Politics
Last Call for 2.17.25 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
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Ed. Note — Happy Presidents Day! To honor the national holiday, Sunburn will take the night off and return to your inboxes first thing Wednesday morning. Thanks for your readership and support! Have a wonderful evening, and please stay safe.
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First Shot
One of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ most proven allies, James Uthmeier, was sworn in as Attorney General on Monday in Tallahassee.
The state’s new “top cop” was sworn in on a Bible and offered onlookers at the Old Capitol Building in Tallahassee insight into how scripture informs his view of the law.
“As I put my hand on that Bible, I was reminded of a verse from Proverbs, a verse that I turn to daily. To do what is right and just for the Lord is greater than any sacrifice. To do what is right and just. As with all spiritual truths, these words hit a political mark. To do what is right and just. It’s easy to say the right things, but not everybody goes out and does them. This is one of the many lessons that I have learned from our great Governor,” Uthmeier said.
The new AG noted that “sometimes doing what’s right can cost you a political fortune, political gain. It can disrupt the status quo. It can bring discomfort.” Yet he promised to “endeavor every day to do what is right and to levy justice where it is due.”
“No empty rhetoric, no posturing, no excuses,” he added.
Uthmeier has been DeSantis’ Chief of Staff since September 2021 and previously worked as the Governor’s General Counsel. DeSantis noted that when Uthmeier was General Counsel, the Governor’s Office was “leading the vanguard to drag this country out of COVID authoritarianism.”
Uthmeier, a Destin native, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Florida before getting his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining the DeSantis administration, Uthmeier served as a senior adviser and counsel to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and an associate at the law firm Jones Day.
Read more on Florida Politics.
Evening Reads
—”With Congress pliant, an emboldened Donald Trump pushes his business interests” via Eric Lipton and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times
—”I work in global health. Trump ditching the World Health Organization might be the wake-up call it needs.” via Jess Craig for Vox
—”The death of government expertise” via Tom Nichols of The Atlantic
—”Elon Musk’s DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS” via Jacob Bogage and Jeff Stein of The Washington Post
—”Trump voters splinter over his rapid shake-up of Washington” via Eliza Collins of The Wall Street Journal
—”Marco Rubio meets Saudi Crown Prince for talks on Gaza and Ukraine” via Patrick Kingsley and Ismaeel Naar of The New York Times
—”Florida ‘ready to assist’ states purging ‘woke ideology’ from education policy” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics
—“Does Trump have a favorite Republican in the 2026 Governor’s race?” via Kirby Wilson of the Tampa Bay Times
—“Trump touts Byron Donalds leading in recent Florida GOP gubernatorial poll” via Mitch Perry of the Florida Phoenix
—”So, how did the polls do in 2024? It’s complicated.” via Eli Mckown-Dawson and Nate Silver of the Silver Bulletin
Quote of the Day
“James was always digging in and fighting for what was right, even when it wasn’t easy.”
— Ron DeSantis, praising now-Attorney General James Uthmeier.
Put it on the Tab
Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds hasn’t entered the Governor’s race yet, but he already has the keys to the Pace Car.
Yay, more container legislation! Put Rep. Vanessa Oliver down for a glass of wine one-time-use keg!
Exiting University of South Florida President Rhea Law gets a Smoky Brave Bull for her brief but impactful tenure leading the school.
Breakthrough Insights
Tune In
FAMU, Bethune-Cookman jockey for conference seeding
College basketball takes center stage, with the NBA off following the All-Star game and the NHL off during the Four Nations Face-Off. This includes a pair of matchups involving Florida teams chasing the Southwest Athletic Conference regular-season title.
Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman have conference matchups that could impact the title chase and, most importantly, seeding for the conference tournament.
Florida A&M hosts Alcorn State tonight (7 p.m. ET), while Bethune-Cookman hosts Jackson State (7 p.m. ET, CatEye Network).
Southern (16-9, 11-1 SWAC) leads the conference, with five teams tied for second with 8-4 conference records. Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman, Jackson State, Alcorn State, and Texas Southern are deadlocked entering tonight’s games.
With five regular season games remaining, Southern has not mathematically clinched the conference, although it would take a substantial rally for any of the other teams to close the gap. However, seeding in the SWAC tournament could impact who earns the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The top two seeds in the tournament not only earn a first-round bye, but they will face a team coming off a game 24 hours prior. Should a top-two seed win the second-round game, they would advance to face a team coming off one day’s rest in the semifinals, while the higher seed would have two days to rest up. The only time one or both of the top two seeds would play back-to-back games would be in the tournament finals.
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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.
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Friday’s heated confrontation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy saw two Florida-bred presidential appointees charged with removing the foreign team from the White House.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz appeared on Saturday’s “Fox and Friends Weekend,” where he described Zelenskyy’s removal by him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the meeting was over.
“We had a meeting after that exchange after the press was asked to leave, and we pretty much unanimously advised the President that after that insult in the Oval Office, we just do not see how that could move forward, that any further engagement would only go backwards from this moment on, and that’s what we walked over and told President Zelenskyy and his team,” Waltz said.
Ahead of the negotiation’s collapse, Zelenskyy engaged in cross talk with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
“The problem is I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy,” Trump said. “And I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States.”
Trump and Vance said Zelenskyy wasn’t sufficiently grateful for American help.
Based on Friday’s actions, Waltz said he wasn’t sure if Zelenskyy “truly wants to stop the fighting,” which has led Trump “frustrated and angry.”
The drama continued off camera.
As he was being walked out, Waltz said Zelenskyy was still “argumentative,” which led the National Security Adviser to tell him that “time was not on his side.”
The former Congressman from North Florida wasn’t the only man with Sunshine State ties who was unhappy with the Ukrainian leader.
During a CNN appearance Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Zelenskyy needed to apologize to President Trump “for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became.”
“There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic,” the former Senator turned chief diplomat told primetime host Kaitlan Collins.
Rubio also questioned if Zelenskyy wants the fighting to end during Friday’s interview.
“You start to suspect, does he really want an end to this war? Does he just think that we have to do whatever he says and give him anything he wants without any end game?”
Rubio, who sat impassively during the meeting, had worked to engage Ukraine in an exchange of rare earth mineral rights for American security guarantees.
In football terms, it fell short of the goal line Friday. Ahead of the derailed public negotiation, the Secretary of State said it was just a “tush push” away, days after he accused Zelenskyy of lying about the deal for domestic consumption in Ukraine.
On X Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s position was a mineral deal was a “first step toward security guarantees.”
“But it’s not enough, and we need more than just that. A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine. We’ve been fighting for 3 years, and Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side,” Zelenskyy claimed.
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