Ron DeSantis has until recently remained silent as Donald Trump has been flailing away at him, but it appears that his studied silence is over. First there was the sidelong crack in his remarks about Alvin Bragg’s looming banana-republic indictment of Trump: “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just can’t speak to that.” And now Piers Morgan has asked him in an interview what the difference was between himself and Trump. DeSantis’ answer hit Trump at his most vulnerable points.
The Daily Wire reported Tuesday that DeSantis “made the remarks in an interview with Piers Morgan on Fox Nation’s ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ that is set to air later this week.” When Morgan asked him to explain the differences between himself and Trump, DeSantis replied: “The approach to COVID was different. I would have fired somebody like Fauci. I think he got way too big for his britches, and I think he did a lot of damage.”
Hindsight is 20/20. There is no way to know whether or not DeSantis really would have fired Fauci. There is no doubt, however, that COVID-19 destroyed Trump’s presidency and ruined his chances for what looked at the end of 2019 to be certain reelection. Trump had initially dismissed the seriousness of COVID but backed down after a media firestorm and appeared to be trying to disarm his critics by aggressively pushing Fauci’s COVID agenda, including lockdowns and vaccines.
Even now, Trump has exasperated some of his supporters by refusing to acknowledge that the whole thing was a disaster: the lockdowns were ineffective and the vaccines something even worse than that. But Trump seems constitutionally incapable of admitting a mistake or even of acknowledging that he did what appeared to be the right thing at the time but that in the light of new developments, it doesn’t seem to have been the best decision after all. DeSantis is jabbing at Trump’s weakest point here, as the 2024 Republican front-runner’s primary constituency consists of people who were always skeptical about the vaccines or have come to regret their support for them, while Trump himself has remained steadfast in insisting that these ineffective and dangerous jabs were a tremendous boon.
DeSantis wasn’t finished, either. He proceeded to take aim at Trump’s other chief vulnerability, his apparent inability to hire people who will carry out his agenda, and his recurring tendency to support those who clearly oppose it. His recent support for Ronna Romney McDaniel’s reelection as chair of the Republican National Committee was a case in point, and then there is the long line of former Trump administration officials whom Trump himself has derided as stupid, venal, self-serving, and so on. All this leads inevitably to the question: Then why did you hire them?
DeSantis accordingly stated: “I also think just in terms of my approach to leadership, I get personnel in the government who have the agenda of the people and share our agenda. You bring your own agenda in or you’re gone. We’re just not gonna have that. So, the way we run the government, I think, is no daily drama, focus on the big picture, and put points on the board, and I think that’s something that’s very important.”
Related: Are You Ready for the Trump vs. DeSantis Showdown?
As for the daily drama of Trump’s relentless criticism — “Ron DeSanctimonious” and the like — DeSantis said: “I don’t know how to spell the sanctimonious one. I don’t really know what it means, but I kinda like it, it’s long, it’s got a lot of vowels. We’ll go with that, that’s fine. I mean you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner because that’s what we’ve been able to do in Florida, is put a lot of points on the board and really take this state to the next level.”
He added: “To me, it’s just background noise. It’s not important for me to be fighting with people on social media. It’s not accomplishing anything for the people I represent. So, we really just focus on knocking out victories, day after day, and if I got involved in all the undertow, I would not be able to be an effective governor. So I don’t think it’s something that makes sense for me.” Makes sense.
DeSantis also emphasized that if he runs in 2024, he’ll be running not against Trump, but against Old Joe and his henchmen: “If I were to run, I’m running against Biden, Like we [he and Trump] are competing for the Republican [nomination], potentially, I get that, but ultimately, you know, the guy I’m gonna focus on is Biden because I think he’s failed the country.” There is no doubt whatsoever about that, and we don’t need hindsight to see it. The devastation increases with every passing day.
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