We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon
Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Why has the Colorado District 3 race between Lauren Boebert (R) and Adam Frisch suddenly become frozen in time? It’s Thursday — and Colorado election officials suddenly can’t count a few thousand remaining votes.
That’s an obvious sign of cheating.
Forget for the moment whether you’re rooting for Boebert or Frisch — set aside whether you’re a Democrat or republican — and consider the number of obvious absurdities that America’s election officials regularly spout now to cover their corruption.
One district in the county is taking too much time to count its remaining votes. Why is that? They’ve told the local Colorado newspaper that it’s because they’ve got “5,000 - 6,000 votes to count and report.”
Ok, so they have maybe 6,000 mail-in ballots left?
No, they don’t. “About 2,300 are from in-person voters in Pueblo” according the county officials — while “approximately 1,000 Republicans, 1,000 unaffiliated voters and 500 Democrats cast ballots on in-person machines.”
Now, folks— if “approximately 1,000 Republicans, 1,000 unaffiliated voters and 500 Democrats cast ballots on in-person machines” then those machine results could have been reported two days ago.
In other words, the Pueblo County Clerk is really telling you that Pueblo County is withholding those machine results until they’ve counted the other ballots.
No doubt, those approximately 2,500 ballots “on in-person machines” are being withheld until the other “2,300 votes” are counted in order to manage the results.
By the way, how do Pueblo County election officials know that they’ve got exactly “1,000 Republicans, 1,000 unaffiliated voters and 500 Democrats cast ballots on in-person machines” yet to report unless they’ve already counted them?
Why would they count 2,500 ballots but delay reporting them?
Exhibit B: Final Vote Counting Slows Down
The next thing that the Pueblo Chieftain tells you is that Pueblo County only countedand reported 50,322 ballots of the 61,534 ballots it received on Election Day.
How fast did Pueblo County count and report those 50,322 ballots?
It took Pueblo County less than five hours to count and report 50,322 ballots.
Do you know what that means? It means that Pueblo County has taken more than 32 hours already to count and report the remaining 11,212 ballots.
That’s another obvious sign of cheating. The Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz has no explanation for this vote-counting slowdown of course — it’s not because they’re short of staff or judges.
He makes no excuses for the obvious fraud.
What Gilbert Ortiz does explain is that he’s sure that Pueblo County will be making “headline news, maybe nationwide” very soon.
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
After winning a decisive victory to secure his third term as Kentucky Senator, Rand Paul promised to end the “COVID cover up,” by forcing Anthony Fauci into court.
[url=][/url]
Paul told supporters that he intends to focus on uncovering the evidence for COVID emerging from a lab, and whether it was manipulated with funding from Fauci’s NIH.
“Thanks for coming out to Dr. Fauci’s retirement party!” Paul joked.
“I promise you this: the COVID cover-up will end,” the Senator urged, adding “I will not only hold Dr. Fauci accountable, we will finally investigate why your tax dollars were sent to fund dangerous research in Wuhan.”
In a broader message during the speech Paul focused on freedom, declaring that “Liberty should bring people together because each and every citizen is left alone to enjoy their own personal freedoms.”
“Liberty is that great harmonizer that allows us to live together despite our differences,” the Senator added.
“We don’t come together to rejoice in the dissipation of power. We come together to reaffirm our support for the 10th Amendment — that powers not explicitly granted to the federal government are retained by the states and the people,” Paul further proclaimed.
The Senator continued, “We come together under the belief that government is instituted among men and women to preserve our God-given liberty — period! Our desire is not to rule over others but to largely leave people alone. It is this system of constitutional checks on power that has allowed America to become the free-est nation ever known.”
“With freedom has come great prosperity. But we do not choose freedom because it makes us rich. We choose freedom because it is part of our very nature,” Paul said.
“Liberty, or the absence of government intrusion, should allow people of widely differing beliefs to live together, each according to their own beliefs,” Paul further urged, adding “To preserve this liberty, we must especially defend the freedoms our Founding Fathers chose to put first in the Bill of Rights: the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom to associate with whomever you choose.”
Paul also called for an end to censorship, noting that “While the First Amendment does not prohibit private censorship, our founders certainly prized free speech.”
