop the omnibus passing of this giant piece of work that they don't do anything on.

And so, I think there's a lot of people that really feel strongly about the fiscal conservative motion and that that needs to happen.

But as long as we have elected representatives that are playing to the media and to the click bait and not doing the job that they were elected to do, we'll be in a situation where we're not moving forward, this country is in dire trouble.

And I think that there's just some people believe this is the way to accomplish the goal, so they do support what he's doing.

But it's somewhat ironic that he actually went after McCarthy because McCarthy used the Democrats, and then Gaetz took the Democrats and used them to accomplish his goal, so what's the difference?

I mean, it's an interesting concept and I think that it's frightening to a lot of Americans right now.

- Matt, I wanna ask you about Gaetz's future ambitions.

There are a lot of Republicans, about six, that have expressed interest in running for governor in a few years, Matt Gaetz is one of them.

So do you think this elevates his chances?

I mean, it certainly elevates his profile.

- I mean, he's getting what he wants, we're talking about him.

And to echo some of the concerns from my friend on the right, we're in a world where political branding is more important than political governance.

It's all about doing bits and getting attention and earning media.

And the last guy that got elected governor to the state of Florida was very good at earning media, Matt Gaetz is keeping an eye on it and I think he's just following the footsteps.

- Hmm, Professor, what do you think?

- Well, I disagree with April, she said that Gaetz has his supporters and detractors, I think he's got mostly all detractors.

Not a single person in the Florida delegation supported Gaetz in his effort to oust McCarthy, that tells you how much support he has.

And if you look at the things that they're saying about him, almost every member of the Florida delegation commented about Gaetz and his role in this.

And they were livid, I mean, quite frankly, they wanted to punch him in the face.

- But could it be said that there are grassroots supporters in the GOP for Gaetz?

- You always do.

But you're talking about fringe elements in the party, but fringe elements oftentimes can control things.

It doesn't take very many people to control things because the fringe people tend to be much more highly motivated than do, you might say, the centrists, who sort of look at things as they go along but aren't politically engaged.

That's why if you look at the whole political process, parties in America are much weaker than they've ever been, that's not a good thing for us.

One of the reasons for that is the fringe element can turn out and can control the primary process.

If I look at the members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, 'cause Democrats have their share of blame here too, it reminds me of the old "Dating Game" program that used to be on TV, and if these guys had guys and women had been on "The Dating Game", they all would've gone home alone, that's what a motley crew it is.

- Stanley, there's been some criticism of Democrats for not stepping up and rescuing McCarthy in this case, and why did the Democrats side with Gaetz in this case?

- Well, from my vantage point, the reason why they didn't step up is because they didn't trust Mr. McCarthy.

I think that there are more than enough examples where he said one thing and then did another.

And so, I think that that was basically a show by the Democratic party saying that we want somebody who we can believe and trust.

And an example of that was, whether it was staged right or wrong, the President said this is what he agreed to, and then he, within hours, said, "No, I did not agree to that."

And if you look at his time as a speaker, there's been more than one occasion that that's occurred.

That's the reason why I think that he got no Democratic support.

- Okay, well, after Governor Ron DeSantis launched a takeover of New College earlier this year, the school's.

trustees voted this week to appoint DeSantis' ally Richard Corcoran as the school's new president.

The trustees voted 10 to 2 for Corcoran, who has served as interim president since January.

He takes over the school in Sarasota that for years had a progressive reputation and a diverse student body.

Corcoran was selected after DeSantis overhauled the trustee board, tasking them with transforming the college into a classical liberal arts institution in the mold of ultra conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan.

The new trustees have scrapped in office dealing with diversity, equity, and inclusion, fired the previous school president, denied tenure for a group of professors who had qualified for it, and even started a sports program with a mascot called the Mighty Banyans.

New College has become the focal point of an effort by DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, to rid higher education in Florida of what the governor calls, "left-leaning, woke indoctrination on campuses".

Matt Corcoran's been in there as interim president for a few months, what's been his record?

And was there any surprise?

Was there any doubt that he was gonna be selected as the permanent president?

- I mean, his record is chaos and there's no surprise because- - [Rob] We should say you're a graduate of New College too?

- Yes, for the record, I'm an alum of New College, I have a bachelor's degree in classical studies of all things from New College.

And by all accounts, it's been chaos at New College since the takeover.

And again, I mean, that's what they want, we're talking about it, it's another bit.

- [Rob] But what kind of chaos is going on?

