Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is incapable of defeating former President Donald Trump because he has none of the personality that made Trump so successful, argued former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) on MSNBC Thursday evening.
This comes as DeSantis continues to suffer the fallout and anger, even from within his own party, from promoting a virulently homophobic anti-Trump attack ad released by his super PAC — which he has chosen to double down on.
"There's nobody I'd rather hear from in terms of assessing that ad that was shared by the DeSantis campaign," said anchor Alex Wagner. "What do you make of it? And what does it tell you about what the campaign thinks of Republican primary voters?"
"Well, the interesting thing here is, he has to have, and his team has to have, some theory by which he takes votes from Donald Trump," said McCaskill. "And he thinks the way to do that is to out-Trump Trump, go even further, spew more hate and bigoted language. And I've got to tell you, the biggest problem that DeSantis has is, in order to be a con man, you have to have showmanship. Now, we all know that Donald Trump is a con man. He is a huckster. He is somebody who thinks it's all about self-promotion and marketing, and nothing about substance or policy."
By contrast, McCaskill noted, "Ron DeSantis is no showman. He doesn't have the personality to be a showman. He is awkward. Frankly, he has the personality of kind of a dead frog. It is really not a guy that is going to light up a room or light up a hall or light up a rally with his showmanship. So how does he get those away from Trump? I've got news for him. He's not. The people that are with Trump now are not going anywhere. They are certainly not going to abandon him for somebody who is just a wannabe of Donald Trump."
Wagner concurred with McCaskill's assessment.
"First of all, apologies to dead frogs everywhere," she said. "And secondly, it seems like what DeSantis cannot accomplish in terms of charm or wit or comedy or anything approaching warmth, he tries to make with cruelty and meanness. It's like he's overcompensating for a lack of personality and personal skills by just trying to be the meanest, most aggressive, shirtless warrior out there ... to me that seems like a bizarre calculation, because it does miss something central to Trump, which is as abhorrent as a lot of Trump's policies maybe, and that he's a hustler, he's also a very talented and magnetic campaigner. But DeSantis seems to have shortchanged that part of the Trump strategy, which is letting Trump be Trump. Maybe repulsive to many people, but he also has a certain amount of basic magnetism for the people that love Donald Trump."
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Claire McCaskill says DeSantis has the "personality of a dead frog"www.youtube.com
