Speaker 1: On the Tuesday show, we talked about the undeniable reality that with the
start of Trump rallies this past weekend in support of twenty twenty two candidates,
the 2022 midterms have sort of officially they've unofficially officially begun. We are now. The
rallies are starting. It's all starting to happen. But there's another election that I normally would
not be talking about right now, but I don't think I have a choice because it's very clear has also
officially begun. The 2024 Republican primary has begun. How can you tell? You can tell because
Donald Trump and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who previously were buddies united
around COVID. And we're all for freedom, and Ron's doing a great job opening up for
WWE and UFC. When everything else is closed early in the pandemic, they're now attacking
each other and pretty brutally, and Trump has even started to send his cronies like Roger Stone
to attack Ron DeSantis. Why Ron DeSantis? Because Ron DeSantis is Donald Trump's primary challenger
right now based on polling for 2022. So let's go through this piece by piece. Axios has a report.
Trump dogs dole DeSantis ahead of potential 2024 matchup. This is from Jonathan Swan. Donald Trump
is trashing Ron DeSantis in private as an ingrate with a dull personality and no realistic chance
of beating him in a potential 2024 showdown, according to sources who have recently talked to
Trump about DeSantis. Why it matters The two are among the most popular Republicans in the country,
as the former president eyes a 2024 run. He is irked by DeSantis his popularity
and refusal to rule out running against Trump. DeSantis is a favorite of Republican voters
when pollsters remove Trump. The governor also hasn't been beyond tweaking his fellow Floridian.
DeSantis said on the ruthless podcast one of his biggest regrets was not speaking out much louder.
In March of 2020, when Trump advised the American public to stay home.
This is accurate in the set. What I mean is Trump correctly sees the Santas
as his biggest foe for 2024. As of right now, we had the CPAC straw poll over the summer.
Donald Trump topped everybody else with 70 percent, but in second place was the scientist
with 21 percent. That's an informal survey. When you look at the betting markets where people can
bet who will win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, right now,
37 cents of every dollar are being bet on Donald Trump. And 28 cents of every dollar are being
bet on Ron DeSantis, that's a smaller gap than the straw poll in July suggested. We also have
so-called real polling. There's a Harvard Caps Harris poll from two months ago
where Donald Trump was polling 47 percent among registered Republicans and independents
in the primary poll. And that was very far ahead of DeSantis, who was at 10 percent. But again,
everywhere you look. Ron DeSantis is running second. Sometimes it's a pretty distant second.
Sometimes it's a pretty strong second. So now Trump is starting the attacks, and so are
Trump's cronies. Remember this from last week? Here is Donald Trump in his interview with OANN
calling out Ron DeSantis. He doesn't say his name. He doesn't say his name.
But it's abundantly clear that he's talking about Ron DeSantis here as someone who has
gotten the booster and won't admit it. Speaker 2: It's something out there.
But after now, so many months of the vaccine being administered and these side effects
at Americans questions of it, do you reconsider your push for it or what's
your view now on the vaccine in general? Well, I've taken it.
I've had the booster, many politicians. I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed.
And one of the questions was, did you get the Speaker 1: booster now that he's talking about
DeSantis here? There's no question because they Speaker 2: had the vaccine and say, Oh,
they're answering it. Like, in other words, the answer is yes, but they don't want to say it
because they're gutless. Got to say it, whether you had it or not, say. But the fact
Speaker 1: so that is an indirect attack on Ron DeSantis and then also Roger Stone has been going
on going out there as Trump's kind of lapdog for lack of a better term. Roger Stone publishing to
I think this was on getter or rumble or I know who the hell knows. Roger Stone saying
Trump. Sometimes, sometimes President Donald Trump hits it right on the nose.
Ron DeSantis, Yale Harvard Fat Boy Can't get out of his own way. Not smart. Not honest
and not going to be president. An unknown congressman with a bad haircut and an ill fitting
suit until Donald Trump made him governor. I know where he was when he was missing. Ask Emerald
Robinson. That's a reference, of course, to when Ron DeSantis was M.I.A. For two weeks in the sort
of middle to end of December of last year, we covered that Ron DeSantis also being attacked by
Roger Stone in a new video that has been released. Speaker 2: My beef with Governor Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantis was an unknown congressman with a bad haircut, an ill fitting suit
and an undistinguished record in Congress until President Donald Trump's endorsement lifted him
to the Republican nomination for governor of Florida. And then, because Ron is such a boring
and piss poor candidate, President Donald Trump, with the able assistance of Siouxsie Wiles, had
to visit Florida twice to drag Ron over the finish line to become governor of Florida. Now, Governor
Ron DeSantis refuses to put his own presidential ambitions on hold until President Donald Trump
has to decide whether he wants to run again. Speaker 1: So that's interesting. It's what Roger
Stone is saying. Is that the correct thing to do? The respectful thing to do to show deference to
Trump would be for Ron DeSantis to say this is Donald Trump's nomination to turn down.
I'm not ruling anything out, but I would not run against him. That would be what Roger
Stone believes would be respectful. Speaker 2: I consider that to be
an incredible act of disloyalty and ingratitude. Governor DeSantis says that I'm a convicted
felon while actually I'm a former convicted felon, thanks to the pardon by Donald Trump.
But if Ron DeSantis isn't careful, he will soon be a former governor of Florida without the
active support of President Donald Trump. Speaker 1: So that's a reference to 2022,
because remember that one of the most interesting twenty twenty two gubernatorial races
is that of Ron DeSantis, right? And I want to make sure I'm not getting that right. Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantis 2022 campaign Yes. OK. Yes. Ron DeSantis is running. He's up for reelection
in just making sure I get that right. So why are they so aggressively going after DeSantis?
Because they see DeSantis as a threat. It's very clear that this is 2024 posturing. It is not. Only
the Trump side attacking DeSantis, as I told you before. Ron DeSantis saying he wishes that earlier
he would have pushed back against the things that Donald Trump was doing in saying early in
the pandemic. Mr DeSanto, New York Times reporting Mr DeSantis shot back Friday criticizing Trump's
early handling of the pandemic and saying he regretted not being more vocal in his complaints.
This is potentially a fascinating showdown in 2024, and my priority in it is not just
the kind of disaster porn of a really ugly Trump versus DeSantis primary.
I would love that from an entertainment perspective, but at the same time,
going from the entertainment side to the to the important practical matter. I think 2024 is going
to be really tough for Democrats if it's Trump versus Biden. I think Trump wins if it's Trump
versus Kamala Harris. I think Trump wins if it's DeSantis versus Biden. I feel less strongly, but
I still would lean towards the. I mean, I think there's a real uphill battle here. And of course,
there's a lot that needs to happen in the 2022 midterms, two more years of governing. And then
we will see. But I'm not feeling thrilled about any of this. So what I'm hoping for
is that a really ugly Republican primary damages whoever is the eventual nominee. We're getting
very, very far ahead of ourselves. But that's the thought process right now.