\n<\/p>\n
Late Friday night, Florida Governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/strong> blasted out a tweet responding to news that\u00a0Daniel Penny<\/strong>, the 24-year-old former Marine who choked a homeless man named\u00a0Jordan Neely<\/strong> to death on the New York City subway, had been\u00a0arraigned<\/a> in Manhattan on charges of second-degree manslaughter. \u201cWe must defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, stop the Left’s pro-criminal agenda, and take back the streets for law abiding citizens,\u201d DeSantis\u00a0wrote<\/a>. \u201cWe stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let\u2019s show this Marine… America\u2019s got his back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019s tweet, which has millions of views, linked to an online fundraiser for Penny\u2019s legal defense. By Saturday morning, it appeared that the fund had grown by over $200,000. The flurry of donations supporting Penny\u2019s vigilantism recalls the\u00a0canonization<\/a> of Kyle Rittenhouse, who also\u00a0raised<\/a> hundreds of thousands in the lead-up to his 2021 murder trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019s reference to \u201cSoros-Funded DAs\u201d\u2014an age-old antisemitic conspiracy theory frequently invoked against Hungarian-born, liberal Jewish billionaire\u00a0George Soros<\/strong>\u2014revives one of the Florida governor\u2019s favorite hobbyhorses. In late March, after a Manhattan grand jury indicted Donald Trump for hush money payments to adult film star\u00a0Stormy Daniels<\/strong>, DeSantis avoided referring to Trump by name, but did\u00a0lash out<\/a> at \u201cSoros-backed Manhattan District Attorney\u201d\u00a0Alvin Bragg<\/strong>, who is charged with prosecuting the former president. Bragg is also prosecuting Daniel Penny. Last August, DeSantis also suspended a liberal state attorney who had refused to enforce the state\u2019s draconian policies on abortion and gender affirming care,\u00a0calling<\/a> him a \u201cSoros-backed state attorney.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s fairly obvious why DeSantis is juicing these conspiracies. Just this morning,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0released<\/a> a report detailing DeSantis\u2019s pre-presidential campaign woes: \u201cAllies have abandoned him. Tales of his icy interpersonal touch have spread. Donors have groused.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis may have a more personal reason for labeling political opponents with the Soros slur as well. In February, erstwhile Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate\u00a0Kari Lake<\/strong>, who once\u00a0praised<\/a> DeSantis for having \u201cBDE\u201d (\u201cBig DeSantis Energy,\u201d of course),\u00a0tweeted<\/a> an article reporting that Soros had endorsed the Florida governor. (Soros had simply said he thought DeSantis was the \u201clikely\u201d nominee.) A month later, Trump\u00a0shared<\/a> a Truth Social post that nicknamed DeSantis \u201cRon DeSoros.\u201d Earlier in May,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a> that the nickname had appeared more than 12,000 times on news and social media sites since January.\u00a0<\/p>\n In response, DeSantis has doubled down on some of the ultra-MAGA right\u2019s favorite anti-vaxx and election denial conspiracy theories. \u201cIt\u2019s a tug of war over who is going to grab the all-important conspiracy constituency,\u201d one professor who studies QAnon told the\u00a0Times<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest irony of DeSantis\u2019s attack on \u201cthe Left\u2019s pro-criminal agenda\u201d, however, is this: Florida\u2019s murder rate is\u00a0much higher<\/a> than New York\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n