rolling backwards

Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis spins an awkward word salad when confronted about his “soft” criticism of Trump

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Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantis (Photo: Shutterstock)

Those vying for the Republican Presidential nomination are having to walk a tightrope over how they handle Donald Trump. The former President remains the favorite in polls by a large margin.

Both Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis want to highlight Trump’s shortcomings but not attack him so viciously as to alienate the MAGA wing of the GOP voters, who they’re also trying to court.

The issue came up for DeSantis this week. He was taken to task by a prospective voter on a campaign stop. Video of the incident, which took place yesterday in Waukee, Iowa, was posted to X.

The voter asked, “Why haven’t you gone directly after him [Trump]? Your polls are down. He’s up really–”

DeSantis, seemingly irritated, jumped in and said, “What do you mean by going directly after?”

The voter replied, “In my viewpoint, you’ve gone pretty soft on him.”

DeSantis shot back, “I articulate all the differences time and time again on the campaign trail …There’s just a narrative…I think the narrative is this — what the media wants is they want Republican candidates to just kind of smear him personally and kind of do that. That’s just not how I roll.”

Classless

The voter then said that Trump was fond of smearing his opponents. Trump once referred to Carly Fiorina as “horse face” and John McCain as a “nonhero”.

“The guy has no class in a lot of ways.”

DeSantis doesn’t respond to this accusation of Trump being classless. He does say he thinks Trump lost some support amongst veterans for his comments about McCain, but suggests veterans and military personnel are more upset with the “woke Democratic Party.”

He goes on to say he doesn’t think Trump can win the election.

Watch below.

Softly, softly

Online, many were critical of DeSantis’ “soft” approach.

DeSantis slips behind Haley in key poll for first time

There was bad news for the Ron DeSantis campaign this week. For the first time since he announced his bid for the GOP’s Presidential nominee, he slipped behind Nikki Haley in a well-respected national poll analysis. 

The polling average is carried out by analysis website 538. One of its senior analysts, Nathaniel Rakich, announced the DeSantis slip on X on Tuesday. 

“With all necessary caveats about confidence intervals and there being multiple ways to calculate an average: Nikki Haley has now pulled ahead of Ron DeSantis for 2nd place in 538’s national GOP primary polling average.”

DeSantis also slipped behind Haley in the The Hill/Decision Desk’s polling index. Yesterday, it had Haley at 11.3% and DeSantis at 11%, while Trump remains the frontrunner with 64.1%. 

It should be noted that as of yesterday, DeSantis reclaimed second place on the 538 polling average (12.1% to Haley’s 11.2%). However, the fact Haley overtook him for the first time demonstrates her rise in popularity since the Fall. 

The importance of Iowa

DeSantis has invested a huge amount of time and money into earning a respectable result in Iowa. As of December 21st, he’s toured all of Iowa’s 99 counties and done over 170 events in the state, according to CBS.  

On New Year’s Day, he was at it again. He and his wife Casey dropped in on a well-known sports bar to chat with patrons and watch the Tennessee Football Citrus Bowl Game. However, it seems some of the customers were more interested in watching the TV screens. 

The GOP’s Iowa Caucus takes place on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.

Related:

Casey DeSantis vs. Melania Trump: Who wore it #bebest?

It’s a (former) first lady fashion face-off!

Casey DeSantis just sunk her husband’s doomed campaign to an embarrassing new low

Casey implored non-Iowan residents to commit voter fraud.

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