The GOP primary has just taken another loopdy loop in an unexpected direction. Fox News is turning on Ron DeSantis, as you will see in a moment. Charlie Kirk has turned on Ron DeSantis. That’s not such a surprise and we don’t take it as such, merely as part of an overwhelming trend. But the piece de resistance is Adam Laxalt heading up the DeSantis Never Back Down PAC. Laxalt is an old friend and ally of Donald Trump. He chaired Trump’s PAC in Nevada in 2020. Laxalt is also an old roommate of Ron DeSantis from their naval officer training days.
Adam Laxalt is to Nevada politics what Paul Gosar is to Arizona, which is to say that his own relatives can’t stand him and have advised people not to vote for him the last two times he has run for public office, to wit, governor in 2018 and U.S. senator in 2022. Laxalt used to be the attorney general, at a time in both Nevada and national politics when the GOP was an elephant of quite a different shade from what it is now.
Laxalt became good buds with Donald Trump, naturally. He was instrumental in Trump’s 2020 campaign in Nevada, as stated. Trump even admonished Laxalt to challenge the results of his defeat at the hands of Catherine Cortez Masto in 2022 and thankfully Laxalt decided to spare himself and the rest of us that indignity.
I promised to show you how Fox News is flip flopping on their one-time golden boy, Ron DeSantis. Hit this link to Mediate. You’ll see a “brutal” story on Trump “thumping” DeSantis.
Nobody is endorsing DeSantis, not even in Florida. DeSantis has one endorsement there, Laurel Lee, and everybody else has either ignored or deserted him.
As to Charlie Kirk, he claims to be DeSantis’ friend and with friends like this, who needs enemies, right?
“I say this is a friend of Ron DeSantis. He’s had a bad month and a half. He has not come across as strong or confident. His team would disagree with what I’m saying,” Kirk added. “I’m just telling you what the grassroots are saying. I see your emails.”
“He’s just kind of seems as a scripted politician where people right now wanna fighter in a time of widespread weakness, Donald Trump is coming across as strong and Ron DeSantis is not,” Kirk said frankly.
Kirk suggested some of the advice given to DeSantis could end up hurting him.
“Some of the advice that Ron DeSantis is receiving is, well, you know, ‘Don’t get into the gutter. Don’t get into the fight that Donald Trump will win best.’ There’s some truth — at the same time, are you going to engage at all? You see — the Republican primary, is it ending before it’s beginning?” Kirk questioned.
What we know is that the legislative session in Florida ends May 5 and that was seen as the announcement date for DeSantis’ presidential campaign. Now enters Adam Laxalt, on April 22, a couple of weeks ahead of that date. ABC News:
But Laxalt has remained a close friend of DeSantis, who is widely expected to announce a White House campaign soon. Both were Navy judge advocate generals and served in Iraq.
Never Back Down was started by Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general who had a high-ranking role in Trump’s Homeland Security Department. The political group has reported raising $30 million.
One wing of the group has been raising money that could be transferred to DeSantis should he get in the 2024 race. A different wing has begun running pro-DeSantis ads and pushing back aggressively against Trump in what’s increasingly become a bitter campaign.
Trump’s campaign on Friday criticized DeSantis’ management of the state where they both live, saying that “Florida continues to tumble into complete and total delinquency and destruction.” Never Back Down responded on Saturday by offering “financial assistance” for Trump to move to California.
Prominent Republican operative Jeff Roe, who worked on Laxalt’s unsuccessful campaigns in 2018 for governor and last year for Senate, began as an advisor to Never Back Down last month.
Trump recently characterized Jeff Roe as “the kiss of death.”
As you well know, if you read this blog or follow politics at all, DeSantis has been ruled as dead and buried already by pundits of many stripes, not just Democrats. Maybe that’s why he’s running now. Maybe DeSantis is wired in such a fashion that he can’t just retire quietly into the shadows now, although run, run, run away and live to fight another day is a well respected axiom of politics.
And then there’s this clip from Utah today. This could be captioned, “take a shot at Donald Trump without telling me you’re taking a shot at Donald Trump.”
Desantis in Utah today. He hasn’t said Trump’s name in a year. But he does talk about him …
“Politics is not entertainment. It’s not about building a brand.” pic.twitter.com/UypTDCzqQw
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 22, 2023
Maybe there’s going to be a cage match with Trump after all. We shall certainly be watching avidly to see what happens. One thing is absolute: If DeSantis runs he’s got to stop talking about Trump euphemistically. He’s got to take the man on. Let’s see if he’s got the balls to do that and risk MAGA censure.
