TALLAHASSEE—While Florida House Speaker Danny Perez may have "thick skin" when it comes to the lower chamber's feud with Gov. Ron DeSantis, he says he won't allow the governor to "lie" about meetings between the wives of state troopers and House members.
Speaker Perez, a Miami Republican, spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon, kicking off the event by slamming Gov. DeSantis for his "temper tantrums."
This bluntness is a far cry from Perez's previous assurances that his relationship with the governor was cordial, even while DeSantis posted a slew of blistering social media videos and hosted eight statewide press conferences insulting the "rotten" House Republicans for working against his priorities.
But after Florida Highway Patrol Director Dave Kerner, the wives of two state troopers killed or wounded in action, and DeSantis claimed that the House refused to meet with the two women and wants to defund the police, Perez says he can't "allow [DeSantis] to lie."
"He has a temper tantrum, he gets in front of a camera, and he starts to do one of two things: either spew lies, willingly choosing to lie about what he is telling the people in front of a camera, or he is choosing not to read the bills or look at our budget," Perez said.
What Happened?
Amanda Gerhart, whose Trooper fiancé Zachary Fink was killed in action, and Kathleen Turner, whose Trooper husband Steven Turner was shot and nearly died on duty, spoke alongside DeSantis and Kerner at a Fort Myers press conference Wednesday morning.
All four criticized the House, claiming its budget proposal for highway patrol officers would defund police while its members refused to meet with the women.
"I am ashamed at the actions of the Florida House of Representatives...I did not expect state representatives to refuse to meet with me, to tell me that they are busy, and to call back after session is over," Gerhart said.
Kerner claimed he encouraged both women to go to Tallahassee on behalf of state troopers but had to "sit down" with them the day they got there to tell them that the House budget proposal, filed on April 2, would cut trooper funding.
"The experience that they had in the Florida House, there were Representatives that didn't want to meet with them, that wouldn't meet with them," Kerner said, noting that some of the conversations that were had raised "questions that we couldn't get answers to."
DeSantis claimed the House told the spouses to "go fly a kite," speculating that they "can't defend" their budget proposal so they didn't want to meet with the women.
"The governor's favorite Democrat"
Perez says that's a lie.
"We spoke about the budget, we spoke about the good work that law enforcement provides to the state...We ended very cordially," Perez said, before swiping at Kerner, a former Democrat lawmaker.
"When the governor's favorite Democrat says that the House doesn't want to meet with him, that's not true. The media request was made by the two women that I met with, and we had a phenomenal meeting together."
Perez claimed he met with both Turner and Gerhart last week in a House conference room ("Each of them sat to my right and my left—I can see it in my mind right now,"), where he says they had a "phenomenal" conversation and also met with other House members.
Perez and DeSantis have had an icy relationship since the new Speaker took office, beginning with him and the Senate President closing out the governor's special session on illegal immigration in January before compromising weeks later in the third special session of the year. Tensions smoothed until two weeks ago, when DeSantis posted a social media video bristling at House Republicans voting to override nearly $5 million in his budget vetoes from last year.
The House has since begun to push back on some of the governor's priorities—unheard of from the Republican supermajority before this year—including blocking him from filling vacant university presidential spots and investigating his wife's charity over allegedly illegal activity.
