The Republican Florida legislator who crafted GOP Governor Ron DeSantis's infamous "Don't Say Gay" bill that promotes homophobia has resigned from the state house after his indictment on federal fraud charges, the Miami Herald reports.
Rep. Joe Harding of Ocala was charged with using two defunct companies that he once owned to falsely apply for $150,000 in pandemic assistance for the companies that had no revenue and no employees. He was removed from his committee assignments on Wednesday, and announced his retirement, effective immediately, Thursday.
"If my time in the Legislature was meant, by Providence, to only be two years, I can say with confidence that I left it all on the field for those two years," he said, apparently forgetting that it was not Providence but pure greed that cut his term short.