“One can only imagine our founder’s reaction to see government actively engaged with private enterprise to censor speech. To protect free speech, Congress must, absolutely must, prohibit government’s collusion with Big Tech,” the Senator averted, adding “The greatest originator of misinformation, the government, cannot be the arbiter of truth.”
“Both Left and Right need to wake up and acknowledge that government — should never be allowed to create any entity that even resembles a Ministry of Truth,” Paul warned.
* * *
Brand new merch now available! Get it at pjwshop.com
In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
Trump unleashed a revolution that opened the door to people like DeSantis. Now the Florida governor and his supporters want to continue that revolution without its original leader
‘The turn from DeSantis to Trump mirrors developments in Europe, where crude far-right politicians like Matteo Salvini are being “upgraded” to more subtle peers like Giorgia Meloni.’ Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Thu 10 Nov 2022 13.55 GMT
The day after the midterm elections, the knives were out for Donald Trump. On rightwing social media, people were emotionally debating the alleged toxicity of the former president and his hand-picked nominees, while Fox News highlighted the victory of the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, emphasizing that he is “reviled by Trump”, while heralding the “ dominating win” of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. A Fox News contributor pronounced DeSantis “the new Republican party leader”. In fact, the idea that DeSantis is the big Republican winner of the midterms – and Trump the big loser – seems to be the broad consensus in today’s media.
There is, of course, at least one dissonant voice: Trump himself. Sensing that the tables are turning rapidly, he went on Fox News to warn DeSantis to stay out of the 2024 presidential election. In his typical mafioso way, Trump said, “I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly.”
There is no doubt that DeSantis had a great night. He won his own race convincingly, while delivering three new House seats to the Republican party, courtesy of his blatantly partisan gerrymandering. At the same time, DeSantis did less than 2% better than Marco Rubio in the Senate race, putting some doubt on his particular appeal. Moreover, as too few media noted, Florida Republicans undoubtedly profited from DeSantis’s years-long campaign of voter intimidation, which entailed unleashing a newly created “ vote-fraud squad” on mostly innocent voters; against the broader national trend, Democratic turnout seemed significantly down in Florida.
It is important to note that the shift from Trump to DeSantis does not indicate a return to “ normal”, in the sense of old-school conservatism. DeSantis and Trump are both clearly far right and there is little ideological space between the two. Rather, it is about strategy and style. As far as Republican voters had any problems with Trump during his presidency, it was always more about his delivery than about his policies. It is not just his style but also his strategy – Trump largely operates outside of the traditional party establishment and political system.
Trump is not a politician and has no desire to become one. In sharp contrast, DeSantis is and has already significant political experience with running one of the biggest states in the country in terms of both economic power and population. Whereas Trump mainly shouts from the sidelines, respecting neither the institutions of liberal democracy nor the political practices of Washington, DeSantis practices what Princeton professor Kim Lane Scheppele calls “ democratic erosion by law”: the weakening of liberal democracy from within both the legal and the political system.
In this way, the turn from DeSantis to Trump mirrors developments in Europe, where crude far-right politicians like Matteo Salvini are being “ upgraded” to more subtle peers like Giorgia Meloni. It is, if you will, the Orbánization of the far right. The Hungarian leader is the prime example of democratic erosion by law, having effectively destroyed democracy in Hungary by perfectly legal means. It is no coincidence that Orbán is a hero of the so-called “national conservative” wing of the Republican party – mostly politicians with law degrees, such as DeSantis and Josh Hawley.
What Trump lacks in legal and political expertise, however, he compensates in charisma, something DeSantis sorely lacks. The Florida governor has gained nationwide Republican support by what he does, not by who he is. DeSantis is a rather uninspiring speaker who neither draws large crowds nor captivates smaller ones. It is his actual fights with “woke capitalism”, in the form of Disney, or “woke academia”, in the form of the University of Florida, that supporters point to. As he bragged in his victory speech on Tuesday night, “Florida is where woke goes to die.”
Moreover, DeSantis lacks that unique quality of Trump, authenticity, something the former president identified in bestowing the new moniker “ Ron DeSanctimonious”. And while Trump, rather uncharacteristically, seems to have dropped the nickname for now – after a barrage of criticism from rightwing media – you better believe he will return to it, or to even worse names, should he face DeSantis in a Republican primary.
