DeSantis' latest cruel attacks on a New Hampshire teen are a feature, not a bug

The DeSantis Attack Machine reflects the dark character of their leader – a fragile, rageful and vindictive man incapable of, as he says, backing down.

In high school, DeSantis and another baseball player at Dunedin High School were credibly accused of sexually assaulting an incapacitated teen.

In college at Yale, DeSantis orchestrated hazing that turned violent at his fraternity. Some of the freshman were forced to drop their pants, then blenders placed between their legs and turned on. Pledges were forced to simulate sex with each other. The incidents led to a lifetime for trauma for those who spoke out.

After graduation, DeSantis took a job teaching at the Darlington School where he attended parties with his underage students, and earned a reputation as a bully and a racist.

While a JAG assigned to represent those illegally detained at Guantanamo Bay, DeSantis volunteered to conduct and enjoyed the torture of his clients. When questioned about the vivid accounts survivors shared, DeSantis attacked reporters in an unhinged and now infamous interview.

A Vice documentary detailing the accounts of his victims was shut down the day after DeSantis declared his candidacy for President, the parent company, Showtime, expressing concern about retaliation.

After his time in the military – which DeSantis has grossly mispresented during his campaign – he spent a few years living with now-deceased sex trafficker Kent Stermon.

Stermon funded DeSantis’ 2012 Congressional run – in which DeSantis managed to win the Republican primary with just 38.8% of the vote.

 Stermon committed suicide as investigations about his alleged activities heated up.  Stermon was one of many alleged sex traffickers with whom DeSantis had close, personal relationships with.

DeSantis spent his time while living with Stermon working at Holland & Knight – a progressive law firm with a $1.5 billion portfolio. While DeSantis does not discuss his time as a civil litigator at the firm, H&K has received millions from the state in defending DeSantis’ culture war lawsuits.

Before DeSantis 2018 Gubernatorial victory, H&K made only $2,750 in contracts representing the state. They made $1.7 million in the first two years of DeSantis’ term.

DeSantis used the power of his office to pressure H&K to drop a case representing the Miami Herald in seeking records about COVID-19 cases in nursing homes.

Once in Congress, DeSantis became a founding member of the controversial “Freedom Caucus.”

Since then, DeSantis’ tenure has been defined not by leadership, compassion or effectiveness – but rather by his distinct approach in attacking his critics.

You may already know some of our stories. Others likely drifted out of memory over the years. But the people Florida Governor Ron DeSantis targeted live every day under siege.

The questionable and criminal people DeSantis brings onto his team have one mission above all else:  control everything.

I’ve written extensively about how his team works to control messaging in the press, on social media, and through harassment, intimidation and bullying.

Andrew Gillum may have been the first casualty in DeSantis’ ruthless lust for power – but the argument could be made Trump had as much to do with that case as anyone on DeSantis’ team.

The first time DeSantis really went after someone – using the power of his office to persecute and destroy the life of a human being who embarrassed him – was Florida attorney Dan Uhlfelder.