Month: November 2023

Florida Sen. Rick Scott has endorsed former President Donald Trump over his home-state governor, Ron DeSantis. Scott wrote in an op-ed published in Newsweek: “I support my friend President Donald J. Trump to be the 47th president of the United States and encourage every Republican to unite behind his efforts to win back the White House.”  Scott called for Republicans to unite behind the party’s 2024 front-runner.

Scott joins most Republicans in Florida’s US House delegation in endorsing the former president over DeSantis. The Florida GOP will host all the candidates on Saturday at an event that will test the strength of DeSantis and Trump among state Republicans. DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo did not directly address Scott’s endorsement of Trump, but noted that the governor “has the support of almost all Florida elected officials because he worked with them to deliver historic results for the conservative movement. The governor will win his home state because Floridians want to see a fighter who will bring the same type of results-oriented leadership to Washington that he has provided in the Sunshine State.”

Scott has previously supported Trump over one of his state’s senators. In 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush were both seeking the GOP nomination for president, when Scott, then Florida’s governor, wrote an op-ed in support of Trump as a figure who was “capturing the frustration of many Americans… with new ideas and new energy.”   In addition, Scott and DeSantis have had a strained relationship dating back to 2018 when voters elected DeSantis governor and Scott to the US Senate.  Scott at the time opted against joining the rest of the newly elected senators in Washington for their swearing-in, choosing instead to remain on as Florida governor until DeSantis’ inauguration.

Scott was one of eight Republican senators to object to the certification of 2020 election results and has been a defender of the former president, despite his legal troubles. In his Newsweek op-ed, Scott did not mention DeSantis by name, but noted that any of the Republican 2024 candidates “would be a better president than Joe Biden … But Republican voters are making their voices heard loud and clear. They want to return to the leadership of Donald Trump.”

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Cornell University has canceled Friday classes due to “extraordinary stress”, after a junior at the university was federally charged with making antisemitic threats.

The school paper The Cornell Daily Sun reported that Friday will serve as a “community day,” according to an email to students and staff from Provost Michael Kotlikoff and Christine Lovely, the vice president and chief human resources officer. The email read: “No classes will be held, and faculty and staff will be excused from work, except for employees who provide essential services. We hope that everyone will use this restorative time to take care of yourselves and reflect on how we can nurture the kind of caring, mutually supportive community that we all value.”

It comes after officials at the university said antisemitic “threats of violence” appeared online over the weekend.  Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of New York said that Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old junior at the Ivy League school, was charged on Tuesday with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. Prosecutors said that in an online discussion board, Dai allegedly threatened to “shoot up” a campus building. In another post, he said he would “stab” or “slit the throat” of Jewish men, and rape or throw off a cliff Jewish women he encounters on campus. He also said he would behead Jewish babies and threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you” Jewish people.  School officials said that the threats specifically named the school’s Center for Jewish Living.

Dai appeared in federal court Wednesday but did not enter a plea. He was assigned a federal public defender during the initial court appearance, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Nov. 15.  Tensions increased at the Ithaca, NY campus after university police on Wednesday received a report of a male subject displaying a pistol on campus. A search was conducted and police said the report was “unfounded.” University President Martha E. Pollack also said in a statement Wednesday that the crime alert was unsubstantiated, but that “it adds to the stress we are all feeling .. Cornell Police continue to have an increased presence on campus, and especially in high-priority areas.”

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