Category: GOP

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Donald Trump Elections GOP

Republican Donors Have A Favorite For 2024 – And It’s Not Trump

As a narcissist, Donald Trump thinks the world revolves around him, including the political world and any future election.

So it should come as no surprise that the failed, one-term former president believes he’s the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.

But based on what’s happening behind the scenes among the megadonors who will play a major role in helping decide the 2024 GOP nominee for the White House, Trump shouldn’t be expecting to have an easy ride three years from now.

According to Politico, major donors have their eye on Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida:

“As the Republican Party charts its path forward, national donor interest in DeSantis is skyrocketing. Major givers across the country are lining up to support the governor’s 2022 reelection effort, with some committing to hosting fundraising events and others plowing funds into his campaign bank account. In the past two-plus months alone, DeSantis has received six-figure contributions from Republican megadonors including Bernie Marcus, Paul Tudor Jones and Steven Witkoff, who in March held a high-dollar fundraiser at his lavish Miami Beach home.”

Despite the early enthusiasm for DeSantis, the Florida governor isn’t a guarantee to win reelection in the Sunshine State, where many voters say they believe he’s badly mishandled the coronavirus pandemic and may have sold vaccines to the highest bidder as they were rolled out across the nation by the Biden administration.

A recent poll taken in Florida shows that in a hypothetic matchup with the most likely 2022 Democratic nominee, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, DeSantis is running dead even. That’s not exactly a comfortable position for an incumbent in a state that’s becoming more diverse and trending blue in many of the largest cities.

The polls haven’t deterred those who are early boosters of the Florida governor, with Joanne Zervos, a New York City donor, remarking:

“[He’s] a nicer version of Trump.”

That’s another problem DeSantis will have to face: His close association with Trump, whom the governor has supported since his days in Congress. If he’s running against Trump, how will he distance himself from the former president? And, conversely, how will DeSantis sell himself to independent voters who see him as an eager lickspittle for the Donald?

It’s a long way to the next presidential election. And while Ron DeSantis may be garnering rave reviews among conservatives right now, a lot can change in the months ahead. He could wind up being nothing but the flavor of the month.

 

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Congress Elections GOP

GOP Congressman Says He’s Convinced Lauren Boebert Knew About The Jan. 6 Attack In Advance

A member of the House Republican caucus is speaking out and letting it be known that the GOP in its current form has utterly capitulated to the lies and lunacy of former President Donald Trump, and that he cannot sit still and watch as his party is destroyed without sounding an alarm.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) has long been a critic of Trump, but remarks he made to The New York Times Magazine are some of the harshest yet, with the Illinois congressman noting:

“I made the decision early in my career that I would be willing to take a potentially career-ending vote. But I thought that vote would be for something like a Social Security reform bill. I never thought it would be for defending democracy.”

The vote Kinzinger took to defend democracy was when he voted to authorize the creation of a bipartisan commission to examine what happened on January 6 and who is responsible for the Capitol insurrection which left five people dead.

Kinzinger was especially critical of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA):

“Kevin gave a great speech the week after that, and then he went to Mar-a-Lago and charged the paddles and brought Trump back to life. That’s the moment when I realized, Oh, man, this is a problem. You come to understand that when the party and party leaders talk about unity, and in the same breath, say that Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, what they’re talking about isn’t unity. They’re talking about capitulation. When under the guise of unity, you act like Jan. 6 was just whatever you want to make of it, that is capitulating to a false narrative and to a dangerous attack on democracy. I will certainly talk to Kevin if he wants to. But I don’t see how we’re ever going to come eye-to-eye on this until there is a recognition that we can’t be the party of insurrection.”

And yet the GOP has indeed become the party of insurrection, with almost no Republicans being willing to say what needs to be said: That what transpired on Jan. 6 was a direct attack on the United States and an abomination that must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

Of special concern to Kinzinger is the fact that he suspects there are current Republicans in Congress who knew what was going to take place on the fateful January day, yet didn’t say a word or warn their colleagues or the authorities:

“I will say, if you just looked at Twitter — the whole reason I brought my gun and kept my staff home and told my wife to stay in the apartment was looking at Twitter. I saw the threats. When Lauren Boebert — I will call her out by name — tweeted ‘Today is 1776,’ I don’t know what that meant other than this is the time for revolution. Maybe it was a dumb tweet that she didn’t mean. Fine. I’ll give her that credit for now. But if you have members of Congress who were involved in nurturing an insurrection, heck yeah, we need to know.”

Fortunately, a select committee is now investigating what happened on Jan. 6. And if it finds that some members of Congress did indeed have advance knowledge of the attack, they need to be booted from their seats and handed over to the Justice Department for prosecution.

 

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Coronavirus GOP WTF?!

Ron DeSantis Facing Big Legal Trouble After His Latest Deadly Scam Is Exposed

Sunday evening on “60 Minutes,” Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis was exposed as having potentially broken the law and violated the oath of office he took when he was elected three years ago.

