The daily rundown — Between Monday and Tuesday, the number of Florida coronavirus cases increased by 8,555 (0.9 percent), to 953,300; active hospitalizations went up 27 (0.7 percent), to 3,781; deaths rose by 72 (nearly 0.4 percent), to 18,157.
Reality check — Sen. Marco Rubio is preparing for a Biden administration. The question is when the rest of Florida’s top Republicans will finally (publicly) accept the results of the election.
Backing his way in — Rubio’s decision to take to Twitter to criticize some of Biden’s initial selections for his Cabinet showed the state’s senior senator is getting ready for the prospect of a new president even if he did it in a somewhat backhanded way.
Fight on — But even after Trump himself cleared the way this week for the transition to formerly begin, other Sunshine State Republicans remain conspicuously silent or refuse to acknowledge Trump’s lost. “I think the president has the right and he should exhaust all opportunities to make sure we have integrity in the system and we have a fair election,” Republican Party of Florida chairman Joe Gruters said on Tuesday. “I encourage the president to continue on and fight and I think there are doubts out there and there are irregularities.” (There has been no proof presented by the Trump campaign of widespread fraud and many “irregularities” have turned out to be mundane clerical errors.)
Who’s on board? — This refusal of the state’s Republicans to even somewhat acknowledge Trump lost is a sign that Florida Republicans who may be on the ballot in the near future remain afraid of appearing even the slightest bit disloyal to Trump. On his radio program, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh for example noted the continued fealty of both Rep. Matt Gaetz and Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Although, DeSantis has largely remained out of sight for close to three weeks now and has not publicly commented on Trump’s refusal to concede.)
Not with a bang but a whimper — There’s an expectation DeSantis — whose ascension to the governor’s mansion was aided by Trump — will finally address the election results shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday. The question then becomes about when Sen. Rick Scott and other members of Florida’s congressional delegation will begin to acknowledge that the voters have spoken.
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