Ron DeSantis as American president is exciting for some, but frightening for others
Breakfast in a Floridian diner is never for the faint-hearted.
There’s the biscuits and gravy, the grits, the oversized breakfast tacos, the waffles, the pancakes, the corned beef hash and, of course, the all-American drip coffee.
If you survive all that, and if you nudge the locals a little, then the passionate yet divisive politics of this state and this nation all comes tumbling out.
The moment I mention Ron DeSantis, the cards are on the table.
“I love him… I think he’s doing the things that most of us would like him to do,” Patricia Barra says.
“He’s just kept Florida very productive; open through COVID. I think he wants to make America the way we were used to having it.”
Patricia Barra says she “loves” Ron DeSantis
Her husband, Gerald, finishes her thought: “Californians moving to Florida, Massachusettsans moving to Florida, New Jerseyans moving to Florida, New Yorkers moving to Florida. Must be something!”
But, a table away: “He’s bigoted, a white supremacist, a Trump wannabe…” Robin Mix says.
They say the Starlite Diner is a Daytona Beach landmark, an unofficial community meeting place for the locals. Where better, then, to find out more about Florida’s governor?
This is where the political career began for the man who wants to be president.
There were differing opinions over Ron DeSantis at Starlite Diner
Robin Mix calls the Florida governor a “bigoted white supremacist”
Daytona Beach is in his old district back when he was a congressman, way before he made waves nationwide.
I’ve come to find out what the allure is and whether that landslide vote for governor last year really could propel him all the way to the White House.
‘Make America Florida’ is his line. It’s a neat play on the tagline of his fan-turned-foe, Donald ‘Make America Great Again’ Trump.
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Trump is the clear favourite to clinch the Republican Party nominee for president. But DeSantis is behind him and hopes to close, fast.
He is Trumpian without the chaos. Maybe he can deliver on policy where Trump didn’t manage to? That’s exciting for some; frightening for others, and it turns out they’re all represented in the Starlite Diner this morning.
The vibe from his fans reflects a view that America has lost its way and needs to return to traditional values – conservative ones.
‘He would make a wonderful vice president’
“I like that idea…” another diner says when I put the Make America Florida tag to her.
“I think he would make a wonderful vice-president under President Trump…” another says.
It reflects what some see as the dream conservative ticket, however improbable it may be given the pair’s current animosity.
If there is one theme which gets to the heart of what Ron DeSantis is all about, it’s culture wars – his war on woke.
He has recognised that cultural issues – tapping into the idea that values have been eroded – so often resonates more with voters than issues like the economy.
Trump harked back to a time when America was apparently greater. DeSantis has gone further, identifying issues which, for his conservative support base, represent societal erosion – wokery.
Daytona Beach
“We will fight woke in the schools, we’ll fight woke in the corporations. We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” he says in varying forms repeatedly.
And yet, even channelling Churchill in Florida, by no means everyone here in the Starlite Diner is buying it.
“You know, his big thing is he wants to get rid of wokeness and I’m happy to be woke myself,” Peter Stephenson says.
“You know, I feel the definition of wokeness is having an acceptance for all types of people.”
His wife, Karen, adds: “And this stuff about all the gays and all that. Just let them live. Let everybody get along.”
Ron DeSantis has never explicitly said anything against the gay community.
Peter Stephenson says he’s “happy to be woke”
DeSantis’s policies represent erosion of minority rights, say critics
But his policies, for his critics at least, represent an erosion of minority rights whether they be gay rights, racial rights or the freedom to be who you want to be.
“He wants to make everything like the 50s television shows where all the people were white, all the people were ‘normal’. Dad goes to work, mum stays at home. We can’t go back to the 50s. But that’s what they want,” Robin Mix says.
His recently published book is called The Courage To Be Free.
Critics say there’s a deep irony that a man who champions freedom has been so busy restricting so many different things.
On abortion he has introduced legislation banning it after six weeks.
