Tag: Ron desantis

Why presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is under fire for an expensive golf simulator

The cost of the AboutGolf simulator starts at $27,500, while curved screen simulators cost at least $69,500.

Homebuilding magnate Mori Hosseini donated a pricey golf simulator to the Florida Governor’s Mansion in 2019, after Ron DeSantis took office, according to news reports released Wednesday.

The stories, first reported by Reuters and quickly followed by the Washington Post, were generating reaction from opponents and supporters of the former Volusia-Flagler congressman who’s now running for president.

Hosseini, who also serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Florida, has been a prolific supporter of Republican candidates, particularly DeSantis, dating to his time in Congress.

The cost of the AboutGolf simulator starts at $27,500, while curved screen simulators cost at least $69,500, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The newspaper also reported, based on campaign finance disclosures, Hosseini also let DeSantis and his wife Casey use his private plane at least a dozen times and hosted DeSantis on a 2018 trip to play golf at the prestigious, exclusive Augusta National Golf Club.

Hosseini, chairman and CEO of the Daytona Beach-based ICI Homes, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. However, in a statement released to Reuters, he said that the donation was “entirely permissible under Florida law.”

Hosseini also said that the simulator “was provided to the residence gym, as things have been in the past, for the use of the family, guests, and staff, during this and subsequent administrations.”

The Post cited a 2019 letter from James Uthmeier, who was at the time a lawyer working for the governor and is now chief of staff, to Hosseini acknowledging the loaned golf simulator equipment had been received.

“This equipment will be stored within the Florida Governor’s Mansion gym and will be returned to you immediately upon request. I have reviewed and approved the circumstances of this loan to the Mansion Commission and verify that it is permissible in accordance with the Governor’s Ethics Code and Florida Statutory Code,” Uthmeier’s letter states.

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The Reuters report included confirmation from one of the installers, who traveled to Tallahassee from Ohio and instructed the governor on how to use the simulator equipment.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, shown campaigning at the 8th annual Basque Fry at the Corley Ranch in Gardnerville, Nevada, on Saturday, has had access to a pricy golf simulator in the Governor’s Mansion after it was lent by Mori Hosseini, a homebuilding magnate from Ormond Beach.
News of the loan generated swift reaction from some of DeSantis’ opponents who support former President Donald Trump’s bid for the 2024 Republican nomination for president.

“Ron DeSantis’ Florida Swamp in Action,” Trump ally Jason Miller tweeted with a link to the Post piece.

Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Republican strategist and the founder of the Lincoln Project tweeted: “Damn those elites with their golf simulators and private jet flights.”

Cryptid Politics, a Twitter account that supports DeSantis’ campaign, wrote: “WaPo tries hit piece on @RonDeSantis, buries lede that golf simulator loan was reviewed and approved as ethical according to FL Statutory Code.”

Whether the golf machine was a “gift” to the governor is a key question. Florida law requires all gifts of $100 or more to be reported.

“In my mind, it subverts the principle of why we require gifts to be disclosed,” Ben Wilcox, research director of Florida Integrity, a watchdog group, told Reuters.

However, Caroline Klancke, an attorney who is executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute, a nonprofit, suggested in an email to The News-Journal Wednesday the question of whether the golf simulator was a gift to the governor or an agency, the Governor’s Mansion Commission, would depend on several questions.

“Was it maintained in a public building for a public purpose, or alternatively, was it used for a purely private purpose?” she wrote. “Does the agency have rules governing such loans or donations of tangible personal property?”

Hosseini founded Volusia County-based ICI Homes in 1980, according to his University of Florida biography, and has built thousands of homes and created some of the largest master development communities in Florida. He also serves as board chairman at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

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Ron DeSantis awards Barbara Nicklaus Florida Governor’s Medal of Freedom

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis highlighted Barbara Nicklaus’ longtime support for children’s healthcare.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded Barbara Nicklaus the “highest honor in the State of Florida” on Friday in a special ceremony at the Honda Classic at PGA National.

Nicklaus, the wife of 18-time golf major champion Jack Nicklaus, was flanked by her husband as DeSantis presented her with the Florida Governor’s Medal of Freedom.

DeSantis highlighted Barbara Nicklaus’ longtime support for children’s healthcare, noting the more than $150 million raised by the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Foundation to support projects in South Florida, the United States and more than 120 countries worldwide.

