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Q&A of the Day – Would DeSantis be “Selfish” to run against Trump?
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Today’s entry: @brianmuddradio do you REALLY agree with Morris' language...(paraphrasing) DeSantis would be SELFISH to run... ?!
Bottom Line: Well, it certainly appears my recent interview with former Trump advisor Dick Morris (who of course rose to fame as the key advisor to President Clinton who saved his presidency with “triangulation”) stirred the pot. I’ve heard from several listeners expressing varying degrees of agreement and disgust at Morris’ assertion that Governor DeSantis entering a 2024 primary race against Donald Trump would be a disaster. Quoting Morris: I hope DeSantis does not run. The media and the Democrats have their own strategy to defeat Trump and that is to gin up a primary against him by encouraging DeSantis to run. Well, when I heard him say that, I about laughed...and that’s because of what I said in my Top 3 Takeaways on July 15th…
The world is weird. You already knew that. Here’s the latest example of how. Governor DeSantis is currently running for reelection in an election which takes place in under four months. New DeSantis political polling came out yesterday. So about now you’re wondering what’s weird here? It wasn’t in Florida. It was a statewide poll in Nevada, polling him head-to-head against Biden in 2024. There’s a lot in our world that’s weird, but being only a few months away from a key election in Florida and having more polling taking place with our governor out of our state than in it, is a new wrinkle. And by the way... Expect more of this to continue. The result in that particular Nevada poll, which was a state Joe Biden won two years ago, showed DeSantis leading Biden by five points. And that’s with about a third of that state not even being familiar with him. There’s nothing more the political left, which includes most news media, would like more than an MTV style Celebrity Deathmatch between DeSantis and Trump starting next year. So yes, it’s possible and perhaps even likely, that we’ll have more polling for a hypothetical match-up that will probably never happen and is over two years away even if it did, then we’ll have for an actual matchup that’s only a few months away. The world is weird, our governor is good, our president is not, and the left still has Trump derangement syndrome. This is the byproduct of it. The goal of the left and their allies in news media is two-fold. Use polls to convince Biden not to run again because he’d be waxed and bait DeSantis into a run against Trump in a celebrity deathmatch. If you’re wondering why in the world there would be polling on DeSantis vs. Biden in Nevada in July of 2022 that is why. Remember people actually have to pay for these polls to be conducted. Who would spend good money asking stuff like that now if it's not exactly as I’ve said.
Obviously, Morris and I are on the same page about what’s happening here. So now to the quote from Morris about selfishness... He stated this: Trump is going to run...anyone who is going to run now is doing the bidding of the Democrats...is doing a tremendous disserve to all of us. DeSantis should wait his turn in line. He’s a good governor and he can be a great candidate in ‘28. Well, that happens to sound a lot like what I said on June 14th, in that day’s Q&A: The bottom line from my perspective is that 2028 makes much more sense for DeSantis than 2024. Should DeSantis win reelection this year his term as governor would end just in time for him to turn his attention to a presidential run in 2028. If Donald Trump were to win the Presidential election, he’d be out in 2028. The timing works.
Now, your question was whether I really agree with Morris’ sentiment, clearly yes, but there’s a bit more to the story as well and I’ve briefly referenced this recently. First, my preference would be for Governor DeSantis to be fully focused on being our governor for the next four years. Especially since at least half of that time will be spent with Joe Biden as President of the United States. I think it’s hard to argue that anyone could be as effective traveling the country running while running for president as they would be if they were focused on the job they were elected to carry out. And if he were to win, we’d lose our governor after only two years of his 2nd term. None of that is ideal from where I sit. But then there’s the political calculation I’ve referenced as well. Let’s say for a moment DeSantis were to run against Trump and managed to win. Do you think Trump simply rides off into the sunset having lost a Republican party? I don’t. I think the potential for an indy bid at that point would be high to take DeSantis down with him. I also hinted at that with Morris and quoting him – he said: I don’t want to go there. I really don’t either. Which is why my opinion is that if Trump runs, DeSantis shouldn’t. And to be clear – this isn’t simply about a Republican winning the presidency. There's a reason why the dishonest news media types are throwing the kitchen sink at trying to take out Trump. And no, it has nothing to do with the truth and justice. We literally have Hunter Biden on video with guns, crack and hookers. And we literally have Joe’s voice mail telling Hunter he’s in the clear with China. It’s hard to fully articulate the extent to which these people are dishonest and nefarious. It’s because they’re terrified Trump will finish the job he started.