Jay Weber Show transcript 6-2-23 7:05am
Well, if you expected to see Ron DeSantis continuing to ‘talk in code’ or not criticize Donald Trump directly...You’re in for a surprise.
The governor kicked off his first tour of Iowa yesterday- with several barn-burner speeches in which he provided a strong contrast between his disciplined conservatism and his list of conservative winning....As he painted trump as a waffler who is now changing positions on all sorts of things- attacking the very people he hired and appointed-and attacking anything ‘conservative’.
These speeches were quite an indictment of ‘this new version’ of Donald Trump that we have been seeing, which i have been saying for months, is irksome to me, as well.
For some reason, Donald Trump has decided to abandon virtually everything he ran on and stood for in 2016...
Hell, he’s even abandoned and started downplaying his own accomplishments, in a ridiculous attempt to make Governor DeSantis look bad.
And as if to punctuate that fact yesterday, president trump even turned on his very popular and well-liked press secretary- Kayleigh McInerny, who’s only ever been loyal to trump-
And that set off a right-wing firestorm-
And by midday yesterday- he had also turned on his own FBI appointee, Christopher Wray. Who-was-a terrible pick that Donald Trump has never been fully held accountable for.
But let's start with the DeSantis cuts...In which reporters pushed him on whether he’s going to start responding to more of Trump’s attacks.
Desantis didn’t hold back, and finally went into some detail on why trump’s smear job against him has hit a new level of ‘ridiculous’-
Because- not only is none of it true-but in virtually every instance- trump is betraying his own past positions- or his own record:
Yes, the praise for Cuomo on covid is especially ridiculous, given that Cuomo was putting covid patients in nursing homes- alongside the elderly and immune compromised-which led to a huge, unnecessary death toll.
In addition-New York's lockdown rules were draconian and extreme-and lasted longer than virtually any other state or city-
And so- to have Trump say ‘New York did covid better’ is so asinine that only the most mindless of trump supporters would believe that.
It makes Trump look ridiculous.
I’ve been talking about this sort of thing being a mistake for months...And yet...Trump is only ‘escalating’...And saying one thing that’s dumber than the next.
I just don’t get it. Only the diehard cultists, at this point, can be ‘appreciating’ trump’s takes on things, currently.
DeSantis also-correctly- hit trump on being critical of his policies in Florida, but not being willing to tell voters where he clearly stands on those same things: like a six-week abortion ban. Like, The debt ceiling deal.
But if trump does so-he could find himself in another trap- because as kevin mccarthy said yesterday- President Trump didn’t call for debt limits and responsible spending cuts when he and republicans had full control of the congress during trump’s first two years- instead-trump and the GOP spent more.
It’s another reason that Donald Trump can’t talk about this new debt ceiling deal with any credibility: any criticism out of trump over how this is a terrible deal- only highlights the fact that when he had a chance- trump did nothing-about the debt or entitlement reform or excessive spending when he was in office.
I know this segment is infuriating to trump supporters-but unlike trump’s recent run- everything that DeSantis said yesterday is accurate and defensible.
And that’s what is going to make it so powerful as he campaigns in these early states: his criticisms of Trump ring true-and mostly-he’s just reacting to ludicrous criticisms that Trump has leveled against him- that most voters know are ludicrous.
There used to be power in ‘truth’. Let's hope there still is, and that voters won’t reward trump for this insane level of duplicity and rewriting of history that he’s on.
I’ll say it again: Donald Trump was second only to Reagan in terms of ‘best president of my lifetime’. I appreciated his tenacity, his plate-spinning, and his winning. I overlooked things like ignoring the debt, ignoring entitlement reform, etc.-because no president is perfect, and he was taking on so many other important challenges- like border control and deregulation.
He also handled covid about as well as anyone could have- given that we were dealing with so many unknowns. Economic and medical unknowns.
I won’t fault him for much, when it comes to his covid response.
But he did stick with Dr. Fauci way too long, and collectively, that did cause the admin to put out a lot of bad information and intentional misinformation.
That’s an apt criticism.
But Donald Trump was a very good president. So why is he rejecting some of his own wins- in order to pretend that they aren’t DeSantis wins, too?
It’s remarkable: some of the stuff coming out of Trump’s mouth and truth social feed-these days.
And as for burning every bridge and trashing every past appointee and white house employee of his-
I -really-don’t get that. We voters were in the trenches with these people-as they endured the slings and arrows right along with Trump-
As they were lumped in with the rest of us ‘deplorables’ and targeted by the left- to have their lives and reputations ruined- simply for being associated with Trump. Working with him on behalf of the country. Agreeing to take an important appointment because their president had called them to service.
To see trump turning on them-and over time-trashing what seems to be every one of them- is impossible to explain.
I get that he didn’t like Mike Pence defending the constitution against his last-minute scheming to stay in office.
I get that he didn’t like Bill Barr telling him ‘No’ either. On the election challenges and a few other things.
Those two men are admirable men whose reputations trump has now ruined in conservative circles.
But-over two years later- now trashing and flaming long-time defenders and supporters and driving them away, too. I just don’t get it.
It’s almost like Donald Trump-wants to lose-in 2024-and take the party down with him.
story credit: RealPolitics.com
photo credit: Getty Images