“When you’re talking about support for pediatric healthcare, I don’t think you can find somebody that has had more of a profound impact on this state than Barbara Nicklaus has,” DeSantis said. “…This has helped so many people and we’re proud of that.”

Nicklaus reflected on more than 60 years of marriage after receiving the award and credited her husband for motivating her philanthropic pursuits.

Honda Classic 2022
Jack Nicklaus applauds as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declares Barbara Nicklaus Day before awarding her the Governor’s Medal Of Freedom for her contributions and commitment to pediatric health care in the state at the 2022 Honda Classic on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Photo: Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post)

“I’ve always been so proud of him and I guess in turn I wanted him to be proud of me,” “Early in our marriage, we decided if we were in a position to help anyone, we wanted it to be children. We’ve been so blessed to live in Florida and give back to children and families in our state by providing the best medical care.

“What we do for ourselves, dies with us. What we do for others in the world, remains immortal.”

DeSantis gave the inaugural Florida Governor’s Medal of Freedom to longtime Florida State football head coach Bobby Bowden in 2021.

Other recipients include Felix I. Rodríguez-Mendigutía, a Cuban exile who served in the Vietnam War, participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and assisted with the capture of famed revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia.

The Governor’s Medal of Freedom is awarded to any person who has made an “especially meritorious contribution to the interests and citizens of the state, its culture, or other significant public or private endeavor.”

DeSantis toured the Champion course at PGA National prior to the ceremony, watching golf with patrons at the world-famous “Bear Trap” on the course’s back nine.

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Florida Governor DeSantis: ‘We want you guys to be able to play’

DeSantis’ comments came the same day that the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced that they were canceling all sports for the fall 2020 season.

Speaking to the media at Florida State University on Tuesday alongside Seminole players and university President John Thrasher, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he still wants to see football played in Florida this fall despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He also extended an invitation to schools and conferences whose seasons have been canceled to compete in the state.

DeSantis’ comments came the same day that the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced that they were canceling all sports for the fall 2020 season, with the intent being to postpone them until the spring. DeSantis, however, said he sees value in the sport being played on time.

“We want to make sure that folks know that we value the opportunities for our student-athletes in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.

“I asked President Thrasher and (FSU football coach Mike Norvell) about, hey, if some of these other conferences shut down, can we welcome their players to the state of Florida?” DeSantis continued. “I’m not exactly sure how the NCAA rules work on that. But I can tell you, if there’s a way, you know, we want you guys to be able to play as well.”

DeSantis said that being with the program during an athletic season would provide more structure to players than if the season were canceled and that they’d be more likely to contract the virus without the restrictions programs would put on them.

“That means the world to so many of our student-athletes,” DeSantis said. “We talked about some of the college players who may not necessarily be (going) pro. There’s a lot of high school players who may not be able to get to college on it, but man, that’s an important part of their development.”

DeSantis’ eagerness to resume sports in the state comes in spite of the fact that Florida is currently one of the states most impacted by COVID-19 with over 500,000 confirmed cases and over 8,000 deaths. Though it will be open in the fall and students will be living on campus, the majority of students will be taking classes online, with about 65 percent of total instruction planned to be conducted online.

Thrasher made the case for playing football this fall, citing the best interests of student-athletes.

“What we frankly want to send is a message to some of the other schools that may be teetering on whether or not to play football,” Thrasher said. “We think it’s in the best interest of our student-athletes for us to play football. We can do it safely. And we can do it productively for them, as well as the absolute culture of our university. And certainly, this community of Tallahassee. We’re ready to do it.”

When asked about the economic impact of not having a season, Thrasher said it would be “significant.”

“Football drives everything else,” Thrasher said. “When you have football, you’re able to support the other sports, the Olympic sports and everything else.”

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushes for college sports to play this fall

DeSantis said many student-athletes are safer on campus and in the structured environment that football provides than otherwise.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at USA TODAY Sports and has been republished in its entirety below. 

With the Mid-American Conference canceling its football season this fall and Big Ten presidents voting against playing in the fall, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is still hopeful that other Power Five conferences will be able to play.

“The Big Ten college presidents may have a little different sense of this. I think the Southeastern Conference, ACC, most of those institutions want to play because I think they see how important it is for the well-being of their student-athletes,” DeSantis said Monday on Fox Sports Radio. “I’m 100 percent in favor of it.”

Speaking with host Clay Travis, DeSantis endorsed the #WeWantToPlay movement, championed by Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, which calls for the major conferences to take steps to ensure games can be played this fall.

