The old saying goes: I’d like to lock them in a room and throw away the key. The idea here is there are two or more people who you dislike so much, they should be subjected to each other as a punishment. The throw away the key part is an optimistic belief that you might never need to experience them ever again.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are two men that so many of us would love to lock in a room but sadly, we cannot. What we can do is watch them try and maybe run against each another for the Republican nomination in 2024. The sad news is that Donald Trump is mean to everybody. The good news is that Donald Trump is mean to everybody he believes is a threat to him. The bad news is that at some point, everybody seems like a threat to him. The good news is, that threat is now Ron DeSantis!
On Tuesday, just hours before President Joe Biden was set to give his State of the Union address, Donald Trump went on his failed Truth Social website and hit Ron DeSantis well below the belt.
RELATED STORY: DeSantis shamelessly tries to take credit for something Democrats built
Trump posted a photo that has circulated before, allegedly showing a post-college DeSantis with a bunch of teenage girls at party. DeSantis did teach high school history for a year in Georgia, after he graduated from college. When the report first came out in 2021, it didn’t get much traction, as the sourcing was limited and inflammatory. About a year later, The New York Times published an article detailing DeSantis’ time teaching at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, that had these two anecdotes related to the photo.
Several students recalled that Mr. DeSantis was a frequent presence at parties with the seniors who lived in town. Most spoke about socializing with him on the condition of anonymity because they feared backlash for speaking publicly about it.
“As an 18-year-old, I remember thinking, ‘What are you doing here, dude?’” one former student said.
[...]
Two former students, both women, remembered him attending at least two parties where alcohol was served, but they said that the parties took place after graduation and that they were not bothered by his presence at the time, although they question it now. “It was his first job out of Yale, he was cute. We didn’t really think too much about it,” one of the former students said.
There is no report or evidence that Ron DeSantis did anything untoward beyond being liked by some and not liked by others. However, that doesn’t matter to Donald Trump, who is so unabashedly narcissistic he is willing to fling all kinds of innuendo at DeSantis, while pretending he hasn’t faced dozens of allegations of sexual harassment toward young women.
The good news is Ron DeSantis is such a verifiably terrible bully of a person himself that you don’t need to worry about feeling sorry for him being bullied by the older, oranger bully Trump. So let’s enjoy some Florida Republican-on-Florida Republican fighting!
My first thought:
My second thought:
My third thought:
Let’s get comfortable!
Let’s go low!
Low.
A classic.
In lieu of using the standard Emperor from Return of the Jedi GIF, let’s go with this more pro-nature image.
Who says we can’t take the high art road? How about a little Goya, o-boy-a!
Republicans who want DeSantis to get rid of Trump are forgetting recent history.
There is an actual silvery lining in all of this—possibly.
It might also be because someone mentioned to him that he doesn’t need to keep winning Florida, and taking away women’s and children’s rights might not play as well nationally. Who is to know? In the end, if we have to deal with these two bozos in the public sphere for the immediate future, let’s at least enjoy this part of it.
Sign the petition: Denounce Gov. Ron DeSantis & Florida Republicans.
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Trump scolds evangelicals in a recent interview for abandoning him, promises to 'handle' DeSantis
Another DeSantis appointee resigns after a picture of his racist Halloween costume surfaces
We're chatting with one of our favorite fellow election analysts on this week's episode of The Downballot, Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball. Kyle helped call races last year for CBS and gives us a rare window inside a TV network's election night decision desk, which literally has a big button to call control of the House—that no one got to press. Kyle also dives into his new race ratings for the 2024 Senate map, including why he thinks Joe Manchin's unlikely tight-rope act might finally come to an end.
In their Weekly Hits, co-hosts David Nir and David Beard recap big developments in two Senate contests: Rep. Adam Schiff's entry into the race to succeed Dianne Feinstein, and the GOP's unexpected show of unity in the open-seat election in Indiana. They also dissect the first poll of this year's hotly contested race for governor in Kentucky and highlight another 2023 battle that shouldn't get overlooked: the race for a vacant seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.