Billionaire investor and Trump megadonor Peter Thiel praises Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as 'the best of the governors' for offering 'a real alternative to California'
- Thiel said Republicans need to do more than point to problems in liberal states like California.
- Of all GOP governors, DeSantis was the one doing it right, Thiel said.
- But he added that he worried about soaring housing prices in the Sunshine State.
AVENTURA, Florida — Billionaire investor Peter Thiel on Sunday said he feared Republicans were too focused on bashing liberal states such as California, when they should instead be offering a "positive agenda" for the future of the party.
In a speech delivered at the National Conservatism Conference, Thiel painted a bleak picture of his home state of California and said at least one governor was going about alternative policymaking the right way: Florida's Ron DeSantis.
"DeSantis in Florida is probably the best of the governors in terms of offering a real alternative to California," Thiel said, speaking before a crowd of attendees at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort.
But Thiel also had one major disclaimer, saying that he worried about how expensive housing in Florida had become. Thiel said he bought an $18 million home in Miami in 2020 that was now worth about $35 million. A test for the state's policies, he said, would be whether housing prices fall.
"The fact that real estate in Florida or Texas has melted up over the last two or three years is not evidence that you're succeeding and building a better model than California," he said. "I'm worried that that's evidence that you're becoming like California."
Housing prices are among the top issues Democrats are weaponizing against DeSantis as he seeks reelection in November. The state has faced an influx of residents since the COVID-19 pandemic, which has contributed to rising costs.
DeSantis has pushed through numerous policies as governor that have drawn the ire of the left, including policies on abortion, voting rights, and limiting the way race, gender, and sexuality are discussed in schools.
DeSantis also faced his fair share of tussles with California. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has criticized the governor and has run ads attacking him in Florida. The dispute led to speculation that the two could potentially face off in the 2024 presidential race if they both decided to run for their respective parties' nominations.
Thiel cofounded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, the company now known as Meta. He was one of former President Donald Trump's most outspoken supporters and has criticized Silicon Valley, relocating to Los Angeles in 2018.
On Sunday, Thiel said during his remarks that his "intuition" told him that Republicans' "nihilistic negation" wouldn't suffice in creating an alternative vision for growth.
"The temptation on our side is always going to be that all we have to do is say that we're not California," he said. "It is just such an ugly picture, the homeless poop, people pooping all over the place, it's the ridiculous rat-infested apartments that don't work anymore, it's the woke insanities, there's so much that it feels like shooting fish in a barrel. It's so easy, so ridiculous to denounce."
The question Republicans should be asking, he said, was: "How can we concretely offer a vision for the 21st century that's better than California?"
Bashing California "might be enough to win in the midterms in '22," Thiel said, "It might be enough to win in '24. But we want to have more of a program positive vision, something like that to be credible."
Thiel raised concerns about the 2022 cycle, saying Republicans weren't doing as well as during the Tea Party swell in 2010, or in 1994 when then-Minority Whip Newt Gingrich presented the GOP agenda in the form of the Contract for America.
Thiel didn't raise any specific senators by name, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has not offered an agenda for the party ahead of the 2022 midterms, while National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Rick Scott of Florida has, in the form of a "12-point Plan to Rescue America."
Several news articles have indicated there's a rift between the two GOP leaders. But Scott, in a letter to supporters, accused the media of trying to "divide and defeat Republicans."
DeSantis hasn't received a campaign donation from Thiel, records show
As of May 2022, Thiel had an estimated net worth of $7.19 billion and was ranked 297th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Though Thiel praised DeSantis on Sunday, he has not given to the governor's reelection efforts, according to a disclosure document from his political action committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, and campaign finance disclosures from the State Division of Elections. The DeSantis campaign declined to comment on campaign donations.
DeSantis has become one of the most famous Republicans in America and has raised more than $140 million for his reelection bid, an extraordinary sum for a governor's race. The money puts him on track to break a national fundraising record.
GOP Senate candidates and Thiel protégés Blake Masters and JD Vance each received $15 million. Thiel was also one of Trump's biggest donors when he ran in 2016, and this cycle has donated to at least 14 other MAGA-aligned House and Senate candidates...
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DeSantis claims credit for sending 2 planes carrying migrants to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts - CNN
1 hour ago — Two planes carrying migrants were sent by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday night, his office said, ...
Ron DeSantis Sent Planes Full of Confused Migrant Families to Martha’s Vineyard
The migrant families Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent to Martha’s Vineyard reportedly weren't told where they were going.
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By Paul Blest
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is boasting about sending two planes full of undocumented immigrants, including children, to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on Wednesday, apparently just to make a point about liberal immigration policies.
The flights reportedly didn’t even originate in Florida but rather Texas, and the migrants weren’t told where they were going and were wooed with promises of expedited work papers, NPR reported.
"She offered us help. Help that never arrived," 30-year-old Andres Duarte, from Venezuela, told NPR about a woman who identified herself as “Perla.”
The woman approached the migrants outside of a shelter in San Antonio where they were staying and said the flights would take them to Boston, NPR reported.
"Now we are here. We got on the plane with a vision of the future, of making it,” Duarte added.
The planes arrived in Martha’s Vineyard, a popular tourist destination, especially for the wealthy, in Massachusetts, around 3:15 p.m Wednesday, according to NPR. The flights originated in San Antonio, however, and only made a layover stop in Florida (and then South Carolina) before heading to Massachusetts, NPR reported.
“States like Massachusetts… will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies,” a spokesperson for DeSantis told Fox News, which published exclusive video showing the migrants deboarding one of the planes.
Florida’s budget that passed earlier this year included $12 million for an “immigrant relocation program,” and DeSantis had said he would bus undocumented people to locations such as Delaware, President Joe Biden’s home state.
But last month DeSantis said the state hadn’t started because the Biden administration had stopped sending undocumented people to Florida. Texas has also been busing undocumented people to cities like New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
“The governor of one of the biggest states in the nation has been spending time hatching a secret plot to round up and ship people—children, families—lying to them about where they’re going just to gain cheap political points on Tucker Calrson and MAGA Twitter,” Massachusetts state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat who represents the area, tweeted Wednesday.
“It's fucking depraved.”
Local officials told multiple outlets that the migrants had no idea where they were when they landed.
“Somebody sent them here, and they didn’t realize where they were going,” a staffer at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services told the Martha’s Vineyard Times.
“We have talked to a number of people who've asked, 'Where am I?'” Bruce McNamee, the police chief in Edgartown, told NPR. “And then I was trying to explain where Martha's Vineyard is.”
The majority of the migrants DeSantis’ office put on the plane are from Venezuela, according to the New York Times. They’ve been provided with food and other supplies by the local community and are staying in a shelter at a local church, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Times.
“The Baker-Polito Administration is in touch with local officials regarding the arrival of migrants in Martha’s Vineyard,” a spokesperson for Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, told VICE News. “At this time, short-term shelter services are being provided by local officials, and the Administration will continue to support those efforts.”
State Sen. Julian Cyr, a Democrat who represents the area, compared DeSantis’ stunt to the “fundamentally racist tactics” used by segregationists in 1962, when they tricked nearly 100 Black families into moving to Hyannis, Massachusetts, apparently to prove racism was just as prevalent in the North as it was in the South.
“This is deeply disgusting,” Cyr told the Martha’s Vineyard Times. “This is a cruel ruse that manipulates families that are seeking a better life.”
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September 15, 2022, 9:11am
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