- Well, we had one third of the faculty leave, another third probably trying to leave, the housing situation has been aggravated by the introduction of athletes who are being promised better housing when very little housing is already available, driving away at the upperclassmen.

But it's basically meltdown mode.

But, you know, the appointment of Corcoran is not surprising because they wanted a political player to act in a political show.

And it's just been about moving that ball and doing the culture war things and using this as basically a mini experiment on, you know, what can we do, what will grab headlines and what will shock the conscious of academia, and the conscious is shattered.

- Well, there were three candidates in this race for president and the other two weren't even invited to come to the Board of Regents meeting to select the next president, I mean, that tells you how fixed, if you wanna look at it that way, or you might just say, they would look at it and say it was obvious who the best candidate was.

And Christopher Rufo, who's been much in the news, said that Corcoran was the best person to shake up the institution, so that's what they're looking for, somebody who can shake up the institution.

But there was a piece today in The Sarasota Herald Tribune by a student who was one of the first graduates of New College, and she says, "What's a degree from New College going to be worth with all of the things that have happened there and all of the negative publicity they've received?"

They need some good publicity if they wanna turn things around, and Corcoran has to work on that, and he is not somebody who tolerates descent very easily and listens to opposing viewpoints, so that's gonna be his toughest job.

- Stanley, the Governor says, "Look, the college campuses are liberal, we've gotta turn that around and we've gotta make more conservative campuses," and this is part of his effort.

- Well, I think there's two things that really need to be discussed.

One is, most college presidents, one of their number one things is fundraising.

I don't think that that's gonna be one of his strengths.

And I think that if you have to judge him, even with the colleges, public and private within the state, he's gonna come down on the lower end of it.

The other thing is, and I just can't get over this and that is is that you're gonna compare this state school to a private school in the Midwest.

I mean, you talk about culture of the Midwest, you talk about culture of Florida, they can't be comparable.

Now I have a non-biological nephew, okay?

And I can explain that to many people later on, who is a graduate of New College.

And I went to his wedding and we were talking because all of his friends came and it just came up, I said, "How many African Americans at your school?"

And he said, "Only the ones that are here are athletes."

My point is, this is a state school, why are we comparing ourselves to a private institution that only has appealed to certain types of people?

It's wrong, it's fundamentally wrong.

As wrong as promoting somebody to president who's shown no competencies or skillset for fundraising.

I saw him a couple weeks ago and the only thing that he talked about funding was from government sources, that is not the way that a college should be funded totally, in my opinion.

- April, the Governor says this is pushback against the overwhelming liberalness on college campuses.

- He does, and he obviously had a goal.

And all of the, as Matt terms, chaos that's going on is part of the process to get to that goal.

So I think that Corcoran has taken the directive as well as the Board of Trustees have taken the directive from the Governor and they're doing what they've been asked to do.

- Matt, just quickly.

- Sure.

- Finances, has Corcoran turned the finances around?

Because I saw him speak, or Stanley saw him speak a few weeks ago at Tampa Tiger Bay, and Corcoran said, "Look, the finances of the college before the Governor took over were in a mess."

- No, he's not turned it around.

I mean, he's bringing money down from Tallahassee and they'll give him a lot of credit for that.

He's certainly successful in getting money from government sources.

But the alumni is horrified and he needs to do in the work, now that he's President, give him a chance to do the work, to reach out to the alumni and build those bridges and try to stop alienating them, because every alumni that I speak with is not ready to give money to New College right now because it's no longer New College.

- And speaking of finances, I mean, Corcoran is going to be the head of the smallest public university in the state, and yet he's got this monster salary, 699,000 base salary, housing allowance of 84,000, he's got a car allowance of 12,000, a retirement allowance of 104,000, bonuses of up to 104,000.

So his salary is gonna range between almost $900,00 and $1.6 million.

Why does that happen in the smallest college in the state of Florida?

I mean, somebody needs to answer that question.

- All right, well, now for our next story, Florida Democrats say they are alarmed at the growing number of young people in Florida being removed from the Medicaid Health Insurance program.

They want the DeSantis administration to do something.

Democrats in the Florida House reported that of the 524,000 who have lost coverage in the last four months, nearly half are aged 20 or younger.

The Medicaid program was temporarily expanded during the COVID epidemic to make sure that more low-income people were covered by health insurance.

Now that program has ended.

Democrats want Florida to take advantage of existing federal Medicaid expansion incentives, and Florida's Healthy Kids program to make sure the people are not falling through the cracks.

