David Nir
Wealthy businessman and Senate hopeful Carlos Beruff has quickly established himself as the Donald Trump of Florida politics. He began with a nativist ad campaign that declared, Charles Lindberg-style, "America first!" Now he's descending (if that's even possible) into rank Trumpian insults:
"Unfortunately, for seven and a half years this animal we call president, because he's an animal, okay—seven and a half years, has surgically and with thought and very smart, intelligent manner, destroyed this country and dismantled the military under not one, not two, but three secretary of defenses. And they've all written books about it."
Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy immediately demanded that Beruff apologize, but so did one of Beruff's Republican rivals, Rep. David Jolly (whose campaign is apparently a backdoor audition for the role of "reasonable Republican" on some cable news show). Beruff, like his role model Trump, refused to do any such thing, and, in Rovian fashion, he accused Murphy of "resort[ing] to name calling and the politics of racial division." In fact, his campaign even pushed out the link to the tracker video that caught the remarks above!
Evidently, Beruff believes that standing his ground will only endear him further to GOP primary voters, and he's probably not wrong. The general election, though, is an altogether different story.
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