This is Ron DeSantis's launch week for the presidency, and
I'm not entirely sure what his strategy is over the last 48 hours.
He's come out with a few attacks against Donald Trump, but in some ways,
he seems to be continuing to try to appeal to not only Trump fans, but Trump himself.
Take a look at what he said he might do for Trump if he becomes president.
>> A big part of being president is pardon powers.
Do you think that January 6th defendants deserve to have their cases examined by
a Republican president?
And if Trump, let's say, gets charged with federal offenses and you
are the President of the United States, would you look at potentially pardoning
Trump himself based on the evidence that might emerge of those charges?
>> The DOJ and FBI have been weaponized, we see that.
We see it in a variety of contexts.
Some of what you mentioned,
some of it is the FBI going after parents going to school board meetings.
Some of it's how they treat a pro-life demonstrator,
how they don't go after people that are attacking pro-lifers.
And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do on day one, I will have folks that will
get together and look at all these cases, who people are victims of weaponization or
political targeting, and we will be aggressive at issuing pardon.
>> Okay, so that was a jumble of partisan nonsense.
It's not based on anything.
But it also didn't really respond to their question.
They were actually somewhat specific.
So let's see him clarify.
>> And I will do that at the front end.
A lot of people wait until the end of the administration to issue pardons.
We're gonna find examples where government's been weaponized against
disfavored groups, and we will apply relief as appropriate.
But it will be done on a case by case basis.
Because I think you got to make sure that, because there's a whole bunch of cases
that don't necessarily get headlines, but if people are being treated just because
they don't get on TV or something, they're being treated disfavorably.
They need to have a fair hearing as well.
>> And that could be from a grandma who got arrested and
prosecuted too much all the way up to potentially Trump himself.
Is that fair to say when you analyze what the charges
might have been brought on a federal level?
>> I would say any example of disfavored treatment based on politics or
weaponization would be included in that review.
>> Okay, so sort of closer to an actual answer, but
like, this guy just can't be direct.
So would he pardon?
He'd pardon, I guess, the January 6th people.
He kind of has to, I'm sure that they are in Texas.
He'd go around finding people who've killed protesters and
he'd pardon them too.
Would he pardon Trump?
It seems like maybe, but it's not entirely clear.
So I definitely wanna hear what you guys think about that.
I also want to hear what you think about him saying that what he's against is
the weaponization of government against disfavored groups.
Ron DeSantis hates when government attacks disfavored groups.
>> Yeah, hilarious.
All right, so number one, credit where credit is due, those were good questions.
That was on a conservative show.
I know which direction they're leaning, but I don't care about their opinion.
I'm glad someone asked Ron DeSantis about that.
So now we know he's very, very, very likely to pardon Donald Trump and
tons of the January 6th protesters.
I don't know that it's all of them, but obviously he's gonna pardon a lot of them.
So this whole idea that they are disfavored groups,
that the big leftist FBI and
leftist law enforcement is targeting conservatives, is full blown mental.
I'm not gonna debate it, it's totally counterfactual.
Yeah, I know, 40% of this country believes things that aren't remotely true,
not 1% true.
And so I can't dissuade them, I'm just gonna drop it.
For the rest of you guys,
no, law enforcement in this country has not been predominantly left wing.
They have almost never targeted conservatives.
In fact, conservative groups were oftentimes above the law, and
the fact that they are now also subject to the law sometimes is
exactly what triggers the victimhood of the right wing.
They think they're special victims now that they have to follow the laws.
They're like, does everybody have to follow the laws?
Yes, yes, everybody has to follow the laws.
Welcome to America.
It's nice to have you here.
I can't believe they're enforcing the laws now on right wingers,
we have been disfavored.
Get that, learn something.
Just read anything, anything at all.
Pick up any book, a pamphlet, anything, just start reading, okay?
And you'll eventually get to some facts, okay.
But now when you look at the political analysis here, again,
because we're the fairest show in America, it's a smart,
populist way to go on the Republican side.
So, everyone except Trump and DeSantis is running a super, and to be fair,
Chris Christie's kind of in his own category, right?
But all other candidates on the Republican side, Nicki Haley, Tim Scott, et cetera,
whoever the hell else is in, they're running a very standard
establishment candidacy, as if it's like the 1990s.
