I can understand certain conservatives reflexive suspicion of anything reported in the New York Times. But we can know for certain that someone within the orbit of Ron DeSantis genuinely thinks that the best way for DeSantis to run for president is to, in part, “defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack.”
This strategy was articulated in memos posted this week on the website of Axiom Strategies, the company owned by Jeff Roe, the chief strategist of DeSantis’s super PAC, Never Back Down. Now, we don’t know if DeSantis will follow this advice; we don’t even know how extensively any advisor has made this recommendation to DeSantis.
But, elaborating on what Noah Rothman laid out below, this approach does sound… dumb. There is no way that DeSantis can articulate a defense of Donald Trump that will be so stirring, so eloquent, so persuasive, and so compelling that it makes current supporters of Trump to change their mind and say, “gee, that DeSantis fellow defends Trump so well, I think I’ll vote for him instead of Trump.” The more time that DeSantis spends singing the praises of Trump, the more Republican voters will conclude that even Trump’s biggest rival thinks he’s terrific, and is probably the best choice for the 2024 GOP nominee.
No, DeSantis has to make the best case he can as to why he is the best choice to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee — and that will inherently require articulating why he’s a better choice that Donald Trump.
The memo does recommend a not-so-subtle shot at Trump in the process of defending him:
“Trump isn’t here, so let’s just leave him alone. He’s too weak to defend himself here. We’re all running against him. I don’t think we want to join forces with someone on this stage who’s auditioning for a show on MSNBC.”
But this attack-while-defending approach seems contradictory and muddled. If Trump is too weak to defend himself on a debate stage, why shouldn’t he be criticized? Why does it fall to DeSantis to pick up the shield and defend Trump? And does anyone think Christie is attacking Trump because he wants a show on MSNBC? Christie already had a lucrative gig with ABC News.
Why should the guy in second place spend any effort or limited debate time defending the guy who’s in first place, who couldn’t even bother to show up?