Another day, another quip from DeSantis or Trump.
Ron DeSantis was interviewed by Piers Morgan. Excerpts of it were printed in the NY Post.
To recap, DeSantis finally commented on the looming Trump arrest on Monday. He said, “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a pornstar to secure silence, I just can’t speak to that,” but on preventing extradition he said, “we’re not getting involved.”
Incensed, Trump fired back on Truth Social, saying DeSantis will “probably find out about false accusations in the future, and when he’s unfairly attacked by a woman, even classmates that are underage (possibly a man!)”.
And today, DeSantis again does his best to avoid the Trump issue altogether. When asked about the nicknames Trump bestowed upon DeSantis, he said, “I don’t know how to spell the sanctimonious one. I don’t really know what it means… I mean, you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner because that’s what we’ve been able to do in Florida.”
He called the whole thing just background noise, but didn’t completely treat it as such. He had some read between the lines words for the former President. He brought up Trump’s character unprompted.
“You really want to look to people like our Founding Fathers, like what type of character, it’s not saying that you don’t ever make a mistake in your personal life, but I think what type of character are you bringing? So, somebody who really set the standard is George Washington because he always put the Republic over his own personal interest. When we won the American Revolution, Washington surrendered his sword. [King] George III said he’s the greatest man in the world if he gives up power. I think the person is more about how you handle your public duties and the kind of character you bring to that endeavor.”
Long quote, but the “surrender his sword” is a key point in there. It’s him quietly calling Trump to throw in the towel, and going on to imply he just doesn’t have the character to serve. It’s classic, old school, make a point without making it political speech. It’s not how a normal person talks in conversation. It may display a lack of spine, an a over abundance of caution, and a lack of human relatability to potential voters.
A new poll from Monmouth University shows Trump at 41% nationally with DeSantis sinking to 27%. This spells bad news (before Trump TruthSocial post about arrest) as two previous national polls actually had DeSantis up two points. And for those curious, Haley has deflated down to 3%. Last poll had her at 7%, proving that she’s settling into her position as a non-factor in the race. However, she is still ahead of Pence, comfortably in third place.
The new poll shows DeSantis’s approach could very well be the losing one. He had four options. The first was to completely support the former President. Analysts on both the left and the right expect, ultimately, if there is any charge, it’s kicked down to a misdemeanor at best. John Edwards, the backwoods southern lawyer and 2008 Vice Presidential nominee, was charged with the exact same misdeed. The end result? All of the charges completely dropped.
The second approach, swing clearly and strongly. Call Trump an idiot, a pervert, a pornstar porker. Say he simply does not have the moral character to be president. Don’t imply it. Say it like a normal human being, not like a scared robot.
The third approach is just completely avoiding the issue altogether without any implications or subtle jabs. He could have said, “I am focused on Florida” and stopped there, with a “no comment, no comment, no comment” each time it came up.
The fourth approach is being mealy mouthed and overly careful, but still drawing battle lines against Trump. The jabs left open for interpretation shows a non united front as Trump confronts DA Alvin Bragg. It rips apart the GOP, no matter who the nominee will be.
What do you think? DeSantis hasn’t even announced yet (though he told Morgan to “stay tuned” and that he had what it took to beat Biden), and already the verbal ping pong between the two presidential frontrunners is in full swing.
We’ll keep you posted every day. Every new tweet, TruthSocial post, non comment-comment on DeSantis’s part, we’ll bring it to ya, and we want to hear from your strategic mind as well.
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