One day after former state Sen. Randy Fine won a seat in Congress, Gov. Ron DeSantis put him on blast as a "squish" who "repels people," noting he put Fine up for a university presidency job to keep him out of the Legislature.
The issue?
The Florida Atlantic University board all threatened to resign if Fine were to become president, DeSantis claimed at a Wednesday press conference in Ocala.
"He's a squish...He repels people. He's repelled people in the Legislature," DeSantis said, referring to Fine's eight years in the state House and one-year term (which he resigned from on Monday) in the Senate.
"They wanted to get him out of the Legislature, so they asked me to put him up for Florida Atlantic president, and I did, and the whole board would've rather resigned than make him president," he added.
Fine responded on social media, noting that he is more focused on working with President Donald Trump, who endorsed him in his congressional race.
"A dying star burns hottest before it fades into oblivion," he posted on X.
FAU Search, a Close Race, 'Muslim Terror'
In March 2023, Fine said that the governor approached him about taking the Boca Raton position. And though a DeSantis spokesperson called him a "good candidate for the role," Fine was not among the university's finalists announced in July of that year. A storm of oddities followed, signified by a months-long paused search to deal with alleged rules violations—a halt that some speculated to be orchestrated by the DeSantis administration.
The university debacle came amid DeSantis's own presidential ambitions, which caused all the more stir when Fine switched his endorsement from the Florida Governor to Donald Trump in October. Fine, formerly the state Legislature's sole Jewish Republican, accused the governor of not doing enough to combat antisemitism in Florida, speaking weeks after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Fine resigned from his state Senate seat on Monday to run in—and win—the special election for Congressional District 6. Its previous Representative, Mike Waltz, vacated the seat to become Trump's national security adviser. But rumors that Fine may underperform, or even lose, the district Trump had won by 30 points began to abound, especially after his Democrat competitor outraised him 10 to 1.
Trump and Republican donors swooped in, pumping millions into the race over the weekend. And though Fine won by 14 points, DeSantis said this shows his "unique problems" as a candidate.
"The election day turnout was really good for Republicans in the district, and I attribute that to President Trump's intervention," DeSantis said. "I think these are voters who didn't like Randy Fine, but who basically were like, 'We're gonna take one for the team,' because the president needs another vote up there."
The conservative firebrands have traded bitter insults since Fine chose to endorse Trump over the governor. The more recent tiffs include: Fine criticized DeSantis's trip to Ireland for a college football game in August, remarking that the European nation "supports Muslim terror" for recognizing Palestine as a sovereign nation.
DeSantis's spokespeople took to social media to claim that Fine flaunts his Harvard degree, which resulted in the legislator threatening to call a hearing to investigate DeSantis's senior analyst, Christina Pushaw, in front of a Senate committee.
In January, Fine sponsored a sweeping anti-illegal immigration package that replaced DeSantis's favored measures. The governor accused Fine and the Legislature of supporting a "weak" bill that would turn Florida into a sanctuary state.
