Gov. Ron DeSantis apparently thinks he knows what his party’s primary voters want to hear. Recent polling suggests the Florida Republican’s assumptions might need some work, but as part of DeSantis’ recent swing through New Hampshire, the governor went to provocative lengths in the hopes of convincing GOP voters how tough he is.
The local NPR affiliate reported on the Floridian’s three-day swing through the Granite State.
Throughout his trip to New Hampshire, he appeared bent on demonstrating that no candidate talks tougher. He promised that, under his presidency, Mexican drug cartels would be “shot stone cold dead,” and vowed that when it comes to federal bureaucrats, “we are going to start slitting throats on Day One.”
How’s that reboot going?
As the NHPR report added, some of those in attendance at DeSantis’ event weren’t impressed with “the bit about slitting throats.”
One local Republican voter was quoted saying, “If I was in charge of his PR, I would have said, ‘Don’t use that terminology.’”
To be sure, no one has suggested that the Floridia governor, were he elected to national office, would literally “start slitting throats” on his first day in the White House. But I think his comments generated headlines for a couple of reasons.
First, the biggest problem with DeSantis’ campaign continues to be DeSantis. It seems as if it’s nearly every day when there’s new coverage of the Republican interacting with voters in a clumsy and uncomfortable way, and his throat-slitting comments add to an unfortunate larger list.
Second, perhaps the governor could explain at some point what’s so horrible about Americans who work for federal agencies. Exactly whose proverbial throats deserve to be slit? Meteorologists at the National Weather Service? Food-safety inspectors? Air-traffic controllers? Rangers at the national parks? The folks who make sure Social Security checks get out on time? I realize, of course, that DeSantis wasn’t threatening to commit literal acts of violence against these people, but even giving the governor the benefit of the doubt, what have these “bureaucrats” done to earn his contempt? How would the nation benefit if a hypothetical DeSantis administration were to force these public servants onto unemployment “on Day One”? He didn’t say. Evidently, voters were simply supposed to be impressed by the governor’s “toughness.” DeSantis is currently struggling in New Hampshire, which is home to his party’s first presidential primary. The specific date of the contest has not yet been set.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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