South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
DeSantis shows double standard in sexual battery case
Ron DeSantis did not mince words. Florida’s governor said a Republican with a high political profile who faces grave accusations of criminal wrongdoing — in this case, sexual battery — has to step aside. But if you thought Ron DeSantis was talking about Donald Trump, think again.
DeSantis was talking about Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, who is under investigation by the Sarasota Police Department after a woman accused him of rape in October, according to the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
The website’s news platform, the Florida Trident, reported that Ziegler assaulted a woman with whom he and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota County school board member and co-founder of the far-right group Moms for Liberty, previously had a consensual sexual encounter.
Police obtained a search warrant to seize the Republican operative’s cell phone, Google Mail and Google Drive accounts. Zeigler’s lawyer said his client has been fully cooperative and that he expected him to be “completely exonerated.”
DeSantis said Ziegler has to step down.
“I don’t see how he can continue with that investigation ongoing given the gravity of those situations, and so I think that he should, I think he should step aside,” DeSantis told reporters in Alpharetta, Ga., Thursday night, after his made-for-TV clash on Fox with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “He’s innocent till proven guilty, but we just can’t have a party chair that is under that type of scrutiny.”
It’s the right position, even though
Ziegler, like anyone, is presumed innocent.
But it makes Ziegler’s status as the party leader much more precarious at the dawn of a presidential election year. Politically, it’s impossible.
Without the backing of DeSantis, the titular head of the Florida GOP, Ziegler can’t stick around as chairman for long.
Every day brings a new revelation, such as Friday’s release of details that Ziegler visited the woman at her apartment on Oct. 2, followed by a frantic 911 call from a friend and co-worker of the purported victim, who was worried about her and told the police: “She told me she was raped yesterday.”
A police search warrant affidavit says video camera surveillance at the woman’s apartment complex captured Ziegler’s Ford truck driving in and out on Oct. 2, according
to WFTS-TV in Tampa.
If, as DeSantis claims, “we just can’t have” a party chairman who’s under investigation for alleged sexual battery, then what about Trump, the party’s leading presidential candidate, who has faced a multitude of similar allegations?
Why wouldn’t that standard apply to him?
Trump faces a total of 91 counts in four separate state and federal indictments.
After the fourth set of charges came down, in the Georgia election that Trump tried to invalidate, here is what DeSantis said: “I think it’s an example of this criminalization of politics,” he told reporters in August in New Hampshire, the state that will hold the first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Jan. 23. “I don’t think this is something that’s good for the country.”
None of this is meant to minimize the seriousness of the allegations against Ziegler. But to DeSantis, Ziegler must step aside, while Trump is a victim of the “criminalization of politics.” That’s a clear double standard by a governor who wants to lead the country and set a moral example for the rest of us.
Separate from those four indictments, Trump was found liable by a civil jury in New York in May for the sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store in 1996. Asked about that verdict, DeSantis was in full deflection mode. “I’ve been pretty busy,” he said in May.
At least 18 women have accused Trump of inappropriate behavior, including allegations of sexual assault, ABC News has reported. Trump himself said on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p—y.”
But don’t expect harsh judgments of Trump’s behavior by DeSantis. You won’t find them. The risk of alienating the unforgiving MAGA base is too great.
As for Ziegler, this is a rare moment where DeSantis and the Florida Democratic Party are 100% in agreement. The party has launched an online petition demanding Ziegler’s immediate resignation as party chairman.
“Allegations of rape and sexual battery are severe and should be taken seriously,” party chair Nikki Fried said. “I applaud the accuser’s bravery in coming forward against a political figure as powerful as Christian Ziegler, and I trust that the Sarasota Police Department will conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations of criminal behavior. Christian Ziegler can’t possibly continue to lead the Florida GOP under these conditions.”
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnis. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com.
Woefully inept state oversight of HOAs
I live in a homeowners’ association in Pembroke Pines regulated by the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). I have made numerous complaints to that agency. Even when you’re correct, the state does nothing. DBPR is 100% ineffective. My HOA has a $12 million budget; not once in 15 years have we been given a certified financial audit. DBPR told me that no law requires audits to be certified.
Florida’s inability to regulate HOAs creates the perfect storm for the grifters. Legislators have proposed better regulation of HOAs with more protection for homeowners, but the lobbyists made it useless. Instead, legislators have mandated enormous reserves by HOAs, creating a new financial problem. As a society, if we can’t protect our elderly, we are nothing.
Pembroke Pines
Joe Biden’s son Hunter is a disturbed guy.
He has done bad things and has a hard time owning up to them. Fortunately for Hunter, his dad is a sitting U.S. president. We now wonder what lawful share of consideration is or isn’t going to be made on his behalf for his past criminal activity. Can Joe’s protection last much longer? Maybe if Trump’s father were a former president, the law and media bias would have treated him differently. The publicity Hunter has been getting is unnecessary, but the guy seems to love the camera and his 15 minutes of fame.
The public is disgusted with privilege, politics, bias and bad judgement in a world that we hardly know anymore. Our country no longer has any great political leaders. Both the Democratic and the Republican Party have completely lost their status.
Tamarac
Standing strong for Israel
I thank President Joe Biden, my U.S. representative, Lois Frankel and senators
Marco Rubio and Rick Scott for standing with Israel as it works to defeat the terrorists in Gaza.
Hamas terrorists must be brought to justice. We must work to release all hostages. The fact that the U.N., the world’s top body for maintaining peace and security, still cannot condemn Hamas’ barbaric Oct. 7 massacre is more than tragic; it’s a moral failure.
Family members of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, were captured by IDF troops as they attempted to escape to the south of Gaza. His nephew and son-in-law were also arrested. Israeli forces brought back the body of Yehudit Weiss, who was kidnapped Oct. 7 from Be’eri, when her husband was murdered. She was executed by Hamas.
A pause in fighting ignores Hamas’ terrorism. It is a disgraceful and alarming surrender to violence. It must be rejected.
Boynton Beach
Respect for Carter
I admire Rosalynn Carter, the “Steel Magnolia.” What a thing of beauty that description is (even though she never liked it).
She will be held in the highest esteem long after the names of most of those in the front row at her memorial service are forgotten. Mrs. Carter would surely have loved a decorated tree and heavenly Christmas carols at her service. Instead, she was given a playing of John Lennon’s globalist composition, “Imagine.”
I worked as a volunteer at the Carter Center in Atlanta for years and loved the Carters. The disintegration to which their Democratic party has descended surely was a shock to them. But they were undoubtedly happy. Rosalynn Carter has gone to the Lord, where her beloved Jimmy will soon join her.
The Carters were a dying breed — a noble couple whose moral principles and lives will cause their legacy to endure with honor. May God bless them.
God bless President Trump, soon to be restored to the office to which he was elected, continuing the Carter legacy of caring for those on the margins and exhibiting brotherly love for our fellow man.
If, as DeSantis claims, “we just can’t have” a party chairman who’s under investigation for alleged sexual battery, then what about Trump, the party’s leading presidential candidate, who has faced a multitude of similar allegations?
Delray Beach