Everything Donald Trump does has two parts to it: there’s the superficial part which sounds good, patriotic, all that. And then there’s the real reason, which is always about him. If you can cut through the nonsense and figure out how any given thing affects Trump personally, his image, his ego, then that’s your answer. And this is well known. So it wasn’t long after Trump withdrew his nomination of Elise Stefanik to be Ambassador to the United Nations that the real truth began to come out in spades and shovels.
Aaron Fritschner, the former deputy chief of staff for Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) argued that the GOP’s concern isn’t that Stefanik’s seat would be empty while a replacement is found.
It’s that the seat in a staunchly Republican district could be flipped.
“If they pull Stefanik’s nomination, it won’t be out of concern over a vacancy; New York law requires a fast turnaround on filling vacancies, as we famously saw last year,” he said. “Their true concern is losing a special election in a district Trump won by 21 points. And they are right to worry about that!”
It is riotous what is happening in that congressional district. I just received a press release from MAGAs (I get everybody’s press releases) and they’re terrified that “RINO” Dan Stec could get the Republican nomination.
Stec’s record is that of a typical wishy-washy moderate, a tool of the political establishment who will never consistently put America first, which is why the elites are so gung-ho about getting him into Congress. However, MAGA has other ideas and is snapping into action to prevent Stec’s coronation. Breitbart News released a scathing indictment of Stec’s record shortly after he announced his ambitions to succeed Stefanik.
Iconic political operative Roger Stone stated that Stec’s nomination would almost certainly result in an independent challenge from Sticker Mule founder Anthony Constantino, a MAGA patriot who displayed the nation’s largest Trump sign in the run up to the 2024 presidential election.
That’s only a portion of it, it’s far more condemnatory. But Stec could get the nomination (in a world where Stefanik is indeed departing, which is now not the case. Did Trump receive the same press release I did?) and that would put the Democrat in a good scoring position. And the Democrat is in a good scoring position in Florida right now, for Mike Waltz’s old seat. And for Matt Gaetz’s old seat. And that incenses Trump. April 1 is a referendum on Trump’s presidency. Two House seats could conceivably be lost.
In Florida’s 1st Congressional District, Democrat Gay Valimont is competing with Republican Jimmy Patronis for the seat formerly held by ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). And in another district, Democrat Josh Weil is up against Florida State Sen. Randy Fine; they are competing for the seat previously held by ex-Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), now national security adviser for the Trump Administration.
Valimont, Klas notes, “has raised more than $6.5 million — three times more than Republican Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, who has raised $2.1 million.” Meanwhile, Weil, Klas adds, “has raised more than $9.4 million — mostly in sums of under $200 — compared to Fine’s $987,000.”
“It’s true that the GOP candidates remain the favorites simply because these congressional districts have been gerrymandered to give Republicans a voter registration advantage,” Klas argues. “But now that Trump has done things he never promised and promised things he hasn’t done — all while telling Americans they’re in for ‘a little pain’ — both the turnout and the vote should tell us how much buyer’s remorse voters feel.”
The Bloomberg News columnist adds, “Trump has endorsed both Patronis and Fine, and although the president’s approval rating in the state has been falling, it still remains above water in Florida opinion polls. But Democrats from across the country are using the Florida race to send a message to the president that his performance comes with a political cost.”
Bottom line: Trump is scared. If he was not scared he would not have pulled Stefanik’s nomination. And she looks like a complete sap right now. Trump used her and she let him use her and now he’s taking away the payoff. Hey, Elise, go Google ETTD. The truth is out there, as they say.
Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman revealed that the news Stefanik will be “rejoining the leadership team” has “taken a lot of members of the leadership by surprise!”
“So sad to see a craven sycophant like Elise Stefanik be told she can’t leave her House seat,” mocked legal analyst Chris Geidner.
“If the Administration’s action were popular, then they wouldn’t have pulled Stefanik’s nomination. But what Trump is doing is not popular. It’s bats–t crazy. Americans are fed up with the incompetence, lying and illegal behavior. That’s why Dems keep winning special elections,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA).
Longtime Democratic fundraising consultant Mike Nellis remarked, “Pulling Stefanik’s nomination is a huge loss for Republicans—and an even bigger show of weakness for Trump. They’re too afraid to face the voters in a deep red district because they’re destroying the economy and making Americans less safe. Keep up the fight and don’t hold back.”
“Trump can’t afford to risk Stefanik’s seat because their polling shows they’re in deep s–t for the midterms. All that bullsh– boasting about an historic mandate, and they’re in full retreat this week,” he later added.
CNN’s DJ Judd noticed, “Stefanik spent the last week posting throwback pics from her time in Congress.”
Occasional talking head Andrew Donaldson, who writes mostly about West Virginia politics, commented, “Elise Stefanik’s ambition fail here should not only be pointed at, and not only laughed at, but pointed & laughed at. A complete public persona 180 for Trump, burning her Ivy League & NYC bone fides, now sidelined just for her regular floor vote…this is good stuff Ready: go.”
The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson was quick to join that bandwagon. He posted a clip of the film “Mean Girls,” and the non-apology from Gretchen saying, “I’m sorry people are so jealous of me. But I can’t help it that I’m popular.”
Wilson said it was, “Elise Stefanik, right now.”
Let’s watch Donald squirm. Randy Fine is very unpopular. He’s one of the Florida seat contenders and that seat may be lost. DeSantis despises Fine on top of Fine’s other problems. But what’s interesting about Fine is he is part of the MAGA freak show, the Boebert/Greene/Mace/Luna level people. But the tipping point on those loonies may have been reached. There may not be room for another one.
And bear this in mind: There are a lot of retirees in Florida. They may not be so enchanted with the talk of shake ups in Social Security and Medicare. They may make those views known this Tuesday. At least we know at this point that that is what Trump fears.
This schiesseshau (shitshow) could turn around as soon as Tuesday. Trump may be in for a wake up call.
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The ultimate FAFO for the republicans.
Before the election they said ‘Project 2025 is not us, we’d never do anything like that stuff. Trust us. Vote for us and we’ll bring prices down.
So now as Project 2025 comes into effect, the electorate is saying, “You lied to us, we don’t want this, we won’t vote for you any more.
The most surprising thing is that they seem surprised by it.
I think they’re surprised because they’re accustomed to sufficient stupidity amongst their voters to make them deaf dumb and blind to reality. They believe their own arrogance, that no matter what they do, their sheep will follow them. Sadly, they might be right. We shall see.
I’d venture both sides are surprised, although it wasn’t like there weren’t plenty of reasons to have zero trust in a man like our current president among voters, as we selected a new resident at 1600 Pennsylvania. And the cabal that has taken over our government is so convinced of its righteousness that it can’t imagine anyone not on board with the program.
One might think that the fear of voters would trigger a course correction in policy, and this would surely be the result in almost all but our traitor in chief. Instead, manipulation is the watchword of the day. And a bit of disappointment for a loyal sycophant. What a journey of discovery it would be to peel back the layers of a maga brain to learn what went wrong with it. Is it lesions, an unknown type of tumor, or some chemical imbalance? The proof is in the pudding.