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Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday said he stood “100 percent” behind University of West Florida Board of Trustees Chair Scott Yenor, who was called “a bigot” and “misogynist” this week by Sen. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County. DeSantis in January appointed Yenor, who was quickly elected to serve as chair of the university board. Yenor has faced a backlash because of what Fine and other Jewish lawmakers have alleged were anti-Semitic comments. Also, he has faced criticism for comments about women. “He has been a champion for the types of reforms at universities that we need,” DeSantis said of Yenor. “Trying to dredge up statements and, quite frankly, distorting things. I mean, (Yenor’s) been attacked for being a Zionist and being too pro-Israel. I think all these things are very flimsy. And let’s just consider the source. I mean, that same senator (Fine) called me anti-Semitic.” DeSantis also said Yenor will “be somebody that will be a champion for the classical mission of a university. He will fight the indoctrination and really be part of the solution going forward. I’m not somebody that’s just going to let someone be out there and be unfairly maligned.” Yenor is a Boise State University political scientist who is affiliated with the conservative Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. In 2021, Yenor drew criticism for calling working women “more medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome than women need to be.” Additional questions were raised last month when Yenor posted a series of tweets involving the nomination of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that were interpreted as questioning whether Senate Democrats were in their position because of “identity politics.” Fine’s comments about Yenor came Tuesday as he sought to block Yenor from serving on the board of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, which is at the University of West Florida.
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