Poll after poll might show the divisive nature of Trump, as well as his dropping favorability among both independents and Republicans, but he was still twice as popular among Republicans before the midterms. Although this can change rapidly, particularly if Fox News would support DeSantis over Trump, Trump will continue to command a modest but highly mobilized hardcore – who could make or break Republican candidates in many races, including the presidential one.
While DeSantis’s star might be rising, the Republican party remains at the mercy of Trump. The former president unleashed a revolution within the Republican party that has opened the door to people like DeSantis. Now the Florida governor and his supporters have less than two years to figure out how to continue that revolution without its original leader.
Cas Mudde is a Guardian US columnist and the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor in the school of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
Why some Republicans think Ron DeSantis is the future of the party
Political commentator Scott Jennings says the Florida governor is the 1st viable alternative to Trump
Sheena Goodyear · CBC Radio · Posted: Nov 09, 2022 4:45 PM ET | Last Updated: November 9
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gives a victory speech after defeating Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Charlie Crist during his election night watch party at the Tampa Convention Center on Tuesday. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
As It Happens 6:39
Why some Republicans think Ron DeSantis is the future of the party
The Florida governor won his second consecutive victory in the state in Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, with a 20-point lead over Democratic rival Charlie Crist.
It's an impressive feat in what used to be considered a swing state, says Scott Jennings, a CNN political commentator and a Republican who has worked for former U.S. president George W. Bush and Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Jennings spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal about how DeSantis compares to former U.S. president Donald Trump, and what his success means for the Republicans nationally. Here is part of their conversation.
As you well know, some were predicting a wipeout for the Democrats, a Republican red wave. In the end, it didn't come to be. So, if not a red wave, what words would you use to describe what happened last night?
It's not an "all is lost" moment, but … as I look at the results, I'm just looking at all these independent voters who were sour on [Democratic U.S. President Joe] Biden, sour on the economy, sour on the direction of the country, really unsure about things. And yet they stuck with the Democrats because, I think, the Republican brand being associated with Donald Trump is still too much for them.
This is the lesson I think that Republicans need to learn. We have a Trump problem.
Is Ron DeSantis the solution to that problem, in your view?
I don't think Donald Trump has ever been weaker than he is right now amongst Republicans who wholeheartedly supported him and voted for him twice. I think DeSantis has never been hotter.
And I think in politics, when someone is weak, you have to move on it, because they can recover. We've seen this with Trump. He was weak on January 6th. Everybody knew he had done wrong. He'd never been weaker in his life as he was at that moment. And yet the party let him off the hook.
And now the difference is there's someone to fill the breach. There's someone to step forward in a leadership role and move the party beyond Trump.
Before, the problem was it wasn't clear who was going to, you know, push Trump or lead the party in a new direction. So he just recovered and filled the void himself.
Now, Ron DeSantis has never been in a better position to tell the Republican Party that the American people have spoken. They tell us we have a branding problem. The brand is Trump. And I'm here to tell you, a new marketing department will be installed in short order. Stay tuned.
If I were him, that is the message I would deliver. And he's got the credibility and the results to back it up.
Scott Jennings, a CNN political commentator and Republican campaign adviser, says DeSantis is the future of the party. (Rogelio V. Solis/The Associated Press)
I'm wondering if you think the party will actually listen. There was an interesting piece from David Frum today in the Atlantic, and he writes in it, "For seven years, Donald Trump's superpower has been the abjectness of his fellow Republicans." So do you think Republicans are actually going to be willing to jump ship now?
Like I said, I think one of the reasons he always was able to recover in his weakest moments is because it was never clear who else there was to lead the party. Now there is an alternative, and it's an alternative named Ron DeSantis, who has a national profile, who's built up a lot of goodwill with Republican donors and grassroots, alike.
Beyond all that, Florida has become the model of governance that Republicans want to apply to the rest of the country. It used to be Texas, to some degree. We always looked at Texas as, you know, kind of the Republican capital of America. Now it's Florida … and that's largely because of what DeSantis has done.
That's what Trump has never been able to do. He's always been so limited because there are just certain parts of the Republican coalition he can't reach. But DeSantis apparently can reach and combine them all.
