The bare-knuckle merciless Sharks vs. the Jets street gang battle between Trump surrogates and DeSantis surrogates on Twitter does not likely have an enormous impact on the real world and offline campaign. These are two campaigns – and plenty of volunteer surrogates – who are itching to fight, and eager to demonstrate how much they detest the opposition.
But with that said, every now and then I think some of those campaign staffers should be put into the concussion protocol, because they’re arguing as if they recently suffered a severe head injury.
Just to clarify, the Trump campaign is now attacking Ron DeSantis for issuing a statement in support of one of Trump’s own nominations. https://t.co/GFjSclqIjY
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) May 31, 2023
First, as many have noted, House members do not vote to confirm the FBI director.
Back in June 2017, then-congressman DeSantis issued a fairly generic statement supporting Trump’s selection of Christopher Wray to be the next FBI director. At the time, Wray was not seen as a controversial choice; he was confirmed, 92-5. All five senators who voted against Wray’s confirmation were Democrats. The Trump campaign is angry that DeSantis did not demonstrate a clairvoyance that also eluded every other Republican in Congress at the time.
Fast forward to 2023, when a lot of Republicans are at best disappointed with Wray and many are infuriated by him — with good reason! And now Trump’s campaign wants to demonize DeSantis for supporting the FBI director nominee… that Trump picked! Hey, if issuing a statement of support for Wray is somehow disqualifying… what should Republicans think of the guy who picked Wray in the first place?