Specifically, CBS News reported that DeSantis allowed wealthy individuals from around the country to jump to the front of the line for COVID-19 vaccines in exchange for money:

“Florida’s rollout started pretty typically. The first doses were given to healthcare workers and nursing home residents in early December. But then, a few weeks later, Gov. Ron DeSantis, breaking from C.D.C. guidelines, announced he would not vaccinate teachers and essential workers next, but instead put ‘seniors first,’ making anyone 65 or over eligible for the vaccine, the first in the country to do that. DeSantis said seniors were at highest risk.”

Sounds good, huh? DeSantis promised he was going to prioritize senior citizens, but then he changed his mind when big money was waved at him:

“The private jets started arriving. Hollywood moguls, New York socialites and tourists from overseas were getting vaccinated in Florida, posting on social media and sparking outrage. Early on, there were no residency requirements to get vaccinated in the state.”

 

Can you imagine what the Department of Justice can do to DeSantis if it’s proven that he sold vaccinations to the highest bidder while others caught coronavirus and died? Between that and the wrongful death civil actions that will be filed, DeSantis could well be looking at leaving the state of Florida flat broke and himself under criminal indictment.

DeSantis was once considered a leading contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. But he’ll be lucky to get elected dog catcher now that this latest scandal has exposed his reckless actions.

 

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Congress Crime Fox News GOP WTF?!

Matt Gaetz Went On Fox News And Accused Tucker Carlson Of Being A Sex Offender

On Tuesday evening, just hours after the New York Times reported that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is under federal investigation for sex trafficking for an alleged affair he had with a 17-year-old girl, Gaetz appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show and tried to suggest that he was the victim of a smear campaign to extort money from his father, a wealthy attorney.

In other words, Gaetz tried to cover up his own crime by lying and creating a bullshit conspiracy theory. That’s what Republicans do because that’s what Donald Trump is so fond of doing.

But as he spun his BS story, Gaetz mentioned that Carlson had also been charged as a sex offender, remarking:

“I‘m not the only person on screen right now that has been falsely accused of a terrible sex act.” 

The reference Gaetz made was to a sexual harassment filed against Fox News.

Carlson bristled at Gaetz’s comparison:

“You just referred to a mentally ill viewer who accused me of a sex crime 20 years ago and, of course, it was not true. I never met the person. But I do agree with you that being accused falsely that being accused falsely is one of the worst things that can happen and you do see it a lot. Let’s go back to the investigation you say it was or is underway. There was an investigation. What is the basis of that investigation? What is the allegation that really not very clear from these news stories.”

Clearly, what Gaetz was engaged in was classic deflection: Bring up an allegation to cover your own. The technique is popular with liars.

After the interview, Carlson made it clear to his viewers that he wasn’t sure what to make of what had just transpired:

“You just saw our Matt Gaetz interview. That was one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted. That story just appeared in the news a couple of hours ago, and on the certainty that there’s always more than you read in the newspaper, we immediately called Matt Gaetz and asked him to come on and tell us more. Which, as you saw, he did. I don’t think that clarified much, but it certainly showed this is a deeply interesting story and we’ll be following it.”

Oh, it was weird all right. It was a complete clusterfuck and the only purpose it served was to give Gaetz a platform for his lies.

Gaetz is innocent until proven guilty. But his wild tale certainly suggests he’s hiding something.

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Elections GOP Polls

Ron DeSantis’ Political Future Looks More Uncertain Than Ever

There was a time not so long ago when Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis was seen by many in the GOP as a rising star who might even have a chance at one day becoming president of the United States.

But those days are long gone. DeSantis has repeatedly mishandled the COVID pandemic in his state, causing his support among senior citizens (a key voting block in the Sunshine State) to wane right as he’s gearing up to seek a second term in office next year.

And now more bad news has arrived for DeSantis in the form of a poll from St. Pete Polls which shows him running dead even with the likely Democratic nominee, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

According to the poll — which was commissioned by Florida Politics — DeSantis looks vulnerable:

“The poll found the incumbent Republican Governor and the potential Democratic challenger both taking about 45% of the vote. A close look shows DeSantis winning 45.2% to Fried’s 44.6%, a difference far smaller than the survey’s 2.2% margin of error.

“The poll finds DeSantis holding 76% Republican support, while Fried has less than 72% among Democrats, showing the incumbent performing better with his own base. But 46% of independents favor Fried, compared to 42% who prefer DeSantis.”

In a closely divided state like Florida, independent voters are the key to winning, and they favor Fried, which is very bad news for DeSantis, who has also been an ardent and vocal supporter of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump. Trump is not seen positively in much of the country, especially among independent voters or the elderly. That raises a larger question: With Trump now calling Florida his home and holed up at Mar-a-Lago, could DeSantis’ connections to the former president be politically detrimental to him as he seeks reelection?

If Fried does indeed announce a run for governor and become the Democratic nominee, she would be a formidable opponent for DeSantis, whose popularity is falling.

Even though the 2022 election is still over a year and a half away, polls are clearly showing that DeSantis can be beaten. And given his own propensity for making the wrong decision no matter the issue, his popularity will likely continue to decrease.

Florida may be on the verge of turning blue. That’s very bad news for the entire Republican Party.