Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-GA) went into Wednesday night's GOP debate knowing he had to stop the bleeding from a rough few weeks on the campaign trail. The effort was not successful, according to some of the party's biggest donors.
Rolling Stone spoke to one wealthy supporter on Wednesday night who said of DeSantis: "He was there."
Another Republican donor who has donated to DeSantis as well as Trump in the past, said he's waiting to see if DeSantis can bring back supporters or if he "completely implodes in the primary," Rolling Stone characterized.
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DeSantis, the donor said, was “unimpressive but not a disaster.”
As Rolling Stone put it, DeSantis needed to reignite momentum and assert "himself as the alpha" of the field at the event.
"He wasn’t able to do that, or much of anything," said the report. "They say the opposite of love is not hate but indifference, and sadly for the Florida governor his performance in Milwaukee did not provoke disdain, but shrugs, among his already frustrated mega-donor base."
Critics online mocked the governor for his awkwardness, which continues to be an issue visible on the campaign trail. His "resting" smile led to ridicule.
"Seriously, why is DeSantis physically unable to smile like a real human?" a pro-Biden fundraiser posted on social media.
Self-described sci-fi nut Lisa posted a video of what she called Ron DeSantis' "emotion fail" and matched it to Star Trek aliens who were better at showing emotion.
Others criticized his politics, such as former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who said, "DeSantis had to first look around to see where everyone else was before he raised his hand on the Trump question. And then he refused to say whether Pence did the right thing or not on January 6th. He was afraid to answer. Pure lack of guts."
Former Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) similarly noted that DeSantis didn't use the word "woke" once during the debate.
"As I said months ago, woke is where Desantis’ campaign went to die. Then his cravenness on Ukraine did him in. Bye bye," she posted.
Media reporter for the Daily Beast, Justin Baragona, posted a direct quote from DeSantis that is being compared to a failed 2007 Miss Teen USA contestant when asked about Iraq.
"I would have support in China, uhh, to be able to, uhh, to be able to take China, umm, and be able to do what we need to do with China," DeSantis said.
Rolling Stone heard from one senior aide of another debate participant who said, "Their candidate in recent prep sessions saw little need to go after DeSantis hard." The aide's reason was, “He’s very close to becoming old news.”
"It isn’t hard to understand why some of the GOP’s top money men were lukewarm about DeSantis’ performance. He didn’t suffer any huge blows, but simply treading water isn’t going to cut it for a campaign that has been steadily sinking for months, and which is now in danger of dipping below that of Ramaswamy and potentially others," the report explained.
