republican nominee, joe biden the incumbent president. so to flip the question on its head, if you are ron desantis, do you want trump to skip the debate or do you hope he shows up? no. ron desantis doesn t want anyone to debate him, because as charlie showed in 2022, he s a horrific debater with a glass jaw. he doesn t take any type of criticism reliably. so he s in a bad situation. that s actually, alicia, why his campaign agreed to debate gavin newsom. he is looking for anything, any kind of a desperate lifeline, to restart his campaign. luckily, he doesn t have to worry about that until november, but for ron desantis, no. you don t want trump showing up at all, and again, this debate is simply a function of the fact that because he s been so weak in his launch, this presumed challenger to trump that was supposed to be leading trump at this point in the debate, the fact that the others are going to see that and smell blood in the water, it s desantis s blood in the water. i expe
yeah, 15 points, you re just happy it s not 20. it could go to 20, yeah > and it probably will do you have any doubt right no the governor desantis would no jump out to the race lowe lots, i ve always ha doubts, because he, of glass jaw, is not prepared for wha it will take to go up agains donald trump, when donald trum was indicted, he, and everybod else who was running for president came and found the bank of microphones an scrambled his defense. if that s your go to, you ar not ready for this fight and so, i will not be surprise if desantis doesn t get in go ahead. but on the republican side, you have to remember this, h wants to go up against donal trump, and just like, michae just said, that he stood wit donald trump you have to figure out if your rhonda santas how am i the alternative, the strong as
some shots at donald trump without alienating the base. this is the hardest thing in republican politics. how do you criticize donald trump without being exiled from maga? we are starting to see the initial pokes. it s interesting he chose he would give that interview to piers morgan who is not the toughest interviewer in the world. listening to what desantis is saying, he is prepared to double down on his snarky comments, implying i am not the sleaze in this race. moving to the right of donald trump on covid, saying he would have fired anthony fauci. what we don t know is whether ron desantis has a glass jaw. how will trump world and trump react to an opponent who might
swipe at donald trump, and you can say this was pent up anger over donald trump hitting him, that s fine. you could suggest it s the quick temper of ron desantis, you could suggest it s the glass jaw, but he took a swipe at the old man, and it did not play well. then he runs to piers morgan to try to clean it up. i would suggest that the difference between he and donald trump is not that ron desantis is no drama, it s that he s more successful at the cruelty, and ultimately we have seen that play out in the governor s mansion and that s what we would get in the white house from ron desantis. ashley, you write desantis s halting three step illustrates the struggle of how to effectively take on trump, presumptive front runner. frank luntz says the best message is thank you, mr. trump, thank you for your service. just go away. that message, harder to land it would seem, ashley? yeah, it is a tough message to land, and this is whatnot just these 2024 republican