If you want to win a national election, that's what you have to do. We haven't won the popular vote since 2004, when George W. Bush put a similar kind of coalition together. It feels like DeSantis has the instincts to do it, and Trump seems to be too limited to pull it off.
DeSantis, his wife Casey DeSantis, and their children walk on stage to celebrate victory. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
You tell me. He won by 20 points. And he won an overwhelming number of Hispanics. You look at the shift in Hispanic voters up and down the board from 2020 to 2022. I mean, it is seismic in what it means for Florida politics and what it could mean for the national Republican Party.
So I think DeSantis has, right now, the best instincts in the Republican Party about what to do and when to do it. Again, he's not a flashy showman. You know, he's not a TV personality. He's not a pundit. But he is a leader. And his instincts are just proven again, time and again, to be really good. ANALYSIS Here's why Joe Biden is smiling today, even after U.S. midterm setbacks
Beyond Florida, what do you think Ron DeSantis is offering voters across the country? And what would the Republican Party look like with him as leader?
I think what he's offering them is a new generation of leadership. I mean, I think the one thing Americans generally don't want is a rematch between Biden and Trump. In fact, I don't know a single person that wants a rematch, other than Trump and Biden.
So the first thing he offers to the Republican Party is a new generation of leadership. He does give you a lot of the aggressiveness, the fight, that you get out of Trump. But he also gives you self-control, and he gives you competence in governance. And he takes a lot of the drama out of politics.
Another thing that DeSantis offered the Republican Party is he travelled all over the country campaigning for people and never really talked about himself or talked about his future ambitions. He just campaigned for whoever was on the stage with him.
Trump, on the other hand, made the campaign stops he made about himself — you know, attacking DeSantis at one, teasing a presidential campaign at another, showing up in Pennsylvania, where his presence was clearly not helpful.
Trump is mostly a selfish political entity. But DeSantis proved to be a team player.
Interview produced by Kate Swoger. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
Conservative Candidates Take Note – DeSantis Dominated In Florida For These Reasons BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, NOV 10, 2022 - 07:40 PM
Many Republicans are experiencing a bittersweet election week with some impressive wins, but not the “red wave” that they were hoping for. With a Congressional majority looking like a certainty and the Senate up in the air, it's an overall victory for conservatives but not a slam dunk defense against leftists and Joe Biden. What we do know is that while there was no red wave, there was certainly no blue wave either.
This tells us a few things: For one, Americans are more entrenched in their political views than ever and they aren't likely to budge. When governors like Gretchen Whitmer or Kathy Hochul can win reelection after attempting to impose hardcore authoritarian measures on their constituency during the covid scare, it becomes clear that Democrat voters are too mentally challenged to recognize they are harming themselves. Maybe those people deserve what they get.
By extension, conservative voters are far more nuanced. They aren't interested in voting for a candidate just because they identify as GOP, they want that candidate to share their values and concerns and take action. If a candidate doesn't show courage and stand immovable against establishment agendas, conservatives may just stay home rather than vote for them.
For example, in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman managed to defeat Dr. Mehmet Oz despite Fetterman's brain being scrambled by a stroke during the campaign. Democrats will vote for ANYONE that will keep their state blue, they even reelected a dead Democrat House candidate in PA (Tony DeLuca). Meanwhile, Oz avidly promoted the covid mRNA vaccines after pretending to be skeptical of them, and tried to sell his followers on them despite there being many questions of safety and efficacy. A lot of conservatives fought hard and took considerable risks in defying the mandates, and some felt betrayed by Oz's apparent truce with Big Pharma. This may have contributed to his election loss.
One Republican that fully dominated during his campaign was Ron DeSantis. There is no denying that there was a red wave in Florida, which was considered a swing state only a few years ago. Now, Democrats see the state as a lost cause for the 2024 presidential race with zero chance of retrieval. DeSantis carried nearly 60% of the vote, with Charlie Crist left with 40%. DeSantis' success also helped the majority of other GOP candidates in Florida gain a voter majority, with Republicans winning 20 congressional seats.
