In the annals of Florida politics, it’s often been the unwritten role of the attorney general to be the adult in the room, stepping back from the politics and propaganda to offer coolly composed reflections – often issued as official opinions, or requests to the Florida Supreme Court to weigh in on the legality behind a controversy.
Ashley Moody has apparently forgotten that history and mislaid her copy of the Florida Constitution. She’s increasingly likely to be seen on conservative TV channels spouting conspiracy theories and far-right talking points, including endorsements of efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and a long-running, wrongheaded investigation of a campaign to restore civil rights to former felons that is now part of the Florida Constitution.
Last week, however, Moody went further than ever before. In a rapidly babbled assertion made to Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo, she actually accused the Biden administration of conspiracy to allow deadly drugs like fentanyl to cross the southern border.
“I believe at this point the Biden administration is coordinating with the cartels,” she said breathlessly. “Cartels are running things at the border.” She described witnessing Border Patrol officials “taking down fences” and allowing people in, people Moody could apparently identify on sight as minions of murderous drug lords.
That’s a handy superpower, but not one Moody has previously claimed to possess.
Dimming her own light
The Fox News appearance was just one more disappointing performance from someone who first campaigned in 2018 as a sane, dispassionate political alternative to radicals on the far right. “Her temperament is measured and her reflexes aren’t knee-jerk,” wrote our sister paper, the South Florida Sun Sentinel. In its endorsement for the Republican primary that year, the paper praised her track record of “standing up for people, tackling tough issues and showing some decorum.”
That decorum is long gone. Increasingly, Moody has served as one of DeSantis’ loyal conduits of propaganda, embroidering his wild speculations with threads of pseudo-legal authority and adding her own unique twists.
She’s rarely rewarded or even acknowledged for this: Earlier this year, she tried to argue that Gov. Ron DeSantis wasn’t personally responsible for an unprecedented attack on Florida’s largest private employer — weeks after DeSantis released his book, featuring a chapter in which the governor described the campaign to yank away control of a special district that served the Walt Disney Company’s fabled resort complex. With the governor’s own words standing against her, why did Moody even attempt to apply lipstick to that hog?
It’s not the first time Moody has tried to trample reality underfoot. The worst move we saw was her willingness to lend the state’s legal firepower to an attempt to undo the results of the 2020 election, but a close second would be her attack on groups that campaigned to restore voting rights to former felons. The specific allegation: the Orlando-based Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, led by activist Desmond Meade, used secretive donations from Michael Bloomberg and others to pay off fines, restitution and other legal expenses in exchange for voting for Biden in 2020. That resulted in a 700-hour investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement finding the allegations to be — in the words of our Scott Maxwell — a “steaming pile of bunk.”
Or, in the drier words of the FDLE’s conclusion: “No evidence was developed to indicate that the FRRC directed any individual to vote for a specific political party as a condition of paying outstanding fees.”
How much further will Moody go? Is she prepared to accuse Biden of beaming pornography directly into the brains of 11-year-olds, or injecting gender-altering drugs into the drinking-water supply?
There is so much more important work to be done, and in her increasingly short spare time, Moody still pays attention to it. She’s outspoken in her defense of victims of human trafficking. She’s helped extract billions from pharmaceutical megacorps who bear a real and significant responsibility for the fentanyl crisis and other deadly opiates. She’s providing Floridians with better defenses against consumer fraud.
But then she goes off again on Fox News. And all that work is overshadowed.
Floridians who chose Moody as the state’s top legal official deserve better. Moody is certainly capable of better. Floridians need her to be better. AG Moody, please take a look back at the person you presented to Florida voters in 2018. And then get back to being that person — full-time.
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The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com
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