Posted on 09/28/2023 7:30:06 PM PDT by Drew68
For reasons mysterious to the rational human mind, Fox News and the Republican National Committee decided to subject Americans to the most bizarre public spectacle in recent memory. It was stupid. It was strange. It was the second Republican presidential primary debate, which began with British-American Stuart Varney having a seizure while attempting to introduce his Univision cohost Ilia Calderón and concluded with Dana Perino asking the contestants who should be “voted off the island.”
“Leading the charge, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dismissed the question outright,” The Independent reported. “I’m not going to do that, with all due respect, we’re here, we’re happy to debate, I think that that’s disrespectful to my fellow competitors,” he said.
It was a strong moment for DeSantis in a night otherwise filled with buffoonery, enabled by inept moderators who seemed to have it out for him and fueled by obnoxious, often shrill candidates. Yet as absurd as the evening was, it also marked the first time DeSantis took a more aggressive approach toward tackling the GOP frontrunner, former President Donald Trump. It was a good start, and the governor will have to do a lot more of it over the next few months.
But first, it’s worth noting how bad a night The Donald had.
The former president had intended to join striking United Auto Workers in Michigan on the picket line in an attempt to keep alive his populist myth. However, as soon as he caught wind of the planned visit, the head of the union denounced Trump as a fraud with an imaginary record of achievements for workers. So instead of hitting the picket line, Trump slinked to a non-unionized auto parts supplier, where his team reportedly distributed union signs to random people.
Trump’s team presented the event on social media as if Trump was speaking to a large crowd filled with union workers. In reality, it was a Potemkin village of populism that failed to draw the desired viewership.
Newsweek reported that the debate, broadcasted on the GOP’s official Rumble channel, received 1.25 million views versus the 522,000 Trump’s speech attracted, which was shared on his official channel. Trump’s channel has 2 million followers; the GOP has just over 46,000 followers.
Meanwhile, at the debate, DeSantis hammered the absentee former president. In the lead-up to the event, DeSantis swiped at Trump during an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News for a number of failures, including his failure to build the wall.
He kept up his criticisms at the debate.
Trump, he said, “should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”
He also hit Trump for throwing the pro-life crowd under the bus.
After the 2022 midterm elections, which saw several losses by awful Trump-endorsed candidates, Trump blamed the disappointing results on pro-life Republicans. Later, in an interview with The National Pulse, Trump suggested that pro-life activists are grifters. “Everybody’s raising money all the time—I don’t know, maybe it’s some kind of business. I don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
Those comments were deeply ironic from a man who allegedly inflated his wealth by billions of dollars to scam banks before ripping off Republican voters for hundreds of millions. DeSantis made it a point to remind the audience he shouldn’t be let off the hook for that.
Trump, he said, “should be here explaining his comments, to try to say that pro-life protections are somehow a terrible thing. I want him to look into the eyes and tell people who have been fighting this fight for a long time.”
DeSantis continued that line of attack after the debate, mocking the former president for refusing to face him.
“He’s had a lot to say about me on social media, really since 2022 right before the midterm election,” DeSantis said of Trump. “It’s one thing to do it behind a keyboard, step up on stage and do it to my face. I’m ready for it.” He even suggested Trump is afraid of going toe-to-toe after losing the first debate to then-candidate Joe Biden in 2020.
Nearly 1 in 3 potential GOP primary voters watched the event, with most of them awarding the first place to DeSantis, according to a 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
Some swiftly dismissed the results, insisting that it would not do much to change the overall race. Trump himself was apparently more concerned. He attacked the Republican National Committee afterward, demanding Republicans immediately “stop the debates.” That also follows polling showing most Iowa and New Hampshire voters aren’t sold on Trump and are still looking elsewhere.
Trump’s comments, state polling, and disastrous efforts at counterprogramming suggest people might be missing the real takeaway: DeSantis took some of his most direct jabs at Trump and walked away looking good.
He did it by merely forcefully reciting the facts about Trump’s record. And if DeSantis wants to chip away at Trump’s support, it seems like that’s what he will have to do for the next few months: expose Trump as a fraud and a failure by attacking him based on his actual record. In particular on immigration and economic issues, where Trump seems strongest.
But that strength is as illusory as the union event in Michigan, the border wall Trump promised to build, and the auto assembly plants he vowed to bring back to America. Most Republicans, moreover, have never been exposed to Trump’s real record because conservative media has coddled him. Last night suggested there’s an appetite for the hard truth.
DeSantis has done more to advance conservatism than any elected leader since Ronald Reagan.
Want to see a sellout? Put Trump back in the White House (as unlikely as this is to happen). A lame duck, he'll go full libtard. Mark my words.
Why? Because he's always been a New York liberal. We'll get more gun bans, more spending, and two moderates (at best) to replace Alito and Thomas.
He'll have nothing to lose. And here's an ugly little secret. He's never liked his Walmart-shopping MAGA base. He thinks you're all uncouth and classless.
All this reference to Trump’s unfulfilled promises is just too much. Good Lord, he was opposed at every turn by the entire Deep State, GOP RINO’s included, and he still managed amazing things. He spent a lot of money because he knew he could grow the economy “hugely” and tax revenues would offset it. When he was screwed out of the election, it all stopped.
LOL
LOL at Trump supporters talking about DeSantis being sweaty and wearing makeup. Several of the candidates were, at this one event. Trump is sweating makeup at EVERY event.
Hahahaha..... The TDS is strong in this writer...
Total BS. What the heck?
This is not a compliment nor an insult...but, every time I read the posts...I can always know the ones from you.
The body of the post just really sounds like you.
No insult...no praise...just fact.
Not saying Trump was proven to be behind this, but, I can hear the outrage if this happened to someone else...
“Unions for Trump” Signholder at Trump Rally Admitted They’re Not a Union Member
Upon being approached by The Detroit News, some individuals who attended the event admitted that the signs they held weren’t representative of their identities.
“One individual in the crowd who held a sign that said ‘union members for Trump,’ acknowledged that she wasn’t a union member when approached by a Detroit News reporter after the event,” Mauger’s report stated. “Another person with a sign that read ‘auto workers for Trump’ said he wasn’t an auto worker when asked for an interview.”
DeSantis is going absolutely nowhere. He's campaign is DOA and "winning" (he didn't) a debate hardly anyone watched is absolutely meaningless.
It's disgraceful the Republican establishment and its donors are undermine the clear choice of the base and proof it cares more about their own objectives than doing anything for their constituents or defeating Democrats.
Trump’s speech in Michigan was kick ass.
LMAO!
Thanks for the comedy!
Good article
He will do that once in jail
You forgot the sarcasm tag again
You can’t help yourself and your cult like behavior. You would drink the poisoned grape juice if he asked you to. I absolutely have no doubt about that.
It won't surprise me if it's coming. 'I need a civil war, FOR ME.' Probably while he eats caviar and laughs. That may seem extreme to some, but everything is so outlandish at this point, nothing would surprise me now. Trump has done the exact opposite of what anyone else in his position right now would be doing, and it's not because what he's doing is helping his cause. He's clearly just making a spectacle, not a defense.
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