Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) climbed out on a MAGA limb this week, being the most prominent Florida politician willing to be photographed with President Joe Biden, who was visiting the Sunshine State after yet another devastating hurricane hammered the gulf coast.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declined to meet with the President, who had swiftly authorized aid for victims. DeSantis’s reluctance was widely portrayed as stemming from the Governor’s fear that a photo op with the Democratic opposition would deliver bad optics for his flailing presidential campaign.
The MAGA movement — conventional wisdom dictates — would likely knock a few more points from DeSantis’s already lagging poll numbers if he were caught fraternizing with the enemy, which in this polarized political moment includes the nation’s President — even during a disaster recovery requiring political teamwork.
[NOTE: MAGA still heaps excoriation upon former NJ Governor Chris Christie for welcoming President Barack Obama — and his federal purse strings — to the Garden State after the devastation wreaked by Superstorm Sandy.]
But despite potentially damaging optics, Sen. Scott stood side by side with Biden for the cameras this week, shook the President’s hand and traded praise with him, saying that Biden had delivered in Florida’s time of need. (Scott, notably, is up for re-election in 2024 so he is not immune to getting Christie-fied.)
Biden: I want to thank the Senator..
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 2, 2023
Scott: Can I just say something about what the President has done. First of all the President did a great a job… pic.twitter.com/JxILfvXkQl
Why didn’t Scott fear the rage of Donald Trump, who can with a social media post turn legions of his followers against anyone who treats Biden as anything other than a “crooked” politician, as Trump invariably calls the President?
Scott, whose Trump loyalty and history of electoral success in Florida aren’t in question, must have felt he wasn’t at political risk. Nonetheless, close political watchers point out that Scott wore a hat emblazoned with the number 45 — a familiar and friendly number to MAGA, who treasure that Trump was the 45th President of the United States.
Was that a way to meet Biden while placating Trump, sending a signal that he was still in league with 45, even as he met with 46? A user on X asked “Did anyone else notice that Scott wore a ’45’ hat just in case Trump saw and sent his MAGA goon squad after him for shaking Biden’s hand?”
In response, another observer credited Scott with pulling off a “double entendre” by using the “45” to signal, since the number may have only glancingly referred to the former President.
Scott, of course, was Florida’s 45th Governor and has his own claim on the number.
Double entendre, I think. Rick Scott was Florida’s 45th governor. https://t.co/PkfNsV1sLl
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) September 3, 2023
