Trump always feuded with major American companies. But it was always just for show, a distraction. DeSantis thought he was copying Trump by feuding with Disney. What DeSantis didn't understand is that if you actually draw blood, a major corporation like Disney will bite back.
From day one DeSantis has been trying to copy the Trump playbook without understanding it. The Trump playbook is fairly useless to begin with, given that it led to Trump losing in 2020 by seven million votes. But DeSantis can't even replicate Trump's limited success with it.
It's not that difficult to understand why Trump used the strategies that he did, why those strategies worked to the extent that they did, and why they stopped working for Trump as time went on. But DeSantis doesn't appear to grasp any of that.
Ron DeSantis is a dummy with zero political savvy who can't even figure out how to copy the simplistic moves of his one-trick pony predecessor. This isn't something new; he's been this far over in his head from the start.
The astounding part continues to be that the entire mainstream media (on both sides) spent a couple years excitedly portraying DeSantis as if he were a smarter and more disciplined version of Trump. All you had to do was watch DeSantis to know all along that this was never true.
'No one is afraid of him': Opponents say DeSantis is not considered a serious challenger
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to formally launch his presidential campaign next week, has tried to cast the Republican primary race as a two-man contest between himself and former President Donald Trump — a sentiment backed by national polling that suggests DeSantis is an underdog but the only candidate with double digit numbers consistently against the former president.
But according to Rolling Stone, other Republican presidential hopefuls aren't interested in bowing out to let DeSantis face Trump alone.
"Just Thursday, [DeSantis] told donors ... that 'you have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,' meaning, 'Biden, Trump, and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president: Biden and me,'" wrote Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis. However, "According to seven GOP operatives and pollsters supporting 2024 contenders other than Trump or DeSantis, the other contenders — including declared and likely candidates such as Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, and Chris Christie — now believe DeSantis is, in their estimations, 'a paper tiger' whose less-than-stellar performance in his 'shadow campaign' has convinced them he can be torn down as the 'only' non-Trump alternative. And that belief, the operatives say, has only grown in recent weeks, as DeSantis’ poll numbers have wavered."
One GOP donor put his opinion on DeSantis bluntly in conversation with Rolling Stone: "No one is afraid of him."
"Despite Team DeSantis’ repeated vows that this is not 2016, it appears the other 2024 Republicans are banking on a primary melee that looks exactly like what the Florida governor wants to avoid," said the report. "'The spring and early summer after [DeSantis’ 2024] announcement will generate some positive headlines and calm down some donor nerves, but the candidate’s retail skills and relatability and organizational issues — which have all been raised to date — probably aren’t going to get fixed in that span,' says one operative linked to a Super PAC backing a different 2024 GOP contender. 'The best-funded, most competent political organization in the world can’t make up for the fundamental limitations of the candidate. That is why a lot of people in this business have been DeSantis skeptics for a long time.'"
This comes amid a number of controversies for DeSantis, including his enactment of an extreme abortion ban that goes further than restrictions that are already torturing women in his state, and a retaliatory war against Disney that has led to the state canceling thousands of jobs and $1 billion in investment.
Read More Here: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/ron-desantis-2024-presidential-campaign-donald-trump-mike-pence-unafraid-1234738569/Top Budget Democrat slams 'pro-default' House Freedom Caucus as GOP halts debt ceiling talks
Hours after the far-right House Freedom Caucus demanded that Speaker Kevin McCarthy call off debt ceiling talks with President Joe Biden, GOP negotiators did just that on Friday as the two sides remained at an impasse over federal spending—which Republicans want to slash deeply—and other issues.
"It's time to press pause because it's just not productive," Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), McCarthy's handpicked lead negotiator, told reporters Friday without saying when or whether talks would resume.
McCarthy (R-Calif.) echoed Graves, saying, "Yeah, we've got to pause."
An unnamed White House official told the Associated Press Friday that additional talks "will be difficult" given the two sides' "real differences."
The abrupt halt to negotiations, which had yet to yield much if any substantive progress, came at a pivotal moment, with the June 1 "X-date" less than two weeks away.
"The nation is days away from a disastrous default crisis and the extreme MAGA Majority is splintering into camps of the unreasonable and the absurd," said Liz Zelnick, director of economic security and corporate power at the progressive group Accountable US.
"Republicans have made it clear they will hold the world economy hostage unless President Biden gives in to their demands."
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a faction of dozens of Republicans that nearly denied McCarthy the speakership earlier this year, have signaled that they won't accept anything less than the extreme legislation the House GOP passed late last month.
If approved, that bill would impose devastating cuts to federal spending and kick millions of people off of federal nutrition assistance, Medicaid, rental assistance, and other programs while only raising the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion—or suspending it through March 2024.
"House Republicans did our job on debt ceiling," the Freedom Caucus tweeted Thursday. "It's time for President Biden and Senate Democrats to do theirs and pass the Limit, Save, Grow Act."
But the legislation in its current form has no chance of passing the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats. Progressives in the House and Senate have said they won't support any deal that includes the GOP's regressive spending caps or additional work requirements for federal aid programs.
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in response to the Freedom Caucus' statement that the far-right GOP faction is "pro-default," adding that "these MAGA extremists will not rest until they've either turned America into a deadbeat nation or imposed cruel cuts on American families."
"This is exactly why I filed a discharge petition to ensure we can avoid default, pay our bills, and save our economy," Boyle added.
But Boyle's discharge petition, which would force a House floor vote on legislation to raise the debt ceiling, is also a longshot solution to the Republican-induced crisis given that it needs at least five GOP votes.
"Let's be clear: this did not have to happen," Boyle said in a statement earlier this week. "By taking our economy hostage and refusing to address the debt ceiling, MAGA extremists have forced Congress to consider other pathways to meet our constitutional obligation—something Congress has done more than 100 times before on a bipartisan basis, including three times in the previous administration."
As an alternative to legislative action, nearly a dozen senators led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are imploring Biden to get ready to invoke the 14th Amendment to avert a debt default, warning that Republicans aren't negotiating in good faith and are willing to wreck the global economy in pursuit of punishing austerity.
Biden aides are reportedly concerned about the legal fight that would certainly ensue if the president attempted to use his executive authority to end the standoff.
But Sanders reiterated his 14th Amendment message on Friday, writing on Twitter that "Republicans have made it clear they will hold the world economy hostage unless President Biden gives in to their demands."
"Instead," Sanders added, "he should prepare to use the 14th Amendment to ensure we pay our debts and protect working families who are already struggling."
https://www.rawstory.com/top-budget-democrat-slams-pro-default-house-freedom-caucus-as-gop-halts-debt-ceiling-talks/
