Posted on 04/21/2023 8:37:33 AM PDT by conservative98
THINGS FALL APART — “Frustrated and tired: DeSantis’ demands wear out GOP Florida allies,” by Gary Fineout: “Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS’ iron-clad grip on the Republican-controlled Legislature may be slipping amid growing frustration among GOP legislators.
“Republican lawmakers are stalling a handful of his key remaining legislative priorities with just weeks left in the annual session. And what started out as whispers in private about unhappiness over the governor are starting to become louder …. DeSantis’ announcement this week that he wanted legislators to take aim again at Disney has irritated conservative Republicans loath to target private businesses. One GOP legislator privately said: ‘We’re not the party of cancel culture. We can’t keep doing this tit for tat.’”
Right on cue: Three more Florida Republican members of Congress (Reps. VERN BUCHANAN, GUS BILIRAKIS and CARLOS GIMENEZ) are gearing up to endorse DONALD TRUMP over their home state governor in the 2024 GOP primary.
THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: CHRIS CHRISTIE — For a while now, the conventional wisdom in Republican circles — even among high-profile Trump critics — has been that if you want to beat the former president, you have to market yourself as Trump without the drama — which means not criticizing him directly.
Enter CHRIS CHRISTIE, the two-time New Jersey governor who says that’s all bull, and is now considering taking the former president on himself.
This week, Rachael sat down with Christie to press him on how a Republican can beat Trump while going after a man many GOP voters idolize. The most striking part of the conversation centered on Christie’s own deliberations about whether to run.
The short of it is this: It appears that he’s absolutely itching to get into the race.
The one thing holding him back? Christie, who has never garnered more than low single digits in 2024 polls, is unsure if he can win — and says he will only run if he thinks he plausibly can.
Today, Christie is back in New Hampshire for a second town hall, testing the waters on whether GOP voters are interested in his brand of pugnacious authenticity. A few noteworthy nuggets from Rachael’s full story, which just posted:
THE CASE FOR RUNNING: Christie is exasperated by Trump’s top-tier challengers skirting direct confrontation with the former president, including their unwillingness to even name-check him.
Take DeSantis, who attempted a passive-aggressive jab at Trump over the allegations at the center of his recent indictment in New York. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star,” DeSantis said — then quickly reversed course amid blowback.
Christie said DeSantis’ gibe was “way too subtle.” “Oh, so that’s supposed to prove to me that you’re tough enough to take on Donald Trump?” Christie asked. “This is a guy who said TED CRUZ’s wife was ugly. Like, you think he cares that you made a little sideswipe at him?”
The former governor has no such trepidation about criticizing Trump directly.
“I don’t believe that Republican voters penalize people who criticize Trump,” he added. “If you think you’re a better person to be president than Donald Trump, then you better make that case.”
That brawler’s mentality is central to Christie’s appeal, and a key reason why some Republicans are looking to him to enter the race — including, Christie says, one unnamed former Republican presidential candidate, who recently urged him to run and take the fight to Trump, saying: “No one else has the balls to do it.”
There is NO OPENING that is WIDE enough for that FAT RINO SLOB!
i skimmed the politco article: “blah, blah, blah, trump, blah, blah, blah, trump, blah, blah blah ...”
Sadly, Nikki is BETTER than FATSO!
Ron did not falter. Trump did a few smart things, notably the visit to Ohio and the Tucker interview.
He sees an opening in the middle of a donut.
i skimmed the politco article: “blah, blah, blah, trump, blah, blah, blah, trump, blah, blah blah ...”
What morons! It took three of them to write this drivel.
Pollutico could save a ton of money by letting chatGPT write its editorials.
Great minds think alike. You beat me to the punch.
She’s better qualified than Christie or DeSantis.
If it makes people happy to think that DeSantis has faltered, fine, but I sure don’t see that. He’s biding his time, Trump’s got the spotlight at the moment, nothing else was possible after Bragg’s indictment. Maybe DeSantis will jump in, maybe he won’t. It is both a shame and telling that Trump and supportors see DeSantis as greatest threat when Trump should be focused on Biden and McConnell, and more pressing matters. Trashing DeSantis will hurt Trump in the long run and definitely doesn’t win him any new voters.
I think THAT remark may have just won for you the entire internet for 24 hours. 😝
“One GOP legislator privately said: ‘We’re not the party of cancel culture. We can’t keep doing this tit for tat.’”
Conservative Republicans better figure out real quick that they’re in a culture WAR and they’d better learn friend/enemy distinction.”
That’s the absolute truth. And, like Rush used to say, for many in the ‘Stupid Party’, “losin with honor is their highest aspiration”.
This “legislator” is the perfect example of that. I also wonder how much money he got from Disney.
Anyone “irritated” about taking aim at groomer organizations is not a true conservative at all.
There’s a journo-list type effort in the media right now to make it appear that DeSantis has no support
There’s a half dozen or more different news sites following the exact theme
Somebody is getting scared
The hug that killed any chance of being president
“Trashing DeSantis will hurt Trump in the long run and definitely doesn’t win him any new voters.”
Trump seems to have dropped his “Desanctimonius” name-calling. Talk about an epic fail from someone who’s been married 3 times...so far.
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