[url=][/url]
Why did DeSantis crush leftists in his state while many other Republicans barely squeezed a win or lost by slim margins? What did he do that they did not do? Yes, he's an incumbent, which helps by allowing the candidate to show what he has already accomplished, but that can be a double edged sword. What measures did DeSantis accomplish that won over Florida voters en masse and also prevented potential vote count “uncertainty”? Let's examine a list:
Hard Stand Against Woke Politics
DeSantis never wavered on his stance against woke politics, social justice agendas and far-left ideology. He never tried to make a deal with leftists or appease them. In fact, he instituted several measures and supported multiple bills in Florida that prevent woke politics from being taught in public schools.
He stopped Critical Race Theory from being implanted into school textbooks. He prevented sexually driven lessons from being taught and is punishing activist teachers for sexualizing (grooming) children. He has ended the injection of LGBT and Trans indoctrination for young students. He also took on one of the largest media corporations in the world, Disney, and punished them for trying to control state politics and impose woke ideology through the company's massive monetary influence.
Leftists hate DeSantis for a reason – He has been effective against their tactics and they fear that other red states will follow his lead. In his victory speech DeSantis proclaimed: "Florida is where woke goes to die."
Hard Stand On Illegal Immigration
A lot of people including many Democrats said that the strategy of busing illegal migrants from red states to far left cities like New York and Washington DC would fail. Instead, it has been a resounding success, with Democrats scrambling just to keep their city budgets from imploding under the weight of a mere 10,000 to 15,000 illegals.
While Texas gets most of the credit for this action, DeSantis and Florida did one better and sent the migrants to Martha's Vineyard, the pristine island vacation home of many leftist elitists. The fact that the people of Matha's Vineyard put on a fraudulent show by feeding the migrants some cheap lunches and then bused them straight out of town the next day to a camp on a military base was a huge embarrassment for Democrats. It proved that they can't live up to their own standards and take care of a handful of migrants while expecting border states to deal with millions per year. It was a major coup for DeSantis.
Hard Stand Against Covid Mandates And Vaccine Passports
The population of Florida is the third largest in the nation, with a high percentage of retirees and seniors citizens. The amount of pressure on DeSantis by the Federal Government and Biden along with the CDC and Anthony Fauci over the pandemic was immense. If Florida folded to the mandates, then many red states may have followed suit. This did not happen.
One of the most important characteristics of a great leader is the ability to stand by one's principles even when the majority of the public or your peers seem to be against you. When you know you are right based on reason, logic, facts and evidence, never submit or give in. DeSantis showed this kind of fortitude over the past two years and this most of all is what likely won him another term as governor.
Passing Bills For Election Integrity
DeSantis supported measures which secured Florida's election integrity and prevented any potential chicanery in the 2022 midterms. He signed a law strengthening voter identification at the polls. Mass mailings of ballots, drop boxes and ballot harvesting are now illegal in Florida. Private financiers are not allowed to administer elections. He also established the Office of Election Crimes and Security, which monitors election integrity and enforces stiff penalties for anyone caught trying to cheat.
If these rules were enforced in every state in the country, one might wonder how differently elections might turn out. Future conservative candidates should take note of DeSantis and his overwhelming victory; it pays to actually defend the values you claim to represent, because conservative voters are not Democrats, they have standards.
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
Clinical psychologist and public intellectual Dr Jordan Peterson has sat down with Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan to give his insightful opinion on Elon Musk's plans for Twitter, Donald Trump and the presidency and Meghan Markle's podcast.
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
No one is enjoying the public fight between former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis more than President Biden, who if he chooses to run for another term may be battling one of the two Republicans.
Biden, showing some confidence after a better-than-expected midterm performance by Democrats in the House and Senate, has gleefully dubbed one “the former defeated President” and the other “Donald Trump incarnate.”
“It will be fun watching them take on each other,” Biden said Wednesday at a news conference following Tuesday’s elections.
Biden’s pithy answer came after NBC’s Kristen Welker asked him which man would be a more formidable opponent in the 2024 election, following DeSantis’s landslide victory on Tuesday’s midterms and the more uneven approach of a number of candidates backed by Trump.
Those results have prompted a debate within the GOP over whether it’s time for Trump to step aside.
