Ron DeSantis is having trouble remembering how he'd like his name to be pronounced,
which is a good sign for someone who's running for
President of the United States.
So, the problem lies in whether DeSantis is pronounced Dee-Santis or Deh-Santis.
And according to reporting from Axios, in the early days of his campaign,
DeSantis and I'm sticking to it, has gone back and
forth between pronouncing his name Dee-Santis and Deh-Santis.
This during his first week as a candidate, he pronounced his name as Dee-Santis
in his campaign announcement video and again during a radio interview.
Let's watch.
>> I'm Ron DeSantis, and I'm running for
president to lead our great American comeback.
>> Where can people find you to donate, volunteer, find out more about you?
>> Go to rondesantis.com.
>> But then he goes on Fox News for an interview, and
all of a sudden he backpedals.
>> Anybody that's so
inclined to help us, I would love to have your support at Ron Desantis.com.
I'd love for all your folks out there, invest with us at Ron Desantis.com.
We'd love to have your support, if anyone wants to help out,
just go to Ron Desantis.com.
>> We wish you all the best.
>> Desantis.com, Mark.
>> So that was a compilation with Fox News and The Mark Levin Show as well.
Now, it seems to be more like the more popular pronunciation among the okay,
so his wife pronounces it a very specific way, okay?
And the independent super PAC that supports him tends to pronounce
it this way as well.
But the inconsistency has been going on for years apparently,
inconsistency is fine when people other than Ron DeSantis engage in it.
It's not fine when it's Ron DeSantis cuz it's his name, right?
So, during the 2018 race for Florida's governorship, Ron and
his wife pronounced his name differently in his television ad.
So, here's a little taste of that.
>> I'm Ron DeSantis from Dunedin to Tallahassee,
I'll always go to bat for Florida.
>> Everyone knows my husband, Ron DeSantis is endorsed by President Trump.
>> So, look, I don't really care.
But, it does show that Ron DeSantis seems to have some commitment issues, right?
Like, he doesn't pick a lane and stick to it, and he just goes back and
forth like he seems uncertain on a lot of things, even his own name.
And I don't think that's a good sign.
Or at least it doesn't look good, optically speaking.
>> Yeah.
So, look, guys, trouble with names is no big deal.
So, if anyone would know, it would be me.
So, my name is spelled C-E-N-K but it's pronounced Cenk, and
that's the original way you pronounce it in Turkish.
Should I have changed that?
Well, Gene Simmons from Kiss thinks so.
I once ran into him in a green groom.
>> Who cares what he thinks, he's a freak.
>> Okay, well, that's another good point.
I ran into him in a green room, and he asked me what my name was.
I told him, and he's like, kid, you're crazy.
You should have changed your name a long time ago.
Kiss apparently stands for keep it simple, stupid.
>> Well. >> And he changed his name, and
that happens oftentimes.
Like, in the old days in Hollywood, everybody would change their name, right?
So, Cenk with a C is brutal, but I didn't change it.
Uygur, is actually not Uygur, I say Ugar to make it easier.
It's Uygur.
But if you're an American trying to pronounce Uygur, we're gonna be here for
20 minutes, okay?
So, my point is, I'm not hating DeSantis for his ethnic name or
however he chooses to pronounce it, but
you can't flip up on how you pronounce your name when you're running for
president and you're in his, I think he's in his mid 40s.
>> He's 44.
>> Dude, you had to have made up your mind on this a long time ago, right?
And it seems like, it's because his wife doesn't want him to be Dee-Santis,
she wants him to be Deh-Santis.
>> Why does she want that?
>> Look, I don't think.
>> Dee-Santis sounds like D's nuts.
And so, like, I get it, right?
But I don't know if that's the reason why she's not into it.
Doesn't it sound like D's nuts?
>> Don't give Trump any idea.
Here comes Ronnie meatballs D's nuts.
[LAUGH].
Okay, so look, guys,
it's the indecisiveness that's interesting part of the story.
He's nervous, he can't even make up his mind about his own freaking name.
And, if you're wondering, why is he going back and forth at this moment?
Because Politico had an article where they explained that his wife is trying to get
him to change it, right, to Deh-Santis.
And so, now he's pushing back against that article.
Yeah, I know, I'm in charge, my wife's not in charge, it's D;s nuts, I mean, Santis.
>> I felt like that piece was a hit job on his wife, and I did not care for it.
I mean, I don't know this woman, I don't have any loyalties to this woman,
I know nothing about her, right?
But what I did not like,
what I do know is that Politico article was a hit job on his wife.
>> 100%, but it was mainly done by DeSantis's other aides and
his donors, like, hey, you better keep your wife out of this, okay?