On drag shows, laws now make it illegal for children to be present. There are restrictions on gender-neutral toilets. He was elected governor with these policies as promises.
And then there is the so-called book ban. It’s a headline that’s not wholly accurate.
He hasn’t banned books but has taken a hard line on what books are available to school children of different ages. In that sense, some books are banned for some age groups.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen some books in some of these libraries – you’re talking about kids in middle school – some of the stuff that’s ended up there is incredibly disturbing stuff,” he said recently.
The governor’s grassroots support comes from mothers like Tina Descovich, who co-founded the group ‘Moms for Liberty’ here in Florida. It now has branches nationwide.
Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty
She raises a book in her hand as we chat.
“Gender Queer has obscene images throughout. It was found here in a local middle school library that shared middle school in high school and not only was it in the school, it was on display on one of the display cases at the end,” she tells me.
“A lot of school districts around the country have decided that this is appropriate for as young as six grade so 11 and 12-year-olds here in the United States.”
There is no evidence that this book is widely available to that age group across America.
But for Tina, his strong stance represents leadership.
“He takes action. You know, we are tired in our country and in our state of spineless leaders, who change their mind, who flip-flop, who go with the flow. What we saw with Governor DeSantis as he looked at facts, and he made decisions even though they were unpopular.”
‘DeSantis is not for freedom for all people’
Denise Soufrine, a teacher, is considering leaving Florida due to Mr DeSantis’ governorship
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Down the coast in one of Florida’s few remaining Democratic counties, I met Denise Soufrine, a teacher who is considering leaving Florida.
“He touts that we’re the Free State of Florida, and I don’t understand how he could possibly say that when you are restricting the rights,” she says.
“The Moms for Liberty will say ‘we’re protecting children’. Well, what about all the other parents that want their children to be exposed to ideas of all sorts so their children can grow?
“I don’t really think that’s what this country wants. I don’t think so.
“That’s not what this country was founded on. And this governor is not for freedom for all people. He’s only for freedom for certain people.
“Years ago, there were hardly any books in libraries that showed black characters, African American characters, Hispanic characters.
“So as a librarian, as a teacher, I’m someone that wants to make sure that everyone in the class feels comfortable and knows that they’re accepted.”
She adds: “There’s no kindness in any of the bills that he is promoting at all.”
The Menendez brothers, who were sentenced to life for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, have both been denied parole.
Lyle Menendez, 56, and his 53-year-old brother Erik have spent 35 years behind bars for the shotgun murders of their father and mother, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
The brothers have claimed that their parents abused them and have argued that the killings were an act of self-defence.
A Netflix drama series about the brothers called Monsters, which aired in September 2024, thrust them back into the spotlight and led to renewed calls for their release, including from their family.
A long-delayed resentencing hearing offered them a path to freedom for the first time since their incarceration.
However, their release from prison is still a long way off – and far from guaranteed.
Parole denied but still possible
Lyle Menendez was denied parole on 22 August after making his first appeal for release. A judge recently reduced both his and his brother’s sentences, making them eligible for parole.
The decision came a day after his brother Erik Menendez was also denied parole by a panel of California commissioners.
A panel of two commissioners recommended that Lyle not be released for three years, after which he will be eligible to apply for parole again.
The panel concluded there were still signs that Menendez would pose a risk to the public if released from custody, despite noting that a psychologist found that he is at “very low” risk for violence upon release.
Lyle Menendez appears before the parole board at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. Pic: AP
During the hearing, Menendez cried and took sole responsibility for the murders, saying in his closing remarks: “I will never be able to make up for the harm and grief I caused everyone in my family.”
While speaking to the panel on Friday, Menendez said his father physically abused him by choking, punching and hurting him using a belt.
“I was the special son in my family,” he said. “My brother was the castaway. The physical abuse was focused on me because I was more important to him, I felt.”
