Since the 2022 midterms, there have been some polls that put Ron DeSantis on a par with or ahead of Donald Trump in the contest for the GOP presidential nomination next year. But today there are a bunch of new polls that put Trump way out ahead of DeSantis.
Early commentary so far is saying that Trump’s campaign must be doing something better. I personally suspect that the real reason Trump is looking better than DeSantis to the GOP base is that over the past month or so people have gotten a closer look at DeSantis.
Right after the midterms Republicans were pissed at Trump for screwing up the “red wave.” After the midterms there was much speculation that DeSantis was the not-Trump conservative Republican who might beat Trump. Probably right-leaning independents and moderate Republicans who were done with Trump considered supporting DeSantis. But the steady drumbeat of stories about DeSantis banning books and now DeSantis assuming creative control of Disney World may have spooked all but the hard core Right. And the hard core Right ain’t quittin’ Trump. DeSantis may have peaked already.
Then yesterday some characters of the hard core Right showed up at a DeSantis book signing, apparently wearing pro-Trump T-shirts, and they were turned away. That’s not going to ingratiate DeSantis with the base, either.
In other news — if you need a good laugh, see ‘The maths are hard’: Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked for not understanding what ‘seized’ means at Alternet. Here is the statement that MTG made —
“I want you to know that in 2020 there were 4,800 pounds of fentanyl seized by CBP. But in 2021, fiscal year 2021, it increased to 11,200 pounds of fentanyl was seized by the CBP. That is a direct result of Biden administration failure policies,” said Greene. “Now here we are in – to date, to date, fiscal, fiscal year 2023 – they have already seized 12,500 pounds of fentanyl. The Biden administration is failing this country by not protecting our border and securing our border, and stopping Chinese fentanyl from being brought into our country illegally by the cartels, and people are dying every single day because of it.”
Yeah, how outrageous is it that the Biden Administration is seizing more drugs at the border than Trump did! Oh, wait …
Also, Matt Gaetz got called out for introducing Chinese propaganda into the congressional record. Watch it here.