>> It's disgusting.
>> The correct answer for DeSantis is to stand up for his wife and
to go in her direction.
>> 100%. >> Right?
But instead, he's now trying to prove to the donors and
the other Republicans like, yeah, I'm not gonna listen to my wife.
It's not really that convincing.
One, that doesn't show strength, it shows that you're bending to their will.
You used to bend to her will, if those stories are right,
now you bend to their will.
It gives me a sense that you're just a flip flopping, scammy politician,
which we already knew, but there's a good way of confirming.
>> I do wanna just get to two quick excerpts from that Politico piece written
by Michael Cruz.
So, he writes that in the DeSantis political project, she,
meaning his wife Casey, is unusually important and uncommonly involved.
How dare she.
According to hundreds of interviews over the last few years and
more than 60 more over the last few weeks, he also writes, or
he quotes a Republican lobbyist who says, she's the power behind the throne,
the tip of the spear, said a Republican consultant.
She is, they say, in the middle of good decisions of his, but bad ones, too.
Yeah, you're so
right about how this was a story that was fed to Politico by DeSantis aides.
But back to the actual name.
So, what is the correct pronunciation?
Axios went so far as to consult with a professor by the name of William Connell.
He's the chair of Italian Studies at Seton Hall University
who was actually shocked at the use of Dee-Santis.
Day-Sahn-tees would be proper Italian, and no one's gonna say that but.
>> Day-Sahn-tees.
Hello, I'm on Ron Day-Sahn-tees, I'm running for president.
>> [LAUGH].
>> No, you're not, kidding, you got Lausanne.
You got it, sorry.
I don't care what part of Italy you're from, okay?
That ain't gonna fly over here.
>> But he says that pronouncing it Dee-Santis is unusual because that
would be spelled Di Santis, right, in Italian, and it's not.
Asked the proper way to pronounce his name,
DeSantis's campaign didn't answer, and his super PAC declined to say.
>> No, I can't get past Day-Sahn-tees.
>> [LAUGH].
>> Maybe in a Democratic party, we don't have a problem.
All right, so, now we go to Trump, because, of course, Trump's got to weigh
in, and then, of course, he has to say something hilariously stupid.
So, he comes in, he goes, no, you made a big mistake.
Just like you don't change your name in the middle of an election.
He changed his name in the middle of the election.
Okay, all right, so far, fine.
>> Okay, we have a graphic.
Let's go to graphic seven.
>> Okay. >> You can read a Cenk.
>> Yeah, and
have you heard that Rob DeSanctimonious wants to change his name again?
He's demanding that people call him DeeeSantis rather than DaSantis.
Actually, I like Da better, nicer flow, so, I'm happy he's changing it.
He gets very upset when people, including reporters, don't pronounce it correctly.
Therefore, he shouldn't mind DeSanctimonious.
Okay, although he didn't say it that way, he said DeSanctimonious.
He doesn't know what sanctimonious means, anyway.
So, that was. >> But he's right.
>> He's right.
>> He's right. >> He's right about that.
>> Yeah. >> But he's gonna find a way to be wrong,
cuz there was a different quote now from earlier today.
He's at it again.
>> You should have stopped while you were ahead, Trump.
>> Yeah.
He says, first of all, he calls the other candidates stupid.
He says, they're not very, some are stupid,
I know, actually, some of them are pretty stupid, okay?
Now, back to DeSantis.
He says, about the name, I liked it before, I liked his name better before.
I don't like the name change.
Should we tell him that?
But most people don't know what I mean.
No, he's actually sorta changed the name.
It's Syllabolic they call it, he wants a Syllabolic name.
>> They call it,
the people are saying that he should go back to the Syllabolic name.
>> Okay, guys.
>> He's stupid, I know better.
I'm better at branding.
He should go back to the old way of saying his name, D's nuts.
>> Okay, guys, there's no word Syllabolic, it doesn't exist.
>> You know what, though?
It sounds fun.
>> He made it up. >> Maybe we should bring it in.
>> Okay. >> Maybe we should create it.
>> [LAUGH].
So, he's like, all these other candidates they're so stupid.
Whereas I know that the name should be Syllabolic.
From now on, if anyone is saying anything I disagree with,
I'll just call it Syllabolic.
>> There you go.
>> Instead of hyperbolic, it's syllabolic.
>> No, it's hyperbolic, but a little silly.
>> So, it's Syllabolic. >> Syllabolic.
It's exactly the kinda word we would make up on old school.
>> Yep, absolutely.
>> Okay.
[LAUGH]. But we would make it up while we were
calling other people stupid.
[LAUGH]