Stanley, Republicans have been saying for months that they don't wanna expand Medicaid 'cause down the road, it's gonna cost the state more money.

But there is one Republican, Dr. Joel Rudman, he's a physician, he's a member of the Florida House, just outside of Pensacola, he wants to expand Medicaid because he says it's costing the state more money because now these folks are gonna have to go to the emergency room for care, and that ultimately is much more expensive than having a personal physician.

- Well, I concur with that belief because it is cheaper to buy the ounce of prevention.

But I think that people should really turn back the clock and really think about like, when did Medicaid and Medicare really come into existence for everybody to know?

It was during the Vietnam era.

Okay, if you go read about what Johnson said when they actually started the draft to basically, you know, find forces to fight this war, many of the people were in terrible physical condition and the reasons why were no preventative healthcare, no preventative dental care, it was terrible.

That was one of the impetus of him getting behind this.

And I think that people need to understand that because if you take this away, you're gonna be able to easily extrapolate what's gonna happen.

- [Rob] Darryl, what do you think?

- Well, I agree with many of the comments made here, but you know, the point is, who's not getting healthcare?

There's so many people in Florida, but it's especially the young people, of the over 500,000 people who have lost their Medicaid insurance in the past four months, over half of them have been under the age of 20.

Do we wanna be a state that doesn't provide healthcare for the most needy people in the state of Florida?

And as has been said, as Ben Franklin used to say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

So you either deal with the problem now, when you can control it, or deal with it later, when it's gonna cost you a lot more money.

- Excuse me, a lot of this is part of, it's residual based on the fact that during the COVID programs, we stopped re-certifying families on an annual basis, that changed in March of this year.

So a lot of these families, and I think the reason there's so many children is because they are families with young children, and they have to go through a process to show that they meet the qualifications to be on Medicaid.

One of those is a family of four can't make more than $39,000 a year.

And so, part of these people, they haven't been informed well enough to know that this is a process they have to go through to remain on Medicaid, so they're losing it and then they have to go through a recertification program to get back on it.

So this may well be a temporary situation that works itself out as we move forward in that process.

- Should the state be doing more to inform these families that the program is available, provided they prove that they are eligible?

- I don't know what they are doing, but it's certainly, from what I have read and what I have seen, it certainly appears that there hasn't been enough of an effort to educate those people on how they stay in the program, rather than getting kicked out and having to come back on.

- Okay.

- Rob, could I say something?

- Yeah.

- To me, this is another example of class discrimination and it's just blatant.

I mean, we know that if you're gonna change a policy, I mean, any of us who've worked in a corporation, when we change directions, we spend a lot of time and money on communications.

There's been very little done.

And how could one not come to the assumption that this is class discrimination?

And going back to what my colleague on the right just said, I mean, why not spend the money now?

Because you can identify how much and you can measure it, but if you wait, it's gonna be an astronomical amount and you're not gonna be able to measure it because you're so busy trying to catch up.

This is just a pure example of, to me, of class discrimination.

- Okay, well, Andrew Warren, the twice-elected Hillsborough State Attorney, who was removed from office by Governor DeSantis last year, opened a new campaign account this week.

But so far, he's not saying how he will use the money.

A spokesperson for Warren said, "The account allows him to stay in legal compliance with state law and keep multiple options on the table as he determines his next steps."

There has been much speculation that Warren, a Democrat, might challenge his replacement, Republican Susan Lopez, in next year's election for Hillsborough State Attorney.

In removing Warren, the Governor said, "The prosecutor was picking and choosing which laws to enforce and had undermined public safety."

Warren told The Tampa Bay Times this week that his record on safety is indisputable, crime went down 30% in Hillsborough in five years and makes it the safest large county in Florida, according to Warren.

Darryl, is this the first step towards Warren trying to reclaim his job as Hillsborough State Attorney?

- Well, one would think so, but it's gonna be an uphill ride, let's put it that way, in part because 2024 is obviously a presidential election year, who's likely to be on the ballot?

Not only him, but Donald Trump.

Donald Trump won in 2020 in the state of Florida, he's likely to win in 2024 if Trump is the Republican party nominee.

So it'd be a very tough road for him to win in 2024.

He was ousted, of course, because DeSantis said that he was a discouraging prosecution of low level misdemeanors.

But the federal judge, who reviewed this case, said that, "Warren did not neglect his duties."

And in his own words, the federal judge says, "It is not close."