He also said his mother sexually abused him, but appeared uncomfortable discussing this when asked by the panel why he did not disclose it during a risk assessment earlier this year.
When asked whether the murders were planned, Menendez said: “There was zero planning. There was no way to know it was going to happen Sunday.”
He also described buying the guns used in the murder as “the biggest mistake”, and told the panel: “I no longer believe that they were going to kill us in that moment. At the time, I had that honest belief.”
What does the resentencing mean?
Before leaving his role in December, former Los Angeles district attorney (DA) George Gascon asked LA County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic to review the brothers’ convictions.
During the resentencing on 13 May, he gave them a revised sentence of 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for youth parole under California’s youthful offender law because they committed the crime while under the age of 26.
The judgment was based on whether the pair had been rehabilitated based on their behaviour in prison.
Joseph Lyle Menéndez and Erik Galen Menéndez. Pics: Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
The brothers’ case highlighted some of their achievements behind bars: attaining several degrees and contributing to the community.
It listed a prison “beautification programme” Lyle Menendez started called GreenSpace as one example, and added that both brothers had received low-risk assessment scores, with Lyle apparently not being involved in a single fight during his time in jail.
The brothers’ attorneys pushed for the judge to resentence the brothers to manslaughter, which would have allowed them to be immediately released, but he gave them a revised murder sentence instead.
Handing them the new sentence, Judge Jesic said: “I do believe they’ve done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.”
The resentencing hearing had faced lengthy delays due to the judge needing to review a large number of files, as well as the LA wildfires in January.
There was also a turnover in the DA’s office, with liberal leaning Gascon replaced by the more conservative Nathan Hochman, who repeatedly attempted to have the resentencing hearing thrown out.
Emotional testimony in court from brothers and family members
The brothers appeared at the proceedings in Los Angeles County Superior Court via video feed from prison in San Diego.
“I killed my mum and dad. I make no excuses and also no justification,” Lyle said in a statement to the court. “The impact of my violent actions on my family… is unfathomable.”
Erik also spoke about taking responsibility for his actions and apologising to his family.
He said: “You did not deserve what I did to you, but you inspire me to do better.”
The brothers chuckled when one of their cousins, Diane Hernandez, told the court that Erik received A+ grades in all of his classes during his most recent semester in college.
Anamaria Baralt, another cousin of the brothers, told the court they had repeatedly expressed remorse for their actions.
“We all, on both sides of the family, believe that 35 years is enough. They are universally forgiven by our family,” she said.
Attorney Mark Geragos hugs Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, after the brothers’ resentencing hearing. Pic: AP
The defence also called a former judge and a former fellow inmate to the witness stand to testify that the brothers were not only rehabilitated, but also helped others. Prosecutors cross-examined the witnesses but didn’t call any of their own.
Former judge Jonathan Colby, who said he considered himself tough on crime, told the court that spending time with the brothers and witnessing their growth made him believe in rehabilitation.
Anerae Brown, who previously served time in prison alongside the brothers, cried as he testified about how they helped him heal and eventually be released through parole.
“I have children now,” he said. “Without Lyle and Erik I might still be sitting in there doing stupid things.”
The judge said he was particularly moved by a letter from a prison official who supported resentencing, something the official had never done for any incarcerated person in his 25-year career.
Los Angeles County prosecutors argued against the resentencing, saying the brothers have not taken complete responsibility for the crime.
The current DA Mr Hochman said he believed the brothers were not ready for resentencing because “they have not come clean” about their crimes.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. Pic: AP
His office has also said it does not believe they were sexually abused.
“Our position is not ‘no’. It’s not ‘never’. It’s ‘not yet’,” Mr Hochman said. “They have not fully accepted responsibility for all their criminal conduct.”
What happens now?
The reduced sentencing made the brothers immediately eligible for parole, but they must still appear before a state parole board, which decides on whether or not to release them from prison.
While this decision is made, the brothers will remain behind bars.
