Let’s cover four things today:
1. The status of the nonexistent DeSantis ’24 campaign.
2. Donald Trump’s Saturday night Waco rally.
3. I will weigh in on some big stories I didn’t cover much or at all this week.
4. Essential reading/viewing.
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DESANTIS IN THE BARREL
I recently wrote about the curious and important fact that Ron DeSantis, throughout his two-year rocket ride to the upper echelons of the Republican Party, had never really had a stretch where he had to play defense, let alone face into the void of an existential moment.
Well, one own goal (on Ukraine) and a handful of interviews later, the Sunshine State topper is facing a narrative driven by his fallen poll standing vis-à-vis Donald Trump and…..an extraordinary NBC News story that all but declares Godzilla to have been killed, 50% at the hands of King Kong and 50% through seppuku.
Seriously, this is by far the most negative news story ever written about DeSantis’ prospects of besting Trump. I literally laughed out loud in disbelief as I read it. As you know, I have a lot of gold-plated sources who are DeSantis skeptics, but this piece goes beyond skepticism to some place very different.
Here’s just a taste of an article you must read every syllable of:
A number of the Florida governor’s donors and allies are worried his recent stumbles suggest he may not be ready for a brutal fight against Donald Trump. Some feel DeSantis needs to accelerate his timeline to run for the GOP presidential nomination and begin directly confronting Trump if he's to have any chance of thwarting the former president’s momentum. Others believe DeSantis should sidestep Trump altogether and wait until 2028 to run….
The fears of some of his own supporters, along with a growing sentiment among GOP operatives that Trump may be impossible to defeat — even with a possible indictment looming over him — present DeSantis with the conundrum of trying to demonstrate that he is a viable presidential candidate before he even launches his anticipated campaign.
NBC News spoke with more than 20 GOP strategists, politicians and donors about whether DeSantis can bounce back from adversity — some of it self-inflicted, some of it the result of constant pressure from Trump — or is destined to wilt under the white-hot lights of a campaign for the highest office in the land.
For a governor who prides himself on taking bold stands, and winning on the electoral battlefield, DeSantis has not yet shown the strength that gave some Republicans reason to believe he could compete with Trump.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not return a request for comment for this article.
The article toggles between suggesting DeSantis is too passive and too aggressive in dealing with Trump.
As long as DeSantis is neither an announced candidate nor surging ahead of Trump in the polls, he can likely expect this NBC story to crystalize into both conventional wisdom and self-fulfilling prophecy.
And that is before the inevitable occurs, which will involve an actual controversy from his past put forward and then placed into sharp, dangerous relief. I’m talking Gennifer-with-a-G or DUI-with-a-teenage-sister-in-the-car or a parade of accusatory Swift Boat veterans proclaiming they know the one and only truth.
Trump adviser Chris LaCivita, who I referenced in Friday’s edition, has had his career defined far too much by his role in helping take down John Kerry. LaCivita has accomplished far more than that, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook that particular achievement.
LaCivita pioneered using limited paid and alternative media to get a story in the Dominant Media bloodstream in a way that defined his opponent when he got the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to shape what the media said and the voters thought about John Kerry.
Although I don’t typically bet on politics, I would wager two goats and a badger that at some point a blast from DeSantis’ past is going to blast him hard in the face and gut, and the storyline will be helped along by the invisible hand of Team Trump (and by the very visible hand of a bunch of Truth Social posts by the man himself).
If Team DeSantis even knows about this NBC story, I’m sure they are sloughing it off as Beltway chatter.
The moral of the story: There might just be one thing worse than being in the barrel – being in the barrel and not even realizing it.
To be continued…..
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TRUMP DOES WACO
The Dominant Media will take care of the Branch Davidian dog whistles, so Donald Trump can focus on making his first 2023 rally one to remember. I’m eager to see which cable networks take the event live, what with there being no doubt that this is news.
