Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon said Wednesday that her Republican opponent, Sen. Ashley Moody, should be “locked up and punished in jail” over allegations that Moody diverted Medicaid funds meant for sick children into political spending.
Nixon made the remarks during an appearance on CNN’s “The Arena” with host Kasie Hunt.
“The fact remains that Ashley Moody is a lying, cheating, thieving, scamming person, who basically took $10 million from sick kids for the Medicaid program,” Nixon said. “And she rerouted that into two political slush funds for Ron DeSantis to defeat two citizen-led ballot initiatives. She also voted to end healthcare for over 440,000 people here in the state of Florida.”
Nixon also pushed back on campaign ads targeting her. “They are spreading a lot of disinformation and lies on commercials about me, saying things like I want to abolish prisons and I want to defund the police,” she said. “Why would I want to do that when I want her locked up and punished in jail for what she has done?”
Hunt pressed Nixon directly, asking, “You want your Republican opponent locked up?”
“Yeah, basically, yes. Because of what she did. Yes. I absolutely would want that to happen. Yes,” Nixon replied.
When Hunt asked whether Nixon believed there was enough evidence to warrant that kind of punishment, Nixon pointed to a decision by Florida’s First District Court of Appeal to block release of a grand jury report.
“What we have seen is that the DCA, the first DCA here, has decided to wipe out the release of the grand jury report. And that first DCA judge was actually appointed by Ron DeSantis,” Nixon said. “And what we are seeing is corruption through and through. And so I would definitely call for an investigation, as a federal lawmaker, when I become a U.S. senator, to actively go in to see what happened.”
Nixon added, “People are pissed off. We don’t know how many children are potentially going to die because that $10 million did not go to where it was supposed to go to.”
Moody has not been shown to have been charged with any crime related to the allegations Nixon raised, and the source material does not include a response from Moody or her campaign to Nixon’s claims.
