A deeper dive into DeSantis Ron DeSantis wasn't always such a conservative firebrand. When he became governor of Florida in 2018, he showed inclinations of reaching across the aisle, write The Washington Post's Tim Craig and Lori Rozsa. It was during the pandemic that the Republican became the right's main culture warrior by forcefully opposing covid restrictions. He hasn't let up since. Next came restrictions on teachings on race and LGBTQ issues in schools. A strict abortion ban. A year-long battle with Disney that has devolved into multiple lawsuits. Monday, Rozsa reported on DeSantis's controversial election police force. It hasn't led to any high-profile election-fraud convictions, but it did appear to cost a man in Orlando his job and intimidate him out of voting.  Tallahassee demonstrators in February protest DeSantis's plan to eliminate Advanced Placement courses on African American studies. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post) | DeSantis rarely if ever mentions the people who didn't vote for him — unless it is to vilify them. He defends far-right policies by saying that he was elected to lead Florida twice. (DeSantis was reelected in November in a landslide.) He seems to be betting that such cutthroat politics will take him all the way to the White House in 2024. So far it's worked for him in what used to be one of the country's premier swing states. The Trump rape lawsuit  Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina, left, cross-examines E. Jean Carroll on Monday in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP) | Today, E. Jean Carroll testified for a third day about what she says was a frightening act of violence when she ran into Donald Trump at a department store in the 1990s. "He raped me whether I screamed or not," she said on the stand last week, in response to questions about why she didn't scream during the alleged incident. Trump has said he's never even met Carroll. It's not clear whether he will testify; no one is asking him to. Trump's lawyer has asked her why she didn't call the police ("I'm a member of the silent generation," Carroll said Monday); why she didn't also sue the former head of CBS, whom she accused of sexual harassment ("He didn't call me names," she said); and whether she was making this all up to sell a book. This is a lawsuit, rather than a criminal trial. So if a jury believes Carroll, Trump won't go to jail but he might have to pay her millions of dollars. And his political opponents would have an easier time branding him as a serial sexual harasser, given nearly 20 women have accused him of some kind of sexual misconduct. A team of Washington Post reporters is tracking every big moment from the trial, which is expected to last through this week. Why so many Americans are shooting other Americans right now One potential factor is conservative media and politicians talking nonstop about how dangerous America allegedly is, write The Washington Post's Danielle Paquette, John D. Harden and Scott Clement. It's been a winning political argument for Republicans. Certain violent crime has gone up recently, while other crime has gone down compared with before the pandemic. But Fox News has talked about crime 79 percent more often than MSNBC and twice as often as CNN over the past three years, The Post finds. An 84-year-old man accused of shooting a Black teen, Ralph Yarl, last month in Kansas City, Mo., was hooked on Fox News and other conservative media, said his grandson. "Everybody is just so scared all the time," the grandson told The Post. | 
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