Steve Cortes is a DeSantis flack and spokesman for the GOP candidate’s Super PAC, Never Back Down. He boasts he is a straight shooter who tells it like it is. On Sunday night, Cortes took to Twitter Spaces to do just that. He offered his thoughts on the DeSantis campaign and rated Ron’s prospects of winning the Republican nomination. He was not optimistic.
“Right now in national polling, we are way behind, I’ll be the first to admit that. I believe in being blunt and honest. It’s an uphill battle but clearly Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner.”
Calling the DeSantis campaign the “clear underdog,” Cortes added:
“In the first four states which matter tremendously, polls are a lot tighter, we are still clearly down. We’re down double digits. We have work to do.”
Honesty is a rare quantity in politics. So when a candidate’s shill says the candidate is dead in the water, you have to wonder what his motivation is — even if you agree with what he is saying. You also have to question if DeSantis authorized this or if Cortes was winging it — perhaps under the influence of intoxicants.
Finally, the listener has to ask if the fact that Cortes spent the previous seven years working for Trump and his campaigns has anything to do with his Debbie Downer act. I do not know. And it is hard to say, as current Republican electioneering does not adhere to the traditional mores of political campaigning.
There is a place for a member of a lagging campaign to kick some ass for motivation. But in doing so, the ass-kicker does not usually extol the political virtues of his candidate’s opponent. Cortes ignored that orthodoxy. He wrote an encomium to the GOP leader — and saluted Trump as a “runaway frontrunner,” and “maestro” of the debate.
Even when Cortes tried to sound upbeat about DeSantis’s future, he still came across as a bobbysoxer in love with someone else.
“If we do not prevail — and I have every intent on winning, I didn’t sign up for this to come in second — but if we do not prevail I will tell you this, we will make President Trump better for having this kind of primary.”
Cortes gives bettors little reason to back his guy. And even less when he added more praise for Trump in an email to Politico
Trump “has debated through two successive presidential cycles, so, of course, he possesses a lot of experience in that arena.”
Trying to clean up the mess, DeSantis campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in a statement,
“Ron Desantis has been underestimated in every race he has won, and this time will be no different. Donald Trump has to explain to Republican voters why he didn’t do the things he is now promising in his first term as president. Governor Ron DeSantis over-delivered on his promises as governor and has the national vision we need to restore our country, clean out DC, and lead our Great American Comeback. This campaign is a marathon, not a sprint; we will be victorious.”
Does Griffin believe the MAGA base gives a damn about achievements? If he thinks they do, what must he make of Ron’s latest campaign ad — a policy-free homophobic screed that mentions nothing of DeSantis over-delivering on his promises? But instead rips Trump for being in bed with the LGBTQ community.
Cortes seems to have realized — or had someone realize for him — that his dis of DeSantis was not part of the script as he hedged on his enthusiasm for his ex. Although, his newly expressed optimism was, at best, measured.
“Taking on an incumbent or former president in the primary always represents a significant challenge. I gladly embraced that reality in joining the team. All of us on Team DeSantis remain convinced that the governor has a strong path to the nomination, and the best chance of any Republican to defeat Biden in the general election.“
“Having a strong path” lacks the chest-thumping exuberance of “will win.” It feels like Cortes said what he had been told to say while lacking conviction in what he was saying.
Cortes’s dearth of belief in Ron’s chances was further illuminated when he brought up the debates — and suggested that DeSantis would benefit if Trump honors his threat to ignore these contests. He admits that his guy is an also-ran
“Is Ron the debater that Trump is? No, no he isn’t.”
“Absolutely Donald Trump is the maestro of it right, no doubt about it, right? When he gets on the debate stage, you know, and on his feet, in front of a microphone, he debates like Jack Nicklaus played golf, there’s no doubt about it.”
Ron must feel like a husband whose wife keeps talking about how great her previous lover was.
Cortes also cannot completely cut the cord with his previous inamorato. He both celebrates and offers a cursory critique of the man.
“I was honored to work for [Trump].” But “I believe we can be reasonable about where he fell short and what the path is moving forward.”
Everything about DeSantis’s campaign is amateurish. It starts at the top. Ron sucks at retail politics. And he cannot even fake that he cares. He laughs like a donkey. His marketing people have produced advertising that is both over the top and beneath contempt. His wife reportedly has an iron grip on the reins but has shown no ability to run anything. And Ron cannot even keep his spokespeople on the same page.
To paraphrase the lyrics of a classic song, “Florida, if you can make it there, you still have no guarantee you can make it anywhere else.” This might explain why Florida has never produced a President or Vice-President.
If we’re lucky, Florida still won’t produce a President, thank you Pitt