Weekly Talking Points July 1, 2024

Weekly Talking Points – July 1, 2024

Every week, talking points are provided to party leaders and membership.

For questions or feedback about talking points, please contact Eden Giagnorio, Communications Director, at eden@floridadems.org. 

To request for someone to be added to the mailing list, direct them to press@floridadems.org.

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FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Last Thursday, the first 2024 Presidential Debate between President Biden and former President Donald Trump took place.

TOPLINE: This election isn’t about a 90 minute debate — it’s about the last three years of President Biden’s record and his lifetime of public service.  

• President Biden’s debate performance is not a reflection of the kind of president that he is or a representation of his record. 
• According to research conducted during the debate, the more voters heard from Donald Trump, the more they remembered why they dislike him.
• More than 3 out of every 4 undecided voters left with deep concerns about Donald Trump’s temperament.
• A Univision focus group of undecided Latino voters left the debate almost 100% behind President Biden. 
• Trump lost on the issues. Voters said that President Biden better addressed the issues they care about during the debate by a 3-1 margin.
• Trump lied 50 times during the debate and spent the night attacking our rights and freedoms:
• He refused to answer whether he would accept the results of the election. 
• He downplayed the January 6th insurrection and his role in inciting it.
• He repeatedly attacked veterans.
• He defended plans to cut taxes for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
• He called overturning Roe v. Wade a “great thing.”
• President Biden rebounded with a fiery speech at a North Carolina rally on Friday, reminding voters he is the only candidate in the race who “knows how to tell the truth.”
• This election provides a clear choice — President Biden, who will protect our democracy, safeguard our fundamental freedoms, and ensure everyone has a fair shot, or Donald Trump, a convicted felon and a clear threat to our democracy. 
• Florida Democrats will do everything possible to make that choice clear between now and November.

BILLS GOING INTO EFFECT TODAY

Many of the past legislative session’s bills go into effect today, including a bill that strikes all mention of the words “Climate Change” from state statute, a bill that preempted local heat regulations, and a bill that weakens state ethics laws

TOPLINE: Ron campaigned on protecting Florida’s environment, but is quickly becoming the most anti-environment governor in recent memory.

• In 2019, Ron wrote an op-ed for the Miami Herald where he vowed to keep his campaign promises, including “prioritizing environmental issues.”
• Now, Ron is wiping climate change from state statute, ignoring the extreme heat while stripping protections from workers, and deregulating gas pipelines that can pollute our environment.
• This comes on the heels of Ron’s Department of Environmental Protection giving preliminary approval for exploratory drilling in the Apalachicola River floodplain.
• For decades, protecting the environment has been a bipartisan issue in Florida — but Florida Republicans are quickly letting base politics and business interests take priority over common-sense policy ideas.

TOPLINE: Ron and Florida Republicans are undermining Florida ethics law to keep themselves from being held accountable.

• Just last year, the Florida Democratic Party filed ethics complaints against members of the Executive Office of the Governor — complaints that will not be allowed under Ron’s new law.
• The new ethics law guts the power of local ethics commissions and prevents anonymous whistleblowers from coming forward.
• Florida Republicans continue to show us how corrupt they really are — and now they’re making sure they can keep getting away with it.

FLORIDA BUDGET

Last month, Ron DeSantis signed the $116.5 billion 2024-2025 Florida Budget, making nearly $1 billion in line-item vetoes.

TOPLINE: Once again, Ron has passed a near-record budget that doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of Floridians.

• Among other things, this year’s veto list includes hundreds of millions of dollars in canceled stormwater projects, school safety improvements, and local infrastructure fixes — things that actually improve our day-to-day lives.
• Ron’s neglect of public infrastructure is a slap in the face to Floridians dealing with the effects of the climate crisis, and it’s one of the reasons why property insurance costs are spiraling out of control.
• As intense flooding becomes more frequent in South Florida, we should be making every effort to make sure our infrastructure is hardened, resilient, and ready to deal with our increasingly powerful storm systems.
• As always, Florida Democrats will work to hold him accountable for the harm he does to local communities in the name of a fake fiscal conservatism.

ABORTION

Floridians are now living under one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country. The six-week ban signed into law by Ron DeSantis went into effect on May 1st. 

TOPLINE: Florida’s extreme six-week abortion ban has virtually no exceptions and puts women’s lives at risk. 

• Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that an Idaho law violated the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act, and required that pregnant patients be given medical care before reaching a near fatal
• The near-total abortion ban is even more extreme because of Florida’s mandatory 24-hour waiting period — signed into law by Rick Scott — and a requirement to have two in-person doctors appointments before accessing abortion care.  
• Polling shows that 65% of Florida voters — including nearly half of Florida Republicans — support the right to safe, legal abortion.
• Donald Trump has made it clear that he’s not satisfied with overturning Roe v. Wade and unleashing extreme abortion bans across the country —he’s even signaled that he would even be open to restricting access to birth control.
• Florida voters can reverse this extreme ban and restore reproductive freedom in our state by voting yes on Amendment 4 and re-electing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

RICK SCOTT

Last week marked two years since Rick Scott celebrated the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which ripped away women’s right to make their own personal medical decisions. 

TOPLINE: Rick Scott celebrated Roe’s downfall and says the dangerous state-level abortion laws enacted in its wake are “exactly what ought to happen.”

• Rick Scott is fully behind Florida’s abortion ban: “If I was the sitting governor, and the six-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it. I’ve always said I would sign it.”
• On the day Florida’s ban took effect, Scott said he would sign “any” anti-abortion legislation.
• Now Scott wants to enact a national abortion ban and has blocked federal protections for contraception and IVF. 
• Scott’s extreme anti-abortion record is deeply unpopular — nearly 70 percent of whom support reproductive freedom.

TOPLINE: Rick Scott’s self-serving agenda would be a disaster for working families. 

• Scott’s disastrous Plan to Rescue America would put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block and raise taxes on 40 percent of Floridians, including working families and active duty military personnel.
• Scott’s plan to end Social Security and Medicare is so toxic, even Mitch McConnell calls it a “bad idea.” 
• Scott is corrupt and out-of-touch — he made millions defrauding Medicare and now wants to take away seniors’ hard-earned benefits and raise taxes on everyday Floridians.

PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY

Following today’s Supreme Court Ruling: Trump v. United States, the Biden-Harris campaign provided the following talking points: 

• Today’s ruling is unprecedented and dangerous.
• The conservative justices on the Supreme Court – three of whom are there because of Donald Trump – removed one of the last remaining checks as Trump pursues his path to a dictatorship.
• The conservative justices have made it even easier for Trump to do exactly what he is saying he wants to do:
• Rule as a dictator on “day one”
• “Termination” of the Constitution
• Replace civil servants with Trump loyalists 
• Weaponize the government against its own citizens and his political enemies 
• The stakes were high before today, and they are even higher now. Our very democracy is on the line. 
• The American people deserve a president who fights for them, not a “king above the law.”
• We can stop Donald Trump’s self-obsessed quest for power once and for all at the ballot box – by reelecting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November.