As a 2024 candidate who used the first half of his second term as governor of Florida to pass far-right messaging bills that would ultimately boost his 2024 bid, Ron DeSantis likes the chaos he’s seeing in Congress right now. And he wants to hijack the far-right House Republicans’ hijacking for his own purposes.
A Freedom Caucus founding member, DeSantis reportedly spoke with three current members of the caucus who are threatening a government shutdown on Wednesday. The call lasted about 30 minutes and he told Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Bob Good (R-VA) by phone, “I got your back. Keep fighting,” Politico reported.
DeSantis reportedly sees a campaign trail advantage in aligning himself with the far-right House Republicans’ charade as they buck party leadership and risk a shutdown, betting that voters back home will be moved by their “anti-woke” headlines and “spending cuts!” sound bites at the polls in 2024. It’s a strategy not dissimilar to DeSantis’ own pre-presidential announcement strategy when he got his Republican-dominated state legislature to pass a bunch of dangerous anti-woke/anti-LGBTQ bills into law in hopes of appealing to the furthest-right members of Donald Trump’s base.
DeSantis has been building toward this kind of messaging shift for a bit. In recent weeks he’s railed against the “D.C. establishment” and criticized both Democrats and Republicans for overspending. The alignment with those making House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) life hell is just the latest move in the direction of austerity virtue-signaling.
The side-picking could also be rooted in a desire to counter Trump, a longtime ally of McCarthy’s. As Freedom Caucus members like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threaten to oust the speaker if he works with Democrats to avoid a financial crisis — again — Trump has mostly stayed out of the spending fight “my Kevin” is navigating. He’s far more fixated on the political points he may score from a President Biden impeachment.
The Best Of TPM Today
Here’s what you should read this evening:
Wisconsin Republicans Vote To Oust State’s Top Election Official Amid Authoritarian Tear
House Dems And McCarthy Agree On One Thing: The Speaker Doesn’t Know What His Caucus Wants
Supreme Court Grants Brief Administrative Stay In Biden Social Media Case
Wisconsin Voters Don’t Want Their Election Results Overturned
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
After Securing Impeachment From McCarthy, Freedom Caucus Pretends That Wasn’t Part Of Their Demands — Emine Yücel
What We Are Reading
Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player “Useless” — Futurism
“Where Is There to Go?” He Needs Gender-Affirming Surgery, but His State Is Fighting to Deny Coverage. — ProPublica
‘They did it to me’: Trump says Biden impeachment inquiry might be motivated by revenge — Politico
Wow, DeathSantis really is a turd. I don’t understand the point of a shutdown; they are barely passing any legislation now. And Mr. Potato Head has the Senate nomination process tied up in knots. I really hate Republicans.
It’s odd and scary in how the GQP politicians best campaign strategy is based on who can be the nastiest. And then of course turn it back towards the other candidates or media persons by saying, in the words of TFG, “You really are a nasty person. “
In my view, DeSantis is doing what losers, or at least those who are losing, do.
Noting that it would be terrible for GOP chances in 2024 at every level to actually shutdown the Government, the first question is, does DeSantis want to run our Government or shut it down? I mean it seems like running for president arguing the congress should shut the Government down is kind of self defeating.
But then as DeSantis has no power to influence anybody including House Republicans, it sort of frees him to pander to the crazies that are Trump’s base by saying he and not Trump is their real hero as he and not Trump wants to shut the Government down without worrying about the consequences of shutting the Government down.
So what DeSantis is really doing is using his lack of any power or influence to affect what House Republicans do as it matter not what DeSantis says, to just desperately pander for voters from Trump’s crazy base, arguing he is more crazy than Trump.
So this is anther desperate and I believe futile attempt by DeSantis at trying to win over Trump’s crazy base. It also shows how desperate and far behind Trump is DeSantis. That is Trump is less inclined to support a Government shutdown because he fears it will hurt him and Republicans in the general election whereas DeSantis is so desperate in regard to winning the nomination he cannot even see the general election.
It is also the case that “Establishment” Republicans have backed the MAGA’s into either accepting a deal with Democrats, passed mostly with Democratic votes, to keep the Government open or forego impeachment. That is regardless of any formal deal, there is no way that Republicans in the House can have both a raucous and fractious intra-party fight about ousting McCarthy while at the same time conduct an impeachment of Joe Biden. It is almost a certainty that while they will complain, MAGA will accept the impeachment of Biden and allow McCarthy to remain Speaker and keep the Government open because more than anything else that is what Trump wants. That is regardless of DeSantis and his desperate appeals to Trump’s crazy base including the MAGAs in the House Republican caucus, the House crazy caucus will go along with what Trump wants and ignore DeSantis.
But where there is life there is hope and DeSantis hope lies, opposing allowing a deal to keep the Government open, noting that shutting the Government down would be disastrous for the GOP going into the 2024 election cycle. DeSantis is taking advantage of his lack of any influence with House Republicans who will do what Trump wants which is impeachment over getting rid of McCarthy and shutting down the Government and tanking GOP chances in the general election. DeSantis desperate hope is that not shutting the Government down with Trump’s support will allow DeSantis to get to Trump’s MAGA/crazy voting base who do not understand politics or how terrible shutting down the Government would be for the GOP in the general election and also do not understand that the House cannot both impeach Biden and at the same time dump McCarthy.
But as I keep saying, I believe it is a desperate and hopeless strategy that in the end just serves to further divide the Republican Party.
Hi Ron - just a bit of free advice - stop taking smile lessons from that dynamic crowd pleaser, Mike Pence. You need to find your own look.
Sincerely,
All Women Everywhere
Poor Wrongway Ron. He sure can read a room, can’t he?
Why, America’s just pining for another Government Shutdown Fail (R) from Republicans!
(As if the Go Go Boots didn’t tip us off from the start, this guy has the charisma of an Ambien pill, the charm of cholera, and the political instincts of a gazelle at a velociraptor convention.)