Does the buck stop at Gov. Ron DeSantis? - Tampa Bay Times

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The following first appeared in the Buzz political newsletter, a weekly dive into the power, politics and influence shaping Florida from Political Editor Steve Contorno and the Tampa Bay Times politics team. To subscribe and receive it in your email inbox each week, click here.

Someone give Ken Lawson a new shirt. The one he’s wearing is covered in tire marks.

Lawson is the head of the embattled Department of Employment Opportunity. That’s the agency that has failed to administer unemployment benefits to the hundreds of thousands of Floridians out of work.

DeSantis didn’t build the unemployment website that is the source of this mess. He inherited it from his predecessor, then-Gov. Rick Scott, and now he wants an investigation.

But he should have known it was a pile of junk. As our reporter Lawrence Mower wrote, a state auditor eviscerated the website in an investigation last year.

Yet, when that was pointed out to him this week, DeSantis was quick to deflect blame.

"That was a report to Lawson,” DeSantis said Monday. “It was never anything that reached my desk. I never had anyone ask me for additional funding.”

DeSantis has made a habit of passing the buck when confronted with a controversy. And you don’t have to look far for examples.

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2019 file photo, acting Broward County sheriff Gregory Tony, right, speaks after being introduced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, at the Broward County Sheriff's Office in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Tony is defending himself over allegations that he should have disclosed that he fatally shot another teenager when he was 14 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) [WILFREDO LEE | AP]

Greg who? In the same press conference where he singled-out Lawson, DeSantis distanced himself from Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony. It came out this week that Tony killed someone at age 14, allegedly in self defense.

“It’s not like he’s my sheriff,” he said. “I don’t even know the guy.”

Didn’t know “the guy”? DeSantis appointed Tony. Here they are together.

Tony replaced Scott Israel, the sheriff during the Parkland shooting. Firing Israel was one of DeSantis’ top campaign promises. He talked about it for months. Canning Israel was one of his first acts as governor. Tony was DeSantis’ hand-picked replacement.

Staff error. As the coronavirus crisis amplified, DeSantis held a Saturday news conference. Except, Times/Herald Tallahassee reporter Mary Ellen Klas wasn’t allowed to attend. Asked about it later, DeSantis said it was a staff screw up.

Activists hold a banner in front of the Pulse nightclub site after a news conference Thursday in Orlando. The owner of the Pulse nightclub said the site will become a memorial and a museum to honor the 49 people who were killed and the dozens more who were injured during the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. [John Raoux | Associated Press]

Staff error, part II. Last year, DeSantis issued a proclamation to honor the victims of the Pulse NightClub shooting in Orlando. Missing from the proclamation was any recognition of the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities affected by the tragedy.

DeSantis blamed his staff for the oversight. “I was not involved in the proclamation,” DeSantis said. “When someone said it wasn’t in there, I said ‘put it in there’, so we fixed it.”

We later reported that two proclamations were drafted before the remembrance. One acknowledged the tragedy’s LGBTQ and Hispanic victims.The other did not. DeSantis signed the latter. Read about that here.

Staff error, part III. After a court sided with DeSantis in his Amendment 4 fight earlier this year, the governor tweeted: “Voting is a privilege that should not be taken lightly.”

People pounced on the remark. “Voting is a right, not a privilege, Governor,” Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried tweeted.

Don’t blame him, DeSantis said. He doesn’t even talk like that.

"I don’t tweet, so you can talk to my staff about what my words are,” he added.

Lev Parnas, left, moves to hug Florida Governor elect Ron DeSantis, right, on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018 in Orlando at the watch party for DeSantis. Both Parnas and Igor Fruman attended the event. Parnas and Fruman were arrested last week on campaign finance violations. [CHRIS URSO | Times]

Mystery meeting. Remember the indicted Soviet-born businessmen who DeSantis hugged on election night? And who came to his inauguration? Days after he took office, he met with one of them, Lev Parnas, again, Politico reported.

How did Parnas arrange such exclusive company? Don’t fault DeSantis, his office said, the Republican Party of Florida scheduled the meeting.

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