Their first hearing had to take place no later than six months from their eligibility date, according to board policy.
Erik Menendez, left, and his brother, Lyle, sit in the courtroom in 1992. Pic: AP
After their first appeal was denied, the brothers will continue to receive subsequent hearings until they are granted release.
But the brothers have another potential avenue to freedom, having appealed to California governor Gavin Newsom for clemency before they were resentenced.
Mr Newsom has the power to free them himself through clemency, and in February, he ordered the state parole board to investigate whether the brothers would pose a risk to the public.
They already have a hearing before the board scheduled for 13 June, but that one was set as part of the clemency petition.
It’s not yet clear if that hearing will serve as their formal parole hearing or if a separate one will be scheduled.
Mr Newsom can override any decision the board makes.
California governor Gavin Newsom. Pic: AP
Anne Bremner, a trial lawyer in Seattle, said the brothers will be preparing for the parole board and aiming to impress upon them that they should be let out, but suggested the board members will already have a clear view.
“My guess is the parole board has been watching this and of course they’ve done these risk assessments already,” she said, adding they will know “who these two are, what their alleged crimes were and what they’ve done since the time that they were incarcerated until today.”
Potential new evidence
The brothers’ lawyers have also submitted a letter Erik wrote to his cousin as new evidence, saying it was not seen by the jury when the brothers were sentenced in 1996 and could have influenced their decision.
The letter is dated months before the murders, which they say alludes to him being abused by his father, Jose Menendez.
In the handwritten letter, Erik wrote: “I’ve been trying to avoid dad… every night, I stay up thinking he might come in.”
He also said he was “afraid” and that he needed to “put it out of my mind” and “stop thinking about it”.
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More new evidence submitted comes from Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, who alleges he was sexually assaulted by Jose Menendez as a teenager in the 1980s.
He has provided a signed declaration of his alleged rape by Jose Menendez to the brothers’ lawyers, which the lawyers say is further proof of his supposed abusive nature.
LA prosecutors filed a motion opposing the petition, but its status is unclear, and appears to have been halted while the brothers have pursued their resentencing and clemency.
What happened in the original Menendez trials?
Lyle and Erik Menendez before entering their pleas in 1990
On 20 August 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, multiple times at close range.
The brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time, initially told police they found them dead when they got home, but were eventually tried for their murder.
During the original trial, prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance, although their defence team argued they acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father.
An initial attempt to try each brother individually in front of separate juries ended in a mistrial after both juries failed to reach a verdict.
In their second trial, which saw the brothers tried together, the defence claimed the brothers committed the murders in self-defence after many years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their father, with no protection from their mother.
Lyle Menendez confers with brother Erik during trial in 1991. Pic: AP
They said they had feared for their lives after threatening to expose their father.
The prosecution argued the murders were motivated by greed, and they killed their parents to avoid disinheritance.
Evidence of alleged abuse from their defence case was largely excluded from the joint trial by the judge.
In 1996, seven years after the killings, a jury found the brothers guilty, and they were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
But the brothers and many of their family members have continued to fight for their freedom ever since.
Although their focus of late has shifted towards the brothers’ rehabilitation in prison, their main argument in recent years has been that more evidence of Jose Menendez’s alleged abuse has come out since the last trial, and that a modern jury would have a better understanding of the impact of abuse than one 30 years ago.
The US Justice Department has released a transcript of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell – the jailed ex-girlfriend of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell said in the interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month that she never saw US President Donald Trump in an “inappropriate setting”.
According to the transcript, Maxwell said: “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody.”
Trump and Epstein at a party together in 1992. Pic: NBC News
Maxwell also recalled knowing about Mr Trump and possibly meeting him for the first time in 1990, when her newspaper magnate father, Robert Maxwell, was the owner of the New York Daily News.
“I may have met Donald Trump at that time, because my father was friendly with him and liked him very much,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript.
