The Tribune

With Charlie Harper

WHAT state seems to be the centre of the American political universe these days? Some feel that it’s Florida, home now to both former president Donald Trump and his most talked-about potential heir, governor Ron DeSantis. The governor, aided by the Republican-controlled legislature, is plowing headlong into one culture war after another, from packing with conservatives the board of trustees at quirky, progressive New College in Sarasota to casting doubt about school curricula that teach youngsters about the history of African-Americans.

Trump was the first to declare his candidacy for president in next year’s elections. He’s a full-time Floridian now, having abandoned his New York City roots while he was still living in the White House.

The nation’s third most populous state, Florida is still a prize worth fighting for in national elections, despite the conventional political wisdom that it has become a solidly red Republican state over the past decade or so.

But while Trump did launch his 2024 campaign for a return to the presidency in Florida, his most publicized early campaign event was in South Carolina. There, at the state capitol in Columbia, he was joined by the current governor and longtime ally Senator Lindsay Graham.

Now this week, South Carolina has returned to the political headlines with the announcement by former governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley that she has joined the 2024 campaign. Having reversed an earlier pledge not to run next year if Trump were also in the race, Haley stuck to current conservative talking points in jumping into what will likely be a crowded race.

She made headlines by reminding American voters that Republicans had actually lost the overall popular vote seven times in the past eight national elections, and “the time for new, younger leadership” was past due. Haley will be 52 years old on Inauguration Day next year.

Trump sounded rather gracious if narcissistic in commenting on Haley’s announcement: “Even though Nikki Haley said, ‘I would never run against my President, he was a great President, the best President in my lifetime,’ I told her she should follow her heart and do what she wants to do. I wish her luck!”

Trump may agree with the many prognosticators who predict that he will enjoy the same good fortune running in a crowded field as he did during his successful run in 2016. While DeSantis has not yet announced, he is expected to join the race in June.

Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence, will almost certainly oppose his old boss as well. Pence this week said he would fight a subpoena from Special Counsel Jack Smith in Washington to testify in the Justice Department’s investigation into the US Capitol riots two years ago. Pence likely sees this defiance as popular with a Republican base that still favours Trump.

Former Kansas congressman Mike Pompeo, Trump’s CIA director and Secretary of State, has lost a lot of weight and is all but certain to toss his hat into the ring. He and Pence have stayed out of the headlines as much as they can during the past two years, writing memoirs and trolling for campaign contributions. But they’re likely to emerge in the months to come.

Another South Carolinian, black Republican senator Tim Scott, 57, may also join the race for the White House. Already a 10-year Senate veteran, Scott is a polished public speaker with a powerful personal story as he rose from poverty in Charleston. Scott is the first black senator elected from the southern US in over 130 years.

US president Joe Biden would certainly cast his vote for South Carolina as the American political bellwether. It was in that state’s 2020 primary election that his failing campaign got a huge shot in the arm from the endorsement of congressman James Clyburn and Biden won that primary election. Biden never looked back as he surged to victory in the general election.

In response, Biden has led the fight to move South Carolina to the front of the line of next year’s early primary election states. If his proposals are ratified, the Palmetto State will hold its Democratic presidential primary election on February 3, 2024, displacing New Hampshire and Iowa as the first state to do so. That’s less than a year from now.

MEDIA QUIET ON ‘FABULIST’ GEORGE SANTOS

A QUICK check of the national press the other day revealed something startling. There didn’t appear to be any stories about the now-infamous “fabulist”, George Santos, newly-elected member of the American House of Representatives from what is sometimes ranked as the fourth wealthiest per capita congressional district in the United States, New York’s 3rd district. It includes eastern parts of the New York City borough of Queens and some areas on the southwest shoreline of Long Island Sound.

How about “fabulist”, by the way? Talk about a euphemism! Omniscient Google defines fabulist as “a liar, especially a person who invents elaborate, dishonest stories”. Thus, the sensational Mr Santos is “a born fabulist, with an imagination unfettered by the laws of logic and probability”.

Maybe the media has turned to this term because the US just passed through a period when its president proved to be a convincing, serial liar. Maybe it’s because millions of his fans cling to the fiction that an election where they disagreed with the results was somehow “stolen”.

Anyhow, you already agree with that or not. Calling George Santos simply a liar doesn’t seem to be sufficient to describe the extent of his misrepresentation of the truth.

Consider the following, drawn from multiple news reports: According to ABC and CBS news, federal investigators are closely examining the newly elected Long Island Republican congressman, who revealed recently that he lied repeatedly during his successful campaign for the seat. Santos admitted this week that he does not hold degrees from Baruch College nor New York University, as he had stated, and that he had never worked directly for Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs, which he also had claimed. CNN reported that Santos had also lied about having ever attended the prestigious Horace Mann prep school.

Just this week, the New York Times found $365,399.08 in unexplained 2022 campaign spending, with no record of where it went or for what purpose. “The mysterious expenditures, which list no recipient and offer no receipts, account for nearly 12 percent of the Santos campaign’s total reported expenses — many times exceeding what is typical for congressional candidates. Fellow New York House members, for example, failed to itemise between zero and 2 percent of their expenses this past cycle,” the Times reported.

Santos has already been disavowed by Long Island’s Nassau County GOP, which is facing backlash following his election after two years of local party success. A handful of Republican members from the state’s House delegation have called on Santos to resign. 78% of voters – including more than 7 in 10 Republicans – in his 3rd Congressional District told pollsters he should resign, according to a recent survey. Santos refuses to do so.

Other bizarre stories attached to this fabulist involve his possible performance in a drag show in Brazil; his posing as a disabled military veteran seeking funds for homeless dogs, and an unsubstantiated claim that his net worth increased over tenfold from 2020 to 2022.

It’s no wonder his local GOP committee has disowned this man. What an embarrassment! Where was their due diligence? Now, the party is scrambling in damage limitation mode. “He needs help,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said about Santos at a recent press conference. “This is not a normal person.”

In 2021, the GOP won the county’s open district attorney position. The woman who won that race said recently that “the numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman Santos are nothing short of stunning. The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

At the State of the Union address just over a week ago, Santos was rebuked by Utah senator Mitt Romney and apparently told a fib involving Arizona senator Krysten Sinema. Romney said afterward that “I don’t think he ought to be in Congress. It’s an embarrassment. If he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”