The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, criticized Republican senators this Wednesday for wasting two years of unified control of the federal government without passing a single permanent immigration reform, in an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News following the electoral debacle on Tuesday.
Criticism arrived hours after the Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections on November 3, which DeSantis described as a result close to a "extinction-level event" for the party.
"Why haven't we done immigration, closed the H-1B visas? Why haven't we codified Trump's immigration executive orders? Why haven't we removed federal court jurisdiction over deportation cases? There are so many things that could have been done. They didn't even try, Laura," the governor stated on the show The Ingraham Angle.
DeSantis was particularly harsh on the argument that, according to him, legislators were using to justify their inaction: that they did not have the 50 votes needed to move forward.
"You don't have 50 votes to pursue conservative actions. You've never shown that you would do conservative things even with 50 votes," he replied.
The governor also pointed to the electoral consequences of that legislative paralysis. "Many of our voters who stayed home did so because they were frustrated with the lack of productivity from the Republicans in the House and Senate," he stated.
The projections cited by DeSantis himself placed the Democrats with 254 seats compared to 172 Republicans in the House, and with 54 Democratic senators against 44 Republicans, with two contests still pending resolution. The president warned that Republicans might not regain control of the Senate until 2032.
Texas was the most dramatic symbol of the collapse. "Texas essentially had a 20-point swing. Trump won by 13 points, and they lost the gubernatorial race by 7%," noted DeSantis.
The Democrat Gina Hinojosa became the first Latina governor of the state and the first Democrat to hold that position since 1995, while James Talarico won the federal Senate seat for Texas, a feat not accomplished by a Democrat since 1988.
Florida, on the other hand, weathered the wave with narrow margins. DeSantis attributed that outcome to years of work with voters and a property tax reduction initiative that mobilized the electorate. "If we can't win in places like Texas, Kansas, or Iowa, we are not viable on a national level," he warned.
Beyond immigration policy, DeSantis urged the Republican Senate leader, John Thune, to confirm all conservative judicial nominees before January 3, 2027, when the Democrats would take control of the chamber.
"I would put beds in the Senate foyer. I would make them work without rest, because they won't be able to confirm any conservative judges starting January 3 for the remainder of President Trump's term," he stated.
The governor also issued a direct warning to the Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, pointing out that both must decide "if they want to risk being replaced by someone with a profile similar to that of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson."
After this Wednesday's voting, Donald Trump became the fourth president since 1950 to lose both chambers of Congress in a midterm election, following in the footsteps of Eisenhower in 1954, Clinton in 1994, and George W. Bush in 2006.
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