Maxwell said her father was fond of Mr Trump’s then-wife, Ivana, “because she was also from Czechoslovakia, where my dad was from.”
She was sentenced in the US in June 2022 to 20 years in prison following her conviction on five counts of sex trafficking for luring young girls to massage rooms for Epstein to abuse. She has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP
His case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories due to his and Maxwell’s links to famous people like royals, presidents and billionaires, including Mr Trump. No one other than Epstein and Maxwell has been charged with crimes.
Mr Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During Maxwell’s trial in 2021, Epstein’s longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, said Mr Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane several times. Mr Trump has denied flying on the plane.
Maxwell said in her interview with the Justice Department that she never saw Mr Trump receive a massage.
She told Mr Blanche that Mr Trump “was always very cordial and very kind to me”, adding: “And I just want to say that I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now.”
The release of the transcript comes after Mr Trump has faced criticism from Republican supporters and Democrats over his Justice Department’s decision not to release further details relating to Epstein, after the now US president promised to do so during the election.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
The Justice Department previously said a review of the Epstein case had found “no incriminating ‘client list'” and “no credible evidence” the jailed financier had blackmailed famous men.
In the transcript of the department’s interview with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend said that she is not aware of any Epstein ‘client list’.
After her interview in July, Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) after she was held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, that housed men and women.
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The Texas camp houses solely female prisoners, the majority of whom are serving time for nonviolent offences and white-collar crimes.
Neither Maxwell’s lawyer nor the BOP gave a reason for the move.
Maxwell’s legal team have maintained that she was wrongly prosecuted and denied a fair trial, and have floated the idea of a pardon from Mr Trump.
Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: US Department of Justice
The president said earlier this month that “nobody” had asked him about pardoning Maxwell, but insisted that he has “the right to do it”.
Mr Trump said: “I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons, I’ve given pardons to people before, but nobody’s even asked me to do it.”
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A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls has crashed on a major road, killing and injuring multiple people.
The bus, with 52 passengers on board, crashed and rolled on Interstate 90 near Pembroke, about 30 miles (48km) east of Buffalo, in New York State at around 12.30pm (5.30pm UK time).
“At this time we have multiple fatalities, multiple entrapments and multiple injuries,” said Trooper James O’Callaghan, a spokesperson for the New York State Police. He added that authorities believe one child was among those killed.
Several people inside were thrown from the bus as the windows shattered, while some passengers became trapped in the wreckage.
Some passengers remain trapped in the wreckage of the bus. Pic: Buffalo News/AP
Erie County Medical Centre in Buffalo said it had received 24 patients.
At a news conference, Dr Jennifer Pugh, chief of emergency medicine, said two people had been taken to the operating theatre, one of whom had suffered internal injuries.
Dr Jeffrey Brewer, chief of surgery, said he expected that two patients who had suffered the most serious injuries would recover.
He added that people had been admitted with blunt trauma, head injuries and extremity (arm and leg) fractures.
Mr O’Callahan said most people on the bus were Indian, Chinese, and Filipino, and translators were being brought to the scene. The driver survived and is cooperating with the police.
He added, “It’s a full-size tour bus. Heavy amount of damage. Most people, I’m assuming, on the bus did not have a seat belt on, that is the reason why we have so many ejected people on this bus.”
The Mercy Flight air medical transport service said its three helicopters were transporting people from the crash site to area hospitals.
“It’s a very active scene,” said Mercy Flight president Margaret Ferrentino. “At this time we’re praying for the victims.”
Mr O’Callaghan said the driver, who survived the accident, lost control while the bus was at full speed, causing it to flip when he tried to correct course.
The highway has been closed in both directions, causing massive traffic delays at the onset of one of the last weekends of the summer vacation season.
The falls, which are on the US-Canada border, are a major tourist attraction.
More than nine million visitors explore Niagara Falls State Park annually, according to the official website for the park.
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