Always fun watching the poo flingers fling poo at each other. I was worried the ’24 election was going to get dull
I think these guys are living in a dream. Adam Laxalt is not exactly a major GOP player. Ken Cucinelli got where he got because of Trump. And DeSantis has a lot of downside that has nothing to do with Trump, chiefly that he can’t talk to people and can’t campaign. He’s got the bullying down but the rest of the country is not Florida.
Either way, whether DeSantis takes on Trump or doesn’t, it’s going to be interesting to watch.
So, Trump makes a statement criticizing DeSantis’s job running Florida (using language he’s pretty much used in criticizing Biden’s performance) and “Never Back Down” responds with an ad offering to help Trump move to California?
Oy.
I wrote a comment recently I’ll try to distill down. DeSantis might not have formally declared but he passed the point of no return (at least in Trump’s eyes) quite a while ago. Look, it’s nothing new for “possible” candidates to actually be running for President without officially entering the race. Any of us who follow politics easily recognize those who are both dipping a toe in the water and those who are “wink wink nod nod” “considering” a run. And in the latter case are actually running even if they haven’t made it official. DeSantis has been in that category for a while. Worse as far as Trump is concerned DeSantis had (not so much these days though) some major backers standing by to pump mega bucks into is candidacy. AND while he trailed Trump in GOP polls he was at least getting some serious numbers. Enough that Trump took notice and the whole act (even if DeSantis hasn’t used Trump’s name) Trump without the baggage schtick really had to grate on Trump.
It’s also been clear that DeSantis has been waiting for what’s starting to happen, Trump being in court, both criminal and civil. At which point MAGA goobers would look at him and see someone just as mean and nasty that hated all the people/groups they hate and maybe transfer their support to him. Once even in GOP polling with Trump it would be over for Trump. That was DeSantis plan, or so I think. His mistake was that Trump would fight hard and fight dirty before DeSantis even declared. Talk about being clueless!
No, DeSantis committed what for Trump is the unpardonable sin of NOT doing a thing to tamp down any notion of even considering a 2024 run. DeSantis COULD have either directly and clearly shut it down with a “I’m not running – I’m fully supporting Trump” statement, or at the very least made like Haley (for example) and quietly faded away. If ole Ron not only kept his hopes under wraps and also encouraged those ready to step up for him (especially those big money donors) to do so as well he’d be getting a few percent support and Trump wouldn’t bother with him.
But DeSantis hasn’t hidden his hope to take over as the leader of MAGA nation and as I said long ago passed the point of no return. It’s now or never. Trump is out to bury him, to consign him to political oblivion. There will be no 2028 for DeSantis even if he backs off. Whether he likes it or not he’s committed to making it happen now or, when he’s out of the Governor’s mansion out of public life entirely. He and Scott Walker can maybe form a little club of “we used to be the next big thing” or something.
Anyone working for fat >ss is a LOSER. You know, when I was “of age”, people that joined the service were either encouraged to enlist by a JUDGE or were just plain old losers.
Like these @ssholes….
Not fit for public service..
Ptg’s comment about military service brings to mind memories of my own service: Drafted in November, 1965, not yet 21, grew up on Manhattan’s upper East Side (then a working class neighborhood in transition), unprepared for regimentation; took a chance on giving up draftee status and going Regular Army (enlisting) for an MOS operating telecom equipment with a chance at winning a seat in training for its repair. long story short, my overseas duty was in Eighth Army Support Command (Korea), with my name coming up on a list for a tour in ‘Nam the day before I mustered out.
Career enlisted men I encountered during my hitch were mostly rural southerners; one drill sergeant had come to the U.S. as a refugee from from Hungary, using his service as a shortcut to citizenship. The Army was perceived as least desirable of the four armed service branches, and in response, the brass literally threw rank at those with skills: I attained pay grade E-5 (same as a buck Sergeant) in 19 months; many Air Force and Navy recruits ended their four-year enlistments at E-4. While at Fort Gordon for training, we encountered a PFC (E-3) from Kentucky with the Infantryman MOS who’d just re-uped! One stripe in 3 years, while we had the same rank with less than a year, and here was, signed up for more of the same!
While assigned to the 51st Signal Battalion in Korea, I worked with a guy from Indiana who admitted to enlisting rather than take a prison sentence, but didn’t encounter any others who admitted to it.
I didn’t appreciate it at the time, and it took years for me to get over the hit my civilian job progress took from the 3 years I was off the job, as well as appreciate the growth that came out of my service; my opinion now, almost 58 years after I got that “GREETING” letter from Uncle Sam, is that a good part of what’s wrong in the U.S.A. is related to the end of the draft.