Debbie Wasserman Schultz Says Ron DeSantis is ‘Running the Communist Dictator Playbook’ in Florida

Florida Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on MSNBC Saturday that Gov. Ron DeSantis is running the “communist dictator playbook” in the state.

The former DNC chair was on with Alex Witt on Saturday to talk about both the latest developments in Ukraine and legislation in Florida’s state House and Senate when she said that Gov. DeSantis has “no agenda” outside of the “culture war.”

“All they have is culture war,” said the congresswoman. “And so what they’re doing is they’re trying to tell women and their families when they can have families.”

The legislation in question is a Republican-sponsored bill that just passed Florida’s House and would ban abortions after 15 weeks, other than in certain cases.

“They did this in Florida in the dead of night, by the way, because of course, that this doesn’t stand up to the light of day,” said Wasserman Schultz. “And Ron DeSantis is running the communist dictator playbook from the get-go.”

After saying that he was using dictatorial tactics, she emphasized the point by comparing to communist dictatorships that some Floridian constituents have fled.

“I have constituents who’ve fled Venezuela and Cuba, and they, what they’re facing now under a governor like Ron DeSantis, is he’s essentially prohibiting protests, is telling schools and teachers what words they can say through the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation. The list goes on,” she said.

She repeated the line a second time a moment later, in answer to Witt’s question about stopping the Parental Rights in Education bill, which Democrats and media refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

“Again, it is right from the communist dictator playbook,” she repeated. “I have constituents who fled countries where they are told what they can say, when they can say it, where protest is limited, where there is limitations on when they can have families.”

Earlier in the show, Witt reported on the Canadian government’s crackdown on protesters in Ottawa, but that topic did not come up in the discussion with Wasserman Schultz, nor did Canada join Venezuela and Cuba on the list of countries the congresswoman used for comparison on limiting protests.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.