They're like, well, I'll tell you what the real problem is,
we've got to start more wars in the Middle East, okay?
War is the answer, that's why I'll tell you that right now.
They're not doing anything populist, and they're saying January 6 was,
a lot of them are saying January 6 was unacceptable.
Well, that's true, and I appreciate that they're in this reality based world,
but that is not gonna win in a Republican primary.
If you say January 6 is real in a Republican primary, why are you running?
There's no way Republican voters will agree with you.
Remember, 52% of Republican voters think Joe Biden did the riot against himself.
Not just that Trump didn't do it and that the Republicans are not accountable and
it's not their fault, it's that Biden did the riot against himself.
They genuinely believe, that's a majority of Republicans.
So, at least- >> But
those rioters should still be pardoned because they're conservatives.
>> Of course, and who- >> Biden did it for himself.
>> Even though Biden did it, they should have done it, and
they should be pardoned for doing it.
Okay, it doesn't matter because they're not in the fact based world.
But as a matter of political strategy, I think DeSantis is correct here.
I've got a doozy of an idea about pardons that I'm gonna share with you in a second.
But first, Farron.
>> Yeah, I do wanna point out something about what DeSantis
is saying with the pardons and the other Republican candidates.
If you go back and you look at a lot of the rulings that the judges issued in
a lot of these cases, the judges themselves said that the prosecutors
were going too light against these people.
They were cutting too many deals.
The judges themselves were unhappy that these people were basically getting off
scot free.
I mean, most of the cases we hear about now are the ones who actually get
sentenced to prison, but
that is a tiny sliver of the total number of people there.
You could have charged every single person with not just obstructing a congressional
proceeding, but literally their presence in the building was a criminal act.
And the judges got to the point where they were so mad about this, they started
putting those kinds of things in their rulings about how prosecutors were
letting too many of these people go with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
So that's point number one.
Point number two, obviously, is that we have a Republican Party.
DeSantis himself did it recently, telling us that the left is somehow soft on crime,
that we're, the liberals, the leftists, those George Soros funded prosecutors,
they're the ones who are not taking crime seriously in the country.
And then Republicans turn around and say, yeah, this guy murdered a bunch of people,
I'm gonna pardon him.
We're okay with murderers.
These people ransacked the Capitol, stole things, yeah,
we're totally cool with that.
So, the Democrats, if they were good at messaging and
they're not, I mean, historically bad at messaging,
how are they not able to capitalize on that stupidity?
I mean, that is what we're seeing right now.
It's not just hypocrisy, this is full blown stupidity.
And the Democrats are just sitting there like, well,
I guess we think it's gonna be okay.
Let's just watch them attack each other and we don't have to play ball.
No, get out there and start putting this crap in ads today instead of waiting for
them to just tear each other apart on the right.
That's what the Democrats should be doing because all of this is messaging that
would resonate with the average moderate, independent voter out there, and
it's not getting out there.
Instead, we're getting the things that DeSantis is out there saying.
>> Yeah, and it definitely seems like they're primed to hear that message.
I mean, we saw how much they rejected a lot of these extreme candidates
back during the midterms.
If it's clear how crazy these people are, people do reject them, but it's on
the Democrats outside of the context of an election to make sure that people know.
So I certainly agree with you.
>> Here's a fun little thought.
I think Francesca Fiorentini said it in our production meeting this morning, but
[LAUGH] in case you don't like it, I don't wanna give her the discredit,
only the credit if you like it.
Are you sure that Joe Biden won't pardon Donald Trump?
We're worried about, Ron DeSantis might pardon Trump.
If Joe Biden wins a second term and Donald Trump is convicted of something and
he's about to go to prison, I'd make a bet right now that Joe Biden would pardon him.
And if you think there's no chance he would,
then you don't know Joe Biden at all.
>> What kind of bet?
>> Okay, and you'd have to give me odds,
because that would be the dumbest political move in American history.
>> I'm not saying there's no chance he does it, but
I don't know that the chances are even 50 50.
>> Yeah. >> We'll talk.
>> Okay.
>> We'll talk. >> Make the bet right now,
loser has to subscribe to Twitter blue.
>> No.
>> [LAUGH] >> $10,000, please, not the Twitter blue.