DeSantis supporter predicts latest Trump indictment will cost Florida governor 2024 nomination
By Stephen M. Lepore for Dailymail.Com
Jun 10, 2023 1:35 am, updated Jun 10, 2023 1:54 am
- “I suspect that secures the nomination for him,” the DeSantis ally said
- A strategist supporting Vivek Ramaswamy also said the impeachment would help Trump
- One editorial argued that impeachment against Trump could be delayed well beyond the 2024 election
A Republican strategist and Ron DeSantis ally believes the impeachment of Donald Trump harms his candidate and will likely guarantee the 2024 nomination.
This follows the indictment against the former US President, which included a total of 37 charges against him for handling classified documents.
The strategist, who spoke anonymously to Politico, believes it’s “too early” to know for sure what the backlash will look like, but that it’s likely bad news for the Florida governor and good news for the ex- will be president.
“I suspect this will secure the nomination for him and at least keep his poll lead stable for the next month and slow DeSantis’ growth,” he said.
Another Republican strategist, this one an ally of rising candidate and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, agrees it will “damage everyone in the short term who isn’t named Trump,” but added a caveat.
“But at some point you have to believe Trump has to go down by 1,000 death cuts?” Will that open a door for an outsider?
A separate Politico comment may back up the claim that it helps Trump, saying Trump’s case is very unlikely to end before November 2024, leaving him active in the race.
“Each national security case presents additional obstacles that make it difficult to proceed expeditiously,” wrote Renato Mariotti.
“Trump’s attorneys must obtain authorization to review confidential material. A special order must be issued to ensure that the material is adequately protected. Also, there will likely be clashes over confidential material made available by the government.”
Mariotti adds that “the ball is in Trump’s hands” and he could basically delay the process for as long as he likes.
“The bottom line is that negotiations on this unprecedented case will hover in the electoral landscape throughout next year and potentially well into the next president’s term, whoever that may be.”
For DeSantis and his allies, his strategist’s prediction that the indictment will help Trump couldn’t come at a worse time.
Internal polls by DeSantis supporters show Florida’s governor gaining ground on Trump in the nation’s first primary state, Iowa.
According to a new Never Back Down PAC poll provided to Axios, DeSantis has narrowed the lead over leader Trump by 14 percent since his announcement as the presidential nominee.
In mid-May, before DeSantis officially announced his presidential candidacy in a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk, he was holding 24 percent in polls in Iowa compared to Trump’s 48 percent — a gap of 24 percent.
Just weeks later, after officially launching his campaign on May 24, the Florida governor reached 29 percent of Iowa’s likely caucus attendees, versus Trump’s 39 percent.
Now the governor sits in second place with just a 10 percent gap between him and the former president, while the rest of the field lags further behind the top two.
But when the other candidates were dropped from the equation and DeSantis and Trump got into a head-to-head duel, the pro-DeSantis PAC found that the two frontrunners in Iowa are virtually level — compared to the 14-point -Iowa governor’s backlog in mid-May.
Nationally, polls show that DeSantis is typically at least 20 points behind Trump, with the rest of the field failing to get into double digits.
A new CNN poll conducted on the day of DeSantis’ announcement found Trump was up 56 percent while DeSantis was up 26 percent.
The new Never Back Down poll comes as part of DeSantis’ first official campaign change in the early Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primary elections. Later in June he will travel on to Nevada.
Trump also traveled to Iowa last week, overlapping with the DeSantis move.
Despite the upbeat statement from the main PAC supporting DeSantis’ Republican primary bid, other polls show he didn’t get the boost he expected after the announcement.
A Morning Consult poll conducted after DeSantis launched shows his standing has risen just 1 percent — and is still 38 percent behind Trump.
DeSantis had an initial lead over Trump earlier in the year, but some pollsters claim he was reluctant to announce his candidacy and that having one foot in and one foot out hurt him with voters.
There are already 11 candidates in the GOP primary race. Those who did actually win some votes include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and current South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
Other long-term candidates in the running include biotech millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
Former Vice President Mike Pence filed the relevant paperwork to run for the White House on Monday – and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced on the same day that he would not be running in the race.
This week, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announced their own campaigns.
Trump adviser and former “bodyman” Walt Nauta was charged in the same classified documents investigation after Trump announced Thursday night he would be charged.
According to a report, the former president faces 100 years in prison if convicted on all seven counts of mishandling classified information.