This week, the media shamelessly sought to create a huge rift between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump supporters by claiming, falsely, that he had insulted them, calling them “listless vessels.”
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s oblique reference to Donald Trump supporters as ‘listless vessels’ has roiled the GOP primary, prompting demands for an apology,” claimed Vanity Fair.
“The Trump campaign and MAGA world on Saturday blasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for remarks appearing to label some of the former president’s supporters ‘listless vessels,’” reported Politico.
The Guardian ran the headline “Ron DeSantis calls Trump supporters ‘listless vessels’ in Republican broadside.”
The Trump campaign capitalized on the bogus narrative, comparing it to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” moment in the 2016 campaign, and demanded an apology.
CNN even aired a clip of DeSantis making the statement, cutting it in such a way to make it sound like DeSantis was attacking Trump supporters and calling them “listless vessels.” Here’s what DeSantis said in context, with the portions CNN aired in bold:
So there will be people who are huge Trump supporters, like in Congress, who have like incredibly liberal left-wing records that’s really just atrocious, and yet they’re viewed by some of these folks as like really, really good. Then you have other people, you know, like a Congressman Chip Roy, who’s endorsed me, Congressman Thomas Massie, these guys have records of principle, fighting the swamp, that are second to none, and yet they will be attacked by some of these people and called RINOs? So it’s just been totally detached from any type of substance. And ultimately, a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual. The movement has gotta be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people, and that’s gotta be based in principle. Because if you’re not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow, you know, whatever happens to come down the pike on TRUTH Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.
When CNN aired the altered clip, Ken Cuccinelli, the founder Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis Super PAC, pointed out what CNN had done and called them out on it.
“Everybody saw there, there was a cut. You cut from the beginning of that quote to the listless vessels. You just did what the problem is. So everybody who just watch that understand, go read the transcript,” Cuccinelli said.
“Ok, fine. You summarize for us, what was it that he was trying to say?” Hunt asked him.
“Well, first of all, his first point is an excellent point. This should be about America and not about individuals,” Cuccinelli explained.
“Fair, ok,” Hunt conceded. “How do we get there from listless vessels?”
“Well, the rest of an entire paragraph by the way. I mean there is a pretty big gap in your cut.”
Frankly, I think CNN and the rest of the liberal media know exactly what they are doing. Their goal is to get Trump supporters angry at DeSantis, and make him persona non grata to the GOP base. The only reason they’d want to do this is because they fear DeSantis, perhaps even more than Trump. As an added bonus, they get to stoke division in the Republican Party.
This is what the media does. They want the GOP to lose, and sadly, way too many Trump supporters fell for it.
