ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis embraced a viral chant meant as a vulgar insult of President Joe Biden and vowed to push for more election law changes next year during an official event that turned into a campaign rally at the West Palm Beach airport Wednesday.
DeSantis called for a new law enforcement agency to probe election irregularities and suggested he would ban ballot drop boxes, despite having signed a law two years ago supporting them.
The governor referred to Biden as “Brandon,” a reference to the viral “Let’s Go, Brandon” chant popularized in conservative media. The chant is code for “F--- Joe Biden,” and stems from a reporter at a NASCAR event saying during a TV interview with driver Brandon Brown that the “F--- Joe Biden” chant heard in the background was the crowd saying, “Let’s Go, Brandon.”
Since then, the chant has been popularized in songs, posters and signs and has recently been adopted by Republican officeholders.
DeSantis’ affiliated political committee, Friends of DeSantis, hinted that the governor would reference the chant on Tuesday, when it sent a campaign email titled, “LGB!”
It called the chant “America’s latest cheer-craze,” said it “needled” Biden, and proceeded to refer to Biden as Brandon for the rest of the email.
DeSantis’ reference prompted a “Let’s Go, Brandon” chant by the crowd at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport, where the governor has previously held what amounted to raucous rallies attended by supporters.
DeSantis smiled as the crowd chanted, and then went into a detailed explanation of the chant.
“Did you know how that started?” DeSantis said. “And you have the media, they’re hand wringing over this. But you know, there was a NASCAR race, and they’re doing an interview with a driver, I guess his name was Brandon. And the crowd starts chanting very colorful language about Joe Biden. And it was obvious that they were doing and, you know, it is what it is.”
He also claimed “they said way worse about Trump for four years,” though he offered no example of Democratic officials embracing any similar vulgar catchphrase about the former president.
The official focus of Wednesday’s event was DeSantis’ call for more changes to the state’s elections laws. The announcement comes after the controversial restrictions already made earlier this year to limit ballot drop boxes and restrict voter canvassing.
DeSantis called for a new law enforcement agency to investigate elections violations and for making “ballot harvesting,” already illegal, a third-degree felony instead of a misdemeanor.
DeSantis also echoed Trump and other Republicans in attacking drop boxes for mail-in ballots, which had previously been an uncontroversial part of the state’s election system.
DeSantis signed a Republican bill expanding the use of drop boxes in 2019, but Trump has made drop-box conspiracies a key part of his false claims of election fraud in 2020.
While boxes used to be available 24/7 at elections offices and early voting sites and monitored by cameras, the 2021 Florida elections bill restricted 24/7 drop boxes to elections offices, where they need to be fully guarded by a person at all times. Boxes at early voting sites are now only open during voting hours.
DeSantis and some Republicans had originally called for restricting drop boxes even more, and it appeared DeSantis might go even further this time.
“First of all, I don’t think we should even have drop boxes,” DeSantis said, saying elections offices would “put them in all kinds of crazy locations. So we made reforms in the bill last year, but I think there need to be more reforms on this.”
The Florida director of All Voting is Local, a voting rights advocacy group, blasted the governor’s new proposals.
“Taxpayer dollars will now be used to fund an office specifically designed to perpetuate and give credence to a never-ending stream of lies about our elections,” said Brad Ashwell in a statement. “Let’s be clear: DeSantis and his cronies are only concerned about limiting peoples’ right to vote. State lawmakers should focus instead on expanding early voting options, increasing drop-box accessibility, improving transparency, and ensuring our election operations are fully funded.”
All 67 of the state’s county elections officials released letters last month urging officials not to push falsehoods and defended the accuracy of the 2020 vote count.
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