Here’s how the Waco Tribune-Herald is teeing the hoedown up:
Making a list and checking it twice has been a shared task for locals responding on relatively short notice ahead of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rally Saturday at Waco Regional Airport. Trump’s campaign predicts 15,000 people will be on hand for the event.
Preparations for Parks and recreation director Jonathan Cook, for example, included a “stomp test” on acreage around the airport where attendees will park.
“It’s open land, well more than 100 acres,” Cook said. “We’ll have 12 lots there. We’ll fill them in order, filling one and moving to the next. You can’t just arrive and pick any parking lot. You will be sent to a particular one.”
The National Weather Service and Cook said attendees should have no nightmares about their parking spaces turning to mush.
“We had some rain this morning, but forecast-wise, we’re looking pretty good,” Cook said Friday. “It’s good soil with good drainage. We should be in good shape, with the warmer weather and the sun today giving us a good dry out. I even gave it the old stomp test. I went out there in my boots and stomped the ground. It’s an old event planner term.”
Meteorologist Sarah Barnes, with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth, applied science in predicting gorgeous weather for Saturday.
“It looks nice and sunny, wind out of the west 10 to 15 miles per hour. Temperatures will climb to 79 degrees probably by mid-afternoon,” Barnes said. “There is no rain in the forecast.”
Parking lots will open at 8 a.m., and gates will open at noon. Speakers not yet identified publicly will offer remarks beginning at 2 p.m. Trump is scheduled to begin his 90-minute talk at 5 p.m. [Central Time].
The staging area will occupy tarmac near Texas Aero, a fixed base operator at Waco Regional that sells fuel and services aircraft. Texas Aero Vice President Barry Johnson said he is teaming with local restaurateur Sammy Citrano to host a hospitality venue for “Trump’s team on the ground, the Secret Service, law enforcement and first responders.” Guests with the right credentials are welcome to come and go throughout the day, Johnson said.
“We opened this up to them,” Johnson said. “We saw the site venue and wanted to accommodate everyone as best we could. We want to make this a successful community event, a successful statewide and national event.”
Here’s what a Trump campaign official told the Wide World of News:
Saturday kicks off the first Trump campaign rally of the 2024 presidential race, reminding voters - and the media - that President Trump is the only candidate in history with the ability to generate such massive crowds. From this point on the small-ball political insider talk is meaningless - President Trump will be showcasing just how powerful the MAGA movement is.
If you have any Liz Cheney in you, you are troubled by Mr. Trump’s recent social media posts, irresponsible, provocative, race baiting. If you are at the rally in Waco, chances are you are still pissed at how the Dominant Media covered the violence associated with Black Lives Matter protests.
To be continued….
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RECENT NEWS
* Xi-Putin summit
HALPERIN SAYS: President Biden’s bravado and brio about the confab during his own meeting with the Canadian PM had it about right – worth watching for future developments but ho-hum.
* TikTok’s day on the Hill
HALPERIN SAYS: Fire the murder boarders who “prepped” CEO Chew, who was chewed up by a bipartisan group of lawmakers who were uncommonly genuinely outraged and well informed. But the lack of consensus about what to do is still a barrier to doing anything. Also, the Facebook lobbyists are lighting up big cigars, since Zuck is a lot of things but a commie isn’t one of them.
* House Republicans hold their off-sight
HALPERIN SAYS: Speaker McCarthy has fostered a lot of loyalty among his leadership team and throughout most of the conference, but that doesn’t make the math add up. In coming up with a unified plan to deal with the debt ceiling, the old rule applies: Nothing is decided until everything is decided. And, as of now, nothing is decided.
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ESSENTIAL READING/VEWING
2023 March Madness live streams, TV times, schedule (All times Eastern)
Friday, March 24 (Sweet 16)
Saturday, March 25 (Elite 8)
No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic | 6:09 p.m. | TBS
No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 4 UConn | 8:49 p.m. | TBS
Sunday, March 26 (Elite 8)
No. 5 San Diego State vs. No. 6 Creighton | 2:20 p.m. | CBS
No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Miami (Fla.) | 5:05 p.m. | CBS
