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CNN’s DeSantis Town Hall Was a Viewership Flop
The National Pulse ^ | 12/15/2023 | WILLIAM UPTON

Posted on 12/16/2023 9:24:03 AM PST by SoConPubbie

This past Tuesday’s CNN Iowa town hall event with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did little to boost the corporate news networks ratings. According to newly released viewership numbers, DeSantis drew just 622,000 viewers in the 9:00pm time-slot. Fox News’s Sean Hannity, also airing in the 9:00pm slot drew 2.1 million viewers the same night. The entirety of the prime time line up for MSNBC and Fox News significantly outperformed the DeSantis town hall, with the Florida Governor drawing about half the viewers as the far-left conspiracy theorist Joy Reid.

The DeSantis campaign has been plagued by an inability to connect with voters, with polls showing the Florida Republican running far behind the 2024 Republican presidential nomination front-runner Donald Trump. An aversion to engagement with hostile media has only compounded DeSantis’s problems, costing the Governor valuable air-time early on in the Republican primary. Despite a course correction on the candidate’s media engagement, it appears to be too-little-too-late with voters tuning out as former President Donald Trump’s primary victory appears all-but-certain.

In an effort to astroturf the appearance of voter interest, the DeSantis campaign has attempted to use increasingly smaller venues to disguise crowd sizes – among other campaign tricks. The National Pulse previously reported the Florida Governor’s campaign used ‘canned’ crowd audio in a 30-second ad-spot featuring Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. The clips featuring Govs. DeSantis and Reynolds in the video were pulled from the Iowa endorsement event, which appears to only have attracted about 150 people. In the ad, however, the audio alludes to far larger and enthused crowd one might see at a full-scale campaign rally.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: desantis; desantistownhall; flop; iowa; lowenergy; ratings; teamdesantis; trump; whoops
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To: enumerated

you should have posted that to 9.


21 posted on 12/16/2023 10:42:35 AM PST by going hot (Happiness is a Momma Deuce)
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To: going hot

er, 12


22 posted on 12/16/2023 10:43:14 AM PST by going hot (Happiness is a Momma Deuce)
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To: BlueStateRightist
To be fair, a Republican trying to get attention on CNN is akin to the Yankees playing at Fenway Park.

I don't get your point. Don't the Yankees usually draw a large crowd to Fenway?
23 posted on 12/16/2023 10:46:31 AM PST by Colinsky
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To: bankwalker; All
No, the “future of our nation” is dependent on the amount of VOTER FRAUD.

Instead, The Stupid Party is focused on a crooked druggie named Hunter Biden.

24 posted on 12/16/2023 10:48:26 AM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn’t common anymore)
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To: Cobra64

well if he chooses haley as a running mate the south will turn blue ... even if there was zero fraud ...


25 posted on 12/16/2023 10:51:31 AM PST by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: SoConPubbie

No wonder he wants Trump to be at his next event.


26 posted on 12/16/2023 11:23:30 AM PST by mbrfl
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To: MinorityRepublican

>”VPs tend to be overrated.”

Normally, yes. But this time, it’s vital to get the right person for the job, if for no other reason than to serve as an insurance policy. Choosing someone who is as committed to draining the swamp as Trump is, is the best way to deter attempts to remove him either through continued lawfare or through physical harm. Picking an Establishment candidate in order to balance out the ticket, is not an option this time around. That’s why none of the current crop of contenders should be chosen.

A few possibilities that come to my mind are, Ken Paxton, Kash Patel, John Ratcliff. The focus should not be on rhetoric. Rousing speakers come and go. Many of them turn out to be nothing but talk. Just think back about ten years ago and how promising Trey Gowdy appeared to so many of us, based primarily on his ability to cross-examine. So, that type of thing can be deceiving. IMO, we need someone with a track record of doing the right thing. Finding someone who isn’t actively campaigning for the job, would be a good start.


27 posted on 12/16/2023 11:44:53 AM PST by mbrfl
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To: SoConPubbie

Strange isn’t it, how Trump and his uniparty running mate Niki Haley (because she suddenly has leftist cash that Trump desperately needs lol) are spending all of that money on attacking only Ron DeSantis, and certainly not Biden or the Dems, hmmm?

That is of course because Trump, his new Uniparty friends, and the leftist corporate media are all terrified of an actual conservative running an actual campaign with actual debates becoming a president who would turn the country bright red fast.

