NAACP board of directors chairman Leon W. Russell pushed back against criticism for his organization's travel advisory for Black people in the state of Florida while he himself lives in the Tampa Bay area.

Appearing on MSNBC’s "The ReidOut," Russell discussed the recent backlash over the NAACP warning Black people against traveling to Florida following "Governor Ron DeSantis' aggressive attempts to erase Black history."

"Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals," the NAACP Board of Directors' formal travel notice read. "Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color."

Florida Republican Party chairman Christian Ziegler pointed out that Russell’s Twitter account shows that he currently lives in the Tampa Bay area. 

NAACP ISSUES TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR FLORIDA EVEN THOUGH BOARD CHAIRMAN LIVES IN STATE 

Ziegler commented on the apparent hypocrisy and offered to pay for Russell to leave the state:

"The CHAIRMAN of the @NAACP lives in Tampa, FLORIDA! True leadership is being willing to do what you ask others to do… time to step up and MOVE. If you think our state is so bad, the @FloridaGOP will help with moving costs."

Russell pushed back on "The ReidOut," stating that Ziegler was full of "bull----."

"First of all, he is full of bull----. Secondly, you need to understand it’s not about money, it’s about people, it’s about humanity. Thirdly, quite frankly, we haven’t told anybody to leave. In fact, the NAACP is encouraging folks to stay here and fight. If there was ever a reason to stand your ground, it’s Black people, LGBT community, the immigrant community, women, need to stand our ground in Florida and fight, and understand that that fight is a political fight."

He continued, "It’s time to look at policymakers, to see what they are doing, to remember what they’re doing, what the city council, school board, county commission level, or whether they are running for the highest office in the land. It’s time for us to understand what their record is and how they’ve operated."

Russell had previously given a statement attacking DeSantis with the travel advisory warning.

"Once again, hate-inspired state leaders have chosen to put politics over people. Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida have engaged in a blatant war against principles of diversity and inclusion and rejected our shared identities to appeal to a dangerous, extremist minority," Russell said in the press release.

NAACP ISSUES TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR BLACK AMERICANS TRAVELING TO DESANTIS’ FLORIDA: ‘OPENLY HOSTILE’ 

He continued, "We will not allow our rights and history to be held hostage for political grandstanding. The NAACP proudly fights against the malicious attacks in Florida, against Black Americans. I encourage my fellow Floridians to join in this fight to protect ourselves and our democracy."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern criticized the advisory saying, "As Governor DeSantis announced last week, Florida is seeing record-breaking tourism. This is nothing more than a stunt."

The NAACP originally floated the possibility of putting out a travel advisory back in March. At the time, DeSantis referred to it as a "joke" and a stunt.

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"This is a stunt to try to do that," DeSantis said then. "It’s a pure stunt. And fine, if you want to waste your time on a stunt, that’s fine. But I’m not wasting my time on your stunts. I’m going to make sure that we’re getting things done here."

President Biden held a rare news conference before leaving Japan, and despite his advisers’ obvious strategy of largely shielding him from the media, he basically did fine. 

Most of the questions were about the debt-ceiling showdown that prompted him to leave the G-7 gathering early, and Biden threw a hard punch. He said some MAGA Republicans would welcome a government default "because I am president, and presidents are responsible for everything, Biden would take the blame. And that’s the one way to make sure Biden’s not reelected."

Whether that’s a smart strategy, as he’s trying to hammer out a compromise with Kevin McCarthy, is debatable. What’s not up for debate is that people got to watch their president take questions and appear knowledgeable about the issues, including at a separate appearance with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Biden sometimes stumbles through these Q-and-A sessions – even then they’re worth doing – and there’s often a sense of anticipation: Is he going to botch someone’s name, have a memory lapse or say something that has to be walked back?

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In other words, will he act like an 80-year-old president?

While he seems like a lock for the Democratic nomination, there’s growing concern from liberals that Biden’s mental acuity, or physical stamina, might worsen.

And hovering over the 2024 landscape is, in their view, the dark prospect of a second Trump presidency.

One longtime voice on the left is that of Ruy Teixeira, who’s been a truth-telling analyst and writer for decades. While he’s a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, he’s also the co-founder of the Liberal Patriot blog.

And Teixeira sees Biden as "an extraordinarily weak candidate," stuck polling in the low 40s and not likely to move up much. 

Democrats are underestimating the former president: "There’s no question that Trump has a lot of baggage, including his incessant dwelling on the ‘stolen’ 2020 election, that should weaken him as an opponent." But with Trump a point ahead in the Real Clear Politics average, he writes: "Yes, it is early but these results are not nothing." 

Given that Trump is under indictment, under investigation for Jan. 6 and other issues, and just lost a sexual assault suit, shouldn’t Biden have a healthy lead?

What’s more, Teixeira says, Biden and the Democrats haven’t drawn any line "against the cultural extremists in their own party." The growing backlash on crime, illegal immigration and teaching sexual material in school, among other things, will be a drag on the Biden candidacy.

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The president isn’t exactly Bernie Sanders, but if he had started trying to ease the border crisis two years ago rather than waiting for Title 42 to expire – and his plan has eased migrant crossings in the short term – he’d be much better off. 

From the right, National Review Editor Rich Lowry says Biden is one step away from electoral disaster.

I have to argue with Lowry from the start, because he used a meaningless half-stumble by Biden as a metaphor. The president lost his balance coming down stairs in Japan for a split-second, righted himself with the next step – something we’ve all done without a second thought.

But it’s hard to argue with the next part: 

"If Biden were to do a face-plant, even down a few steps, it could be very ugly. Fairly or not, it’d be a symbol of U.S. decrepitude. It’s one thing to have a senior senator from California who obviously should have hung it up several years ago; it’s another to have a president of the United States lacking the agility to get around easily anymore."

With Mitch McConnell having recently suffered a concussion and broken rib from a fall, "Biden could take a wrong step at any time, and there’s no guarantee that it would happen on a convenient timetable for Democrats, when, say, they could still go in another direction. In fact, it could happen on a catastrophic timetable — if something happened to Biden in late October 2024, it could easily throw a close race to his Republican opponent, including Donald Trump.

"It’d be likelier to make him look foolhardy for having taken on, once again, at age 80 or 81, the physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing enterprise of a national campaign, rather than like the victim of circumstances out of his control." And it would make Biden, not Trump, the issue." 

So things are looking grim for the president if he’s one banana peel away from disaster, right?

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Well, stop hyperventilating if you want Biden to win. We’ve got a focus group coming to the rescue. 

With a mixed group from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin, the Washington Post found no particular enthusiasm for the president, with most of the 15 participants describing negative emotions when they saw Biden: ‘confused,’ ‘concern,’ ‘worry,’ ‘sad,’ ‘sorry’ and even ‘panicked.’"

It gets worse, with several offering "dire assessments of Biden’s mental and physical capacities, calling him too old or speculating about the possibility of dementia."

But 9 of the 15 in the group said they would vote for Biden. 

The reason? "In both focus groups and polling, concerns about another Trump presidency are even greater, leaving Biden in a much better position if the two men meet in a rematch." 

Moderator Rich Thau told the paper that "deciding between Trump and Biden is like being forced to choose either a demolition derby car or an old clunker for a cross-country trip. With either choice, they are not particularly happy."

Yup, this is hardly inspiring. Most people don’t want either president to run again, and will likely be depressed if that happens, with a certain percentage staying home.

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But we can’t predict an election outcome by relying on 15 strangers. A different group might say different things a month from now or a year from now.

So the race could come down to each man’s Kryptonite — Biden’s advanced age versus Trump’s history of investigations and accusations.