DeSantis said many student-athletes are safer on campus and in the structured environment that football provides than they would be otherwise in regard to coronavirus.

“Very few of the folks in that cohort are becoming seriously ill,” he said. “Just because you test positive, most of these athletes really never actually end up getting ill.”

However, the long-term effects of the novel coronavirus are not fully known. A recent study found about a quarter of young adults were still not back to their normal health weeks after contracting the infection.

DeSantis said he not only wants to see football played on college campuses this fall, but at high schools across Florida as well.

“Keeping kids out of school and denying them the ability, those who want to to play sports, those are going to have long-term ramifications,” he said. “You’ll be dealing with problems I think for society for years and years to come.”

He said he plans to go to a lot of high school games this fall to show his support. Noting that Florida has already conducted a NASCAR race with limited fans in the stands, as well as hosting the NBA’s bubble, DeSantis said the return of sports is important for the country as a whole in getting back to normal.

“You see everybody else is playing — the NBA, Major League Baseball … the PGA (Tour) … soccer is playing — there’s no reason we can’t play high school and college athletics,” he said. “It’s very, very important.”

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis signs name, image, and likeness bill

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the signing of a name, image, and likeness bill for college athletes in Florida Friday.

We continue to get closer and closer to a world where college athletes can make money without ramifications from the NCAA. California really started the snowball rolling downhill when it signed the Fair Pay to Play Act. Since then, the NCAA has kinda, sorta embraced the fact that it’s all happening and is working to get in front of it.

We’ve also heard about former Ohio State wide receiver turned congressman Anthony Gonzalez and his plan to introduce NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) legislation at the federal level.

But we’ve also gotten rumors of other states coming online with the same thing until the U.S. government gets something done to equal the playing field.

And so it is with Florida.

That’s because, on Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed the signing of a bill that would allow college athletes to get paid for their name, image, and likeness while speaking at the University of Miami.

There are still details to be written and hammered out, but that is expected to be completed by October 31, with a vote taking place no later than January 31, 2021. If passed, the new bill would go into effect on July 1, 2021 and in place for the 2021-2022 athletic calendar.

If it all happens as expected, it’ll be the first legislation of its kind implemented at the state level. It’s thought that the move will help spur the NCAA on to make sure the typically slow-moving governing body of college athletics gets something in place sooner rather than later.

We’ll keep an eye on this as all the milestones are passed and the hoops jumped through. However, the train is leaving the station, and the world is going to change for some college athletes to benefit from what they can do on the playing field before they turn professional.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis welcomes sports teams outside of the state for operations

Ron DeSantis seems to be in favor of getting the sports world back operating and has offered teams to come to Florida if restricted.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the state of Florida is trying to gradually work its way back to functioning normally, which could be a good thing for their professional sports teams in the near future. However, other American pro teams may not have as easy of a time resuming operations, which is why Florida governor Ron DeSantis is welcoming them with open arms.

Wednesday, DeSantis declared that the state of Florida is open to hosting other professional sports teams who are restricted for operations in their respective states.

“What I would tell commissioners of leagues is, if you have a team in an area where they just won’t let them operate, we’ll find a place for you here in the state of Florida because we think it’s important and we know it can be done safely,” DeSantis said Wednesday.

As many are aware, the pandemic didn’t allow the National Basketball Association to finish its season as the league stopped operations in early March. However, the NBA’s commissioner, Adam Silver, recently stated that the league will decide on the 2019-20 season with two weeks to another month.

Meanwhile, the owners within the Major League Baseball organization have approved a proposal for their season to begin in July. The ball is now in the players’ union court (or field in this case) to decide on what they would like to do.

If the other leagues accept DeSantis’ invite, they won’t be the first to come to Florida for operations as All Elite Wrestling (ran by Tony Khan) has been having tapings at the Jags’ amphitheater, Daily’s Place, while the World Wrestling Entertainment organization has been doing the same at their performance center in Orlando.

As for the NFL, time will tell how they plan to move forward as league executive vice president Jeff Pash informed the media that the league had plans to start things on time earlier in the month.

Florida’s Ron DeSantis became the …

Florida’s Ron DeSantis became the second governor to announce that his state is open to professional sports teams that want to resume activity amid the coronavirus pandemic. “All professional sports are welcome here for practicing and for playing,” DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday in Tallahassee. “What I would tell commissioners of leagues is, if you have a team in an area where they just won’t let them operate, we’ll find a place for you here in the state of Florida.”