A number of Republicans, viewing the results of the midterms, now see DeSantis as the stronger presidential candidate. They fear that if Trump ends up winning the GOP nomination, the party will lose the White House in 2024. Even conservative outlets appeared to turn on the former president: The New York Post’s front page on Wednesday morning featured a photo of DeSantis and his family with a banner headline reading “DeFUTURE.”
Trump has responded to the midterms — and the good reviews for DeSantis — by publicly going after the Florida governor. In messages on Truth Social on Thursday, the former president described DeSantis as an “average” governor and disloyal. DeSantis did not fire back publicly.
Biden allies say the Trump attacks on DeSantis are good news for the White House.
“Oh, this is a ‘Let’s get out the popcorn’ moment for him for sure,” said one ally to the president. “It is for all of us. But no one is loving this more than Biden.”
Robert Wolf, the major Democratic donor who served as the chairman and CEO of UBS Americas, added that Biden has earned this moment.
“It’s gonna be a bit of a food fight and he deserves to enjoy it, period,” Wolf said on Friday. “He’s got an extra hop in his step, and now he’s going to watch a Republican primary that’s going to be insane.”
The simmering battle between Trump and DeSantis spilled out into the open before Election Day, largely because of the former president.
Trump first swiped at the Florida governor during a rally last weekend in Pennsylvania, mocking him as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
While the attack fell flat with many conservatives, who viewed it as petty with DeSantis running for reelection in a contest days later, Trump has only upped the ante since DeSantis’s huge victory over Democratic former Gov. Charlie Crist.
Trump has suggested DeSantis was ungrateful for the former president’s support in 2018 and has indicated he might share unflattering information about the Florida governor if DeSantis tried to primary Trump.
DeSantis has not publicly responded to any of Trump’s musings, but discord among the potential 2024 GOP candidates is welcome news for Biden, who was already enjoying the fruits of a better-than-expected showing for Democrats in the midterm elections.
One Democratic strategist who worked on midterm races called the GOP infighting the “icing on the cake” after the midterms. The strategist also said it will take some of the pressure off Biden to immediately announce his own plans for 2024.
Susan Del Percio, the longtime Republican strategist who opposes Trump, said the Republican spat takes the spotlight off of Biden ahead of a lame-duck congressional session where Democrats could check a few boxes legislatively.
At the same time, she said, it’s a moment for Biden to have a quiet laugh.
“You guys have made me miserable. Hahaha. Now go have at it,” she said of what the president must be thinking.
Biden has spent much of the past couple of years using Trump as a foil. But more recently —particularly as he campaigned in Florida ahead of the midterms — he has increasingly thrown DeSantis into the mix.
The president and his team have sparred with DeSantis throughout the past year, trading barbs over the Florida governor outlawing mask mandates in the state, signing legislation barring talk of sexuality and gender identity in the classroom and putting migrants on flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
After it was reported DeSantis would send migrants to Biden’s home state of Delaware, the president quipped that DeSantis “should come visit.”
Anita Dunn, a top White House adviser, said at an event last week that DeSantis was a “divider” who sees the world differently from Biden.
But as Trump has emerged as the most outspoken critic of DeSantis, Republicans are sounding the alarm that any feud will only serve to benefit Democrats, especially as the party looks ahead to a Dec. 6 Senate runoff election in Georgia that could determine which party controls the chamber.
All week, Democrats were feeling increasingly energized by the brewing spat between Trump and DeSantis.
“Oh yes, Florida Man 1 and Florida Man 2 having foreplay — of course you’ll watch,” said Democratic consultant Tracy Sefl. “And you can fairly suspect this ends with them declaring their passionate love.”
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
Trump and DeSantis are on a 2024 collision course as the Florida governor’s national stock has risen.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media during an election night event at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump publicly attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, releasing a rambling statement Thursday blasting the governor he helped make but who is now his chief rival to lead the Republican Party.
Just days before he’ll likely announce he’s running for president, Trump took credit for DeSantis’ success after endorsing him in 2018, belittled him as “average” and accused “Ron DeSanctimonious” of playing games by not announcing his 2024 presidential ambitions.
“He says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Trump said in a statement and in a post on his social media platform Truth social.
