Free Republic

We’d like to have the DeSantis of yesteryear; the one fresh from his first Governor’s race who defied partisan worries by championing the environment and other bygone middle-of-the-road-type policymaking. But what it seems we’re getting is the vengeful, angry DeSantis who will be the public official equivalent of a drunk dad returning from a all-night bender itching to kick the family pooch. Sources have told me that DeSantis has implemented a new edict that departures from his administration are on hold until at least Summer, if not next year. Anyone who leaves would be blacklisted, according to sources. After DeSantis...

Straining to recover after a bruising defeat in Iowa, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and his allies moved on Wednesday to shake up his operation yet again, with his super PAC carrying out layoffs and the campaign signaling that it would largely bypass New Hampshire’s primary election next week in favor of competing in South Carolina. The change in strategy appeared to set up the one-on-one contest in New Hampshire that Nikki Haley has been hoping for against former President Donald J. Trump, who leads in polls but is more vulnerable in the moderate state than in socially conservative Iowa....

"I saw the video of that cop murdering George Floyd. I was just absolutely appalled by what I saw. But I immediately asked folks -- both FDLE and others -- how in the hell could you even get away with doing that tactic? And sure enough, state of Florida, you do not put knee on a neck like that." - Ron DeSantis

lol wtf pic.twitter.com/N5D5BojbyC— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) November 11, 2023

Ron DeSantis may have lost the White House by handing his social media operation over to clueless youngsters who offended both donors and voters, while being outwitted by Donald Trump. And analysts warned his faltering campaign may have been strangled at birth by inexperienced staffers given free rein to use Nazi imagery and faked photos of Trump kissing his chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci. Many were posted online by third-parties but they were made in the war room, according to two former aides as well as text messages reviewed by The New York Times. But the most notorious was a...

The G.O.P. contender’s campaign tried to take on Donald Trump’s online army. Now it just wants to end the meme wars. ---------------------------------- In early May, as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida prepared to run for president, about a dozen right-wing social media influencers gathered at his pollster’s home for cocktails and a poolside buffet. The guests all had large followings or successful podcasts and were already fans of the governor. But Mr. DeSantis’s team wanted to turn them into a battalion of on-message surrogates who could tangle with Donald J. Trump and his supporters online. For some, however, the gathering...