So Judge Hinkle said the only reason that he couldn't put Warren back in his position was because of the 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from forcing state actors to follow state laws.

Seems sort of corny, but that's the justification.

- So April, two questions, how much money, if Warren does run for State Attorney in Hillsborough County, how much money do you think the Republicans will put up?

- A lot.

(chuckles) - Talk about that, and then, Darryl talked about statewide that we're gonna vote probably for Trump for president, but the question is, in Hillsborough County, which has traditionally countywide been Democratic county, how will it vote next year in 2024?

- That's a great question, I wish I had a crystal ball and I could predict the future.

- But the trend is, the trend is.

- The trend recently has been democratic in Hillsborough County for voting.

- It's moving more Republican.

- It is moving more Republican, the registration, thank goodness, we've worked very hard at that, the registration is moving more Republican, we've closed the gap between Republicans and Democrats.

Our new neighbors that have come here from the north are embracing the Republican ideology and registering as Republicans and hopefully they're voting as Republicans as well.

But I'll just say that on the Andrew Warren issue, I'm not an attorney, but I have spent the last 30 years of my professional career advising candidates on how to file, qualify and get elected, very successfully, I might say.

And I will tell you that, not only did he open a campaign account, but he filed to run for office, and you can look at that at the Division of Elections, it's quite clear that he's running for office again.

- There are two candidates in Hillsborough County for state attorney.

- That's right, Susie Lopez and Andrew Warren, and that's how it's probably gonna stay through November of 2024, I predict it's gonna be a battle that probably unlike any we've ever seen before for a constitutional officer here in Hillsborough County.

- It could get national publicity.

- I'm certain it will.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- I'm certain it will, and it's gonna get national money, it's gonna get local money, it's gonna get state money, you're gonna see more money piled into that race than you've ever seen before, and I'm talking what you don't see will be the millions behind the scenes that are being spent without going into the campaigns.

- All the dark money.

- It's gonna happen.

- All right, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to?

And, April, let's start with you again.

- Okay, I'm just gonna say that the Florida Republican Party is going to sponsor what we call the Florida Freedom Summit on November 4th in Kissimmee.

Tickets are available at Florida.gop, and it's going to feature the multiple presidential candidates, Trump, DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy will be there so far, it will also have the entire cabinet of the state of Florida as well as Senator Rick Scott and Congressman Byron Donalds and Matt Gaetz.

So I would encourage people to get a ticket and attend and see how that goes.

- And Byron Donalds also wants to run for governor too.

- Matt Gaetz, Byron Donalds and the entire cabinet, so we have all the governor and a good portion of the primary Republican contenders, so should be a very interesting day, it's a one day conference.

- All right.

- Matt, your other big story?

- Sure, speaking of Judge Hinkle up in Tallahassee, there was a motion filed this week about whether or not the state of Florida is observing or observing, following.

(all laughing) His last ruling about invalidating portions of the transgender healthcare prohibition.

So that was filed on October 4th, a lot of eyes are on that to see what's gonna happen up in Tallahassee in his courtroom.

- All right, Stanley, your other big story?

- For me is, why is Gaetz even considered as a candidate for governor?

And the reason why I say that is, when you become an elected official, you're supposed to swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

He has clearly given us evidence that he has not been able to do that, nor does he want to do that.

- [Rob] What evidence?

- What was his position on the January 6th insurrection?

What was his position on supporting the past President Trump?

To me, those are behavioral examples of someone who cannot support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

He's also clearly showed that he doesn't believe in the Pledge of Allegiance, freedom and justice for all.

He's clearly showed that he only cares about those who support him or vote for him.

He could give a dadgum about anyone else.

To me that does not give you a right to be the governor of Florida.

- Darryl, your other big story?

- Well, the McCarthy vote that we've talked about is a sign that democracy is in trouble in the United States, and it's not because McCarthy lost, it's because of the power of, once again, a small number of individuals, who can control, these fringe individuals can control the political process, according to Professor Daniel Ziblatt of Harvard University, who wrote in his recent book, "The Tyranny of the Minority".

And you've got a band of, you had, what, six, eight Republicans?

4% of the Republican membership that was able to stop the McCarthy process, it made Republicans look bad, it made the the country look bad.

Government dysfunction can be a prelude to the end of democracy, and that's what we're seeing here in the United States, so there's far more important at play in what's going on here.

- Thank you all for a great show, thank you for joining us.

Send us your comments at ftw@wedu.org.

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Thanks for watching, see you next week.

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