Trump and DeSantis are on a 2024 collision course as the Florida governor’s national stock has risen, an ascent punctuated Tuesday night after DeSantis won reelection in Florida by nearly 20 points and Trump-backed candidates across the country largely underperformed.
DeSantis won Florida by historic margins in what was once the nation’s largest swing state. Conservative media institutions like Fox News have appeared to side with DeSantis, as has the New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid that ran a front page headline calling DeSantis “DeFuture” the day after the election.
“NewsCorp, which is Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and the no longer great New York Post, is all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious,” Trump said.
Trump also criticized DeSantis’ hands-off response to the pandemic, one of the governor’s top achievements among conservatives that boosted his national profile.
DeSantis is “an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn’t have to close up his state, but did, unlike other Republican Governors,” Trump wrote.
Trump has taken more subtle shots at DeSantis in recent weeks, including the new nickname. But Thursday night’s statement is a clear escalation of tension between Trump and a governor who increasingly poses a threat to the former president’s White House ambitions.
DeSantis, whose campaign did not return a request seeking comment, has so far not responded publicly to Trump’s chiding.
“I think that Ron is very clearly living rent free in the former president’s head,” said Stephen Lawson, a Georgia-based strategist who was communications director for DeSantis’ successful 2018 run for governor. “Ron has not said a single word and they think smartly that Tuesday’s huge win allows him to just keep talking about his record without having to acknowledge Trump.”
“It’s 1,000 percent the correct move,” Lawson said of DeSantis. “Trump just keeps throwing boomerangs.”
Trump’s most ardent supporters, however, are greeting the escalation with glee, saying that DeSantis deserves Trump’s ire because the governor hasn’t publicly announced his 2024 intentions.
“Sadly, everything President Trump says is true. Ron DeSantis owes his governorship to Donald Trump and challenging him in 2024 would be a treacherous act of disloyalty,” said Roger Stone, a long-time Trump adviser.
Trump’s endorsement played a huge role in DeSantis winning the 2018 GOP primary against former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who was an early favorite. In his statement, the ex-president said he backed DeSantis because he “didn’t know” Putnam. On Thursday night, former Putnam advisers were caught off guard by being roped into the statement, but one said “even at the worst point Adam was not happy, but he never once said a bad thing about Trump.”
There are mixed responses to Trump’s escalation, according to a dozen people in Trump and DeSantis’ orbit. But even those who support the former president say the public criticism of a popular governor coming off a historic win seemed misguided.
“Obviously he is escalating. It is total shots fired,” said a Trump adviser who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “It is not what I would have done if it were totally up to me, but you can’t argue with Donald Trump’s tactics. They work. He is savage but effective. He was never going to stay restrained for long.”
Trump’s broadside comes after a crop of his hand-picked candidates had disappointing midterm showings, possibly upending Republican hopes to retake the Senate and giving the GOP, if they win the House, a much smaller majority than many anticipated. A key race in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Herschel Walker is set to go to a runoff as Trump diverts attention with his feud with DeSantis.
Besides DeSantis’ overwhelming win, Florida Republicans won supermajorities in both the House and Senate, giving the governor nearly unchecked power to build and pass a policy platform that will further his national profile ahead of an anticipated 2024 announcement in late spring or summer of 2023.
For Republicans in Florida, Trump’s statement speaks to one thing: desperation.
“He is obviously threatened by a DeSantis presidential run,” said a longtime Florida Republican consultant given anonymity to openly discuss the former president and DeSantis. “And by doing this, I think he will lose a lot of his base support.”
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
Supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate for Florida Ron DeSantis cheer during an election night watch party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, on November 8, 2022.
Having predicted last week in this space a seismic shock in the American midterm elections, and no such shock having occurred, I owe an acknowledgment of my mistaken prediction and an updated assessment. Few people are more tiresome or more frequently encountered than those who are fiercely averse to admitting a mistake: I believe in the utility of confession. Though the Democratic Party, between the administration and its leadership of both houses of the Congress produced utterly incompetent government for nearly two years, its leaders have skillfully managed the escape of most of their congressional and gubernatorial candidates from the opprobrium that they have earned. The Republicans are likely to win the House of Representatives and still could either tie or narrowly win control of the Senate, but the Democrats have almost created the impression of a miraculous electoral Dunkirk evacuation from impending disaster. They have used Trump-hate and defamation as a substitute for government for two years, and it largely covered their escape from accountability on Tuesday.
