{"id":586435,"date":"2023-08-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/desantis-confronts-moment-of-truth\/"},"modified":"2023-08-10T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T08:00:00","slug":"desantis-confronts-moment-of-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/desantis-confronts-moment-of-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"#DeSantis confronts moment of truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/08\/news-illustration_desantisron_080923mm-ap-see-credits_memo-desantis.png?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has arrived at an early moment of truth in his presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis replaced his campaign manager earlier this week, moving Generra Peck aside to be supplanted by his chief of staff in Florida, James Uthmeier.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>This is the latest moment of drama for a White House quest that has stumbled badly in its early stages.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis is further behind former President Trump than he was when his campaign began. With other rivals edging a little  closer to DeSantis\u2019s second place in opinion polling, and no shortage of people willing to condemn him for various missteps, the Florida governor needs to right the ship fast.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis\u2019s allies contend the predictions of doom are way overdone and that things will come right in the end. They argue that he remains the sole serious competitor to Trump, in part because he has significant organizational muscle. They note the campaign has a long way to run and claim to see evidence of on-the-ground enthusiasm for him in the early states.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis World contends that 10,000 Iowans have already committed to caucus for the Florida governor. Even if some of those people break their word or change their mind, it is a notable statistic if true. The last time there was a contested Iowa GOP caucus, in 2016, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) won with fewer than 52,000 votes.<\/p>\n<p>Trump aides and allies for their part evince bullish confidence. With the former president leading DeSantis by almost 40 points in national polling averages, Team Trump is eager to keep its collective boot on the Florida governor\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBless his heart, but Governor DeSantis doesn\u2019t have a campaign staff problem, he has a candidate problem,\u201d Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told this column. \u201cYou can\u2019t coach personality.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>DeSantis\u2019s campaign has been beset by missteps and a growing impression that the GOP electorate simply may not be interested in buying what he is selling \u2014 essentially, a Trump-like stance with less chaos.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has now been criminally indicted in three separate cases, and none of them have whittled away at his advantage over DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida governor has at times offered a measure of sympathy for Trump, echoing his complaints about the alleged \u201cweaponization\u201d of the justice system.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>However, in an NBC <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> interview broadcast Monday, DeSantis was firmer than usual in pushing back against Trump\u2019s fictitious claims of widespread election fraud in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course he lost,\u201d DeSantis told reporter Dasha Burns. \u201cJoe Biden\u2019s the president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those are the kind of assertions that Trump-skeptical Republicans believe DeSantis should have been making all along.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cInstead of attacking and bludgeoning Trump for the indictments, he has more or less defended him,\u201d said former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.). \u201cHe essentially empowered Trump and helped him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, DeSantis\u2019s allies contend that much of the chorus of dis<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roval is premature or wrongheaded. They cite how early polls have been misleading in previous nomination battles.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, debate season has not even started. The first clash is set for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Whether or not Trump participates, the debate at least gives DeSantis \u2014 and other Trump rivals \u2014 the chance to create a galvanizing moment.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Kristin Davison, the chief operating officer of Never Back Down, the main super-PAC supporting DeSantis, told this column in a phone interview that Trump\u2019s strength is being exaggerated in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> coverage and Beltway chatter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that this is a two-person race,\u201d Davison said, \u201cand 50 percent of Republicans want to vote for people not named Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davison further insisted that DeSantis had weathered an early barrage of Trump-affiliated attacks.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cHe was hit with about $22 million of negative advertising originally \u2014 that number is probably closer to $26 million right now \u2014 from the Trump campaign and the Trump super-PAC,\u201d Davison said. \u201cAny other candidate would not have survived that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the change in campaign leadership, DeSantis communications director Andrew Romeo said that the new head, Uthmeier, \u201chas been one of Governor DeSantis\u2019s top advisors for years and he is needed where it matters most: working hand in hand with Generra Peck and the rest of the team to put the governor in the best possible position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis supporters note there has been a shift toward more intimate events on the campaign trail in recent times, and that the governor has increased the cadence of his visits to the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in recent weeks. DeSantis has also become more accessible to the mainstream media, as evidenced by the NBC News interview among others.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>One more line pushed by people close to DeSantis is that he is not so heavily dependent upon the outcome in a single state as are other Trump rivals such as former Vice President Mike Pence in Iowa, or former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n<p>Still, DeSantis\u2019s failure to make progress so far is telling. It also raises the question of whether Trump is simply too popular with the GOP base for any other contender to emerge as a serious rival.<\/p>\n<p>Some people with completely disparate ideologies find common ground on this point.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville said that the problem for DeSantis could be as simple as him running against Trump in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Any Trump rival has, in the eyes of the MAGA battalions, committed \u201cunforgivable sins,\u201d Carville said. \u201cTheir guy [Trump] was at war and [DeSantis] was giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They will punish all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A GOP operative supporting Trump separately made a near-identical point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeSantis\u2019s popularity with the GOP base was always tied to the view that he was pro-Trump,\u201d the operative said. \u201cThe moment he started leaning into being anti-Trump, he began losing support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis, the pro-Trump operative claimed, has been trying to paint himself as a more hard-line conservative than the former president on hot-button social issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are going to say Donald Trump is too weak in the culture wars,\u201d the source said. \u201cBut for our voters, Donald Trump IS the culture wars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The next phase of the campaign will be make-or-break for DeSantis. Time is already beginning to run short.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Alex Gangitano contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/4146398-the-memo-desantis-confronts-moment-of-truth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has arrived at an early moment of truth in his presidential campaign. DeSantis replaced his campaign manager earlier this week, moving Generra Peck aside to be supplanted by his chief of staff in Florida, James Uthmeier.\u00a0 This is the latest moment of drama for a White House quest that has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":586436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/08\/news-illustration_desantisron_080923mm-ap-see-credits_memo-desantis.png?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134343,136903,73243,134353,86421,4941,134661,6642,141692,73014,78439,135581,991,28962,134351,115,29102,37699,42873],"class_list":["post-586435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-campaign","tag-charlie-dent","tag-chris-christie","tag-court-battles","tag-criminal-justice","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-environment","tag-florida","tag-gop-presidential-primary","tag-health-care","tag-james-carville","tag-jason-miller","tag-joe-biden","tag-mike-pence","tag-morning-report","tag-news","tag-ron-desantis","tag-ted-cruz","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}