It is no wonder that the great Rush Limbaugh said that Ron DeSantis was the closest there was to being a graduate of the EIB Institute of Conservative Studies. Rush said that on one of his final broadcasts, and I wholeheartedly agree.


28 posted on 12/16/2023 11:53:48 AM PST by Garden Island
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To: backpacker_c

DeSantis will be the next president after the Rumpster goes to jail so he has to stay in the race and the MAGA people will come over to him once their savior is put away.


29 posted on 12/16/2023 12:23:56 PM PST by wild74
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To: SoConPubbie

Didn’t watch either fraud.


30 posted on 12/16/2023 12:33:12 PM PST by RedMonqey ("A republic, if you can keep it" Benjam Franklin.)
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To: SoConPubbie

“CNN’s DeSantis Town Hall Was a Viewership Flop”

It’s CNN. How can you tell? Everything over there is a ratings flop.


31 posted on 12/16/2023 1:04:36 PM PST by lowbridge ("Let’s check with Senator Schumer before we run it" - NY Times)
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To: SoConPubbie

Ratings were skewed by the popularity of The Golden Age of Professional Bowling: 1959 and The Secret Lives of Hedgehogs.

Looks like the lead in was Anderson Cooper who had a lower rating than DeSantis.


32 posted on 12/16/2023 1:08:17 PM PST by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.)
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To: bankwalker

Importance of VP.

Few remember that so many boring ticket balancing VPs became the president later, some by death and others by election. LBJ was the opposite of JFK and we were stuck with him and his handling of the Vietnam War.

8 VPs became President after the death of the President:
John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Gerald Ford did it through President Nixon’s resignation.

Four VPs have been elected president: John Adams in 1796, Thomas Jefferson in 1800, Martin Van Buren in 1836, and George H. W. Bush in 1988.
Two former VPs have won the presidency, Richard Nixon in 1968 and Joe Biden in 2020.


33 posted on 12/16/2023 1:14:22 PM PST by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.)
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To: going hot

“Yet if trump were to get interviewed on CNN, they would have the record breaking ratings. Go figure.”

that actually happened earlier this year, and as a result, the brand new head of CNN, who was hired to revitalize CNN, was fired because the Trump townhall got too good of ratings!


34 posted on 12/16/2023 1:52:38 PM PST by catnipman (A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil)
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To: MinorityRepublican
It will still be a challenge for him to win the general election. Even if he wins, he'll be a lame duck immediately for the entire term.

I don't understand this argument. I know it's a longstanding one, but it doesn't apply now if it ever really did. If JoJo the Pedo Clown gets back in there, he certainly isn't going to stop destroying the country because he's a lame duck. Why would Trump not immediately go about putting the country back together the way he did the first time around? Saying he would be a lame duck sounds like you expect him to instead throw his hands up after taking the oath on January 20, 2025 and say, "Sorry folks, I'm a lame duck. You wasted your votes and I busted my tuchus for nothing fighting the indictments and the election and the people who hate me. The only thing I can do is sit here for four years and wait to leave office. Anybody got a deck of cards so I can play solitaire?"

You know that quote from Pat Riley,

"If I had to choose a player to take a shot to save a game I'd choose Michael Jordan. If I had to choose a player to take a shot to save my life, I'd take Larry Bird."
Well, if I had to choose a President to be a lame duck or even to serve just a single day, I'd choose Donald J. Trump to make the most of whatever that time would be.
35 posted on 12/16/2023 2:35:59 PM PST by Dahoser (I finally figured out what to call him: Fakephonyfraudident Biden.)
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To: frank ballenger

did you read the 3rd line of my post?


36 posted on 12/16/2023 3:00:24 PM PST by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: bankwalker

Yes.


37 posted on 12/16/2023 3:07:44 PM PST by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.)
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To: SoConPubbie

I told you Meatball should be debating a 🌭 hot dog


38 posted on 12/16/2023 3:27:26 PM PST by NWFree (Sigma male 🤪)
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To: Dahoser
One million Democrats will march against Trump on January 20, 2025. The Deep State will work against him. And it's unlikely the Republicans will have control of Congress. Even if we do, we have Kevin McCarthys and Paul Ryans working against Trump.

Just saying.

39 posted on 12/16/2023 7:12:18 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

That’s not a lame duck. It is the Deep State against a President. But you are correct about what is going to happen. Donald Trump is the only one who can handle it.


40 posted on 12/16/2023 8:39:28 PM PST by Dahoser (I finally figured out what to call him: Fakephonyfraudident Biden.)
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