The midterm elections were, unforeseen by me, as much a referendum on Donald Trump as upon President Joe Biden, and the question was particularly confused because of the internecine Republican struggle between Trump and his supporters, those who endorse Trump’s policies but not Trump, and those who still become wobbly at the knees with nostalgia for the Bush-Clinton days when the U.S. government was effectively a grand coalition between both parties with members of both those families alternating for over 30 years in the great offices of American government.
The heavy defeat of the one prominent overtly anti-Trump candidate for serious office on Tuesday, Joseph O’Dea, senatorial candidate in Colorado, illustrates again that Trump is first in the hearts of committed Republicans. But the inability of the Republicans to gain a substantial majority in either house of Congress confirms that his appeal does not go beyond his strenuous adherents, and he repels as many votes as he attracts. In these circumstances, the American system sensibly assured that the Democrats are deprived of their ability to continue to inflict their far left program on the country, and Biden will run out the clock for the next two years as a lame-duck president with the two parties in a state of relative equilibrium.
No one could claim that what occurred on Tuesday was any sort of a vote of confidence for the administration. The polls generally proved quite accurate in predicting election results and there is no reason to doubt that they were also accurate in indicating that three quarters of Americans are dissatisfied with the trajectory of the country and a substantial majority do not approve of the president or the Congress. As the polls also suggest, the majority does not think that Donald Trump is the answer either. The important unambiguously good news is that by far the largest midterm voting turnout in American history has gone off without any complaints or evidence of skulduggery. This, incidentally reduces to utter nonsense all the hysterical bunk about democracy being on the ballot. The so-called Jim Crow voting changes in Georgia have been a huge success.
As persevering readers of this column would know, I have steadily supported Donald Trump because of his policy positions, as well as for reasons of long-standing personal friendship. In policy terms, he was right to oppose illegal immigration, oil imports, and to effectively end unemployment-by incentivizing through the tax system job-creating investment in the low income areas of America, and moving millions of unemployed into the workforce.
He was both right and courageous in resisting the assault upon the oil and gas industries while steadily tightening anti-pollution standards, and he was right to strengthen national defence, toughen sanctions on Iran and North Korea, and make it clear that if necessary the United States would remove the nuclear military capabilities of those countries by conventional military force. He tackled the much-needed reform of the American criminal justice system by greater leniency on first time nonviolent offenders while assisting municipalities in strengthening law enforcement.
In all of the cacophonous debate about threats to democracy, the crowning infamy has been the widespread attempt, jubilantly supported by a distressing number of anti-Trump Republicans, to represent that on January 6, 2021 Trump premeditatedly incited an insurrection, when, in fact, he urged his followers to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump has many foibles as a public personality that are unseemly for the holder of a great office and jangling to the nerves of tasteful people, though his blunt acerbities and jocularities also entertainingly puncture the pomposity of many public officials. His enemies have less integrity, talent, and originality than he does, and many are afflicted by putrefied political ethics. His attempt to elect many proteges and strengthen his control of the Republicans was a bold stroke, but it didn’t succeed, and he was bypassed by his former protégé, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. It is accordingly with regret that I tentatively conclude that it would be better if he passed the baton of his policy innovations and his influence over his huge political following to DeSantis, a rival, who demonstrated on Tuesday by defeating a former governor of his state by 1.5 million votes (about 20 points), a reward for an outstanding term as governor, that he is a worthy continuator of the best aspects of the Trump legacy, but is almost invulnerable to the storm of obloquy that engulfs Trump. Trump was a very competent president and was driven from office unjustly, and the temptations to continue the titanic struggle to regain the presidency are obvious and legitimate. But the national interest as well as his own interest might now be better served by a dignified transition to a proven successor who has many of Trump’s strengths and few of his negative qualities. His enemies have lived on Trump-hate for too long; they should be deprived of this cover and made to pay for their failures. Even more than with most American presidents, history will be much kinder to Donald Trump than his contemporaries have been.
National Post
A Real American President: Ron DeSantis | Political Discussion ForumsShare
[/url]
[/url] 
