DONALD TRUMP RECENTLY has been ramping up his attacks on Ron DeSantis ahead of a potential 2024 Republican primary showdown. We’re not going to lie, we figured it take the former president a least a few more months before he started accusing the Florida governor of pedophilia.
Trump has been doing just that on Tuesday, though, sharing a few posts on Truth Social purporting to show DeSantis “grooming high school girls with alcohol as a teacher.”
Won’t make the slightest bit o difference. Remember the Texas house candidate who came in 3rd of 3 in her primary and claimed the election had been stolen from her? Who do you think she got that ifea from?
Oh, but it could make a difference. A third string state-level candidate clearly doesn’t have enough influence to affect how the party deals with accusations of election fraud. But Trump, at the national level? He might have enough pull to actually get enough GOP idiots to complain that they actually do have a “do-over” primary.
Imagine pulling up to Election Day 2024, and the GOP are still fighting over who their nominee is…
I keep seeing predictions like this saying the GOP field will be much smaller in 2024 but I’m not ready to buy it. We are still much too far out for that to be a certainty. In fact, today Nikki Haley declared she’s running. I expect there will be others who will jump in as well. Pence, Youngkin, Abbott, Hogan and Christie have all said things that make it appear they are giving it serious consideration. Even Sununu and Pompeo are possible candidates. I have no idea what Ted Cruz will do since he’s up for reelection in the Senate. But if Texas election law allows him to run in both primaries I expect he will give it a shot. And I won’t be shocked if Romney decides to offer himself as the “uniter” candidate.
It is unlikely there will be 12+ running like in 2016 but bottom line I doubt there will only be 3 - 4 candidates. The more people run the more likely the field will be so divided DJT with his diehard 20-30% could take the nomination.
Roger Stone has long had a major crush on The Mob.
But who would have thought that his personal infatuation with organized crime would so easily become the openly dominant theme of the entire Republican Party?
I mean, truth in advertising, sure, but: you’d think they’d want to try to hide it at least a little bit…!!!
I think the difference between 2024 and 2016, will be that in 2016 there really weren’t any obvious front runners, at least at the start, so it was unclear who the non-Trump voters should coalesce around (Rubio?, Cruz?, Jeb? Santorum?). This time it will be clearly a choice between Turmp and DeSantis with a bunch of guys hanging out in the periphery, splitting maybe 10% of the vote between them and dropping out by super Tuesday.if not earlier.
Early front runners often falter quickly. Jeb, Scott Walker, and Giuliani are obvious examples, but there are many more. I’m not sold yet that DeSantis is more talented than those guys.
I agree with iiandyiiii. This is probably the most likely scenario if the campaigning were happening right now, but in 2015 at this point the conventional wisdom was that Jeb! would suck up all the campaign cash and lead early, and that Scott Walker would dominate in Iowa and springboard from there. Here’s an article about the many conventional wisdom predictions that were…not correct. The fact that DeSantis is the flavor of the month could mean something come primary time, or it could not. We’ll see.
Yeah, DeSantis looks good to today’s Republicans on paper. But in the flesh, he’s kind of…creepy. Creepy in a way Jeb and Scott Walker never dreamed of being. (Rudy, of course, is another matter.)
I realize that DeSantis’ I WILL USE THE POWER OF GOVERNMENT TO CRUSH ALL YOUR ENEMIES message is popular with much of the GOP base. But since it inevitably goes along with Full Government Control of Business Interests…I do wonder if any traditional Republicans out there are troubled by DeSantis’ brand of having the US government making all their company’s decisions for them.
Jeb was without doubt the presumed frontrunner from the start. Odd you don’t recall that as there were a lot of pundits saying just that. He fell pretty quickly. I won’t be surprised if DeSantis’ as yet undeclared candidacy plays out the same way.
As others have pointed out it is much too early to think DeSantis has any staying power. He hasn’t won a single national contest and comes across as a really nasty person in ways even DJT doesn’t.
And for reasons that remain inexplicable to me, we know DJT has an iron grip on a substantial % of the GOP base. I don’t see anything that will change that. They will rally to him if he is indicted and they will rally to him if he isn’t since that will be all the proof they require to believe he has defeated the Deep State. It is likely a win/win situation for him.
Donald “I Love Eminent Domain” Trump has never been a small government guy. Building a wall, banning travel from certain countries, threatening to withhold federal money from states and foreign governments alike unless they do what he wants. He campaigned on that kind of thing and the base loved it.
Republicans are not the party of small government. They aren’t really interested in having freedom from the government. (That’s a libertarian viewpoint, not the same thing.) They’re quite happy to use the government to force you to pledge to the flag, or carry a child to its birth, or not smoke marijuana, or tell you what gender you are. They like it when the government has a heavy hand, as long as that hand is used to swat the people they don’t like.
DeSantis has shown that he loves to throw his weight around to bully the people that Republicans don’t like. So this will be something in his favor.
The lightweights who might run will be blown off the stage if a debate (using that word verrryyy loosely) happens. In 2016, Oranganus bullied, shouted down, interrupted, name called and otherwise cowered his opponents who were completely unprepared for his antics. Floridaman won’t hold up either to the onslaught of lies, accusations, and schoolyard bullying tactics. That’s the GQP base’s idea of a hero.
As long as DeSantis wears those fancy white boots to every campaign stop I think he’ll be a clear winner. (I nearly went with “shoe-in” but didn’t just in time. You’re welcome. )
Yes. Any time I’ve seen DeSantis get even remotely challenged on something he pretty much locks up. Remember the video of Crist asking DeSantis if he would serve the full term as governor? The same thing happens when reporters asking questions that are outside of his lane.