I ran across a comment when reading about the way Mike Lindell has been persecuted for supporting Donald Trump:

quote:

Every time I read tweets/X’s from Biden AND now DeSantis supporters cheering about how people’s lives are being ruined all because they support Trump, it makes me sick.

Is that true? Are DeSantis supporters actually cheering on the people who are trying to crush those who support Donald Trump?

https://twitter.com/LindaTrait.../1731350845915075012

quote:

Are DeSantis supporters actually cheering on the people who are trying to crush those who support Donald Trump?

The 'Never Trumpers' are. But I think the nastier ones are more likely in the Chris Christie camp, but some are gravitating to Nikki Haley. Of course they aren't really Republicans, they are just power seekers and wish to use whatever banner they can to attain it. They are uni-party, which is shorthand for all that ails us: big centralized government, perpetual war mongering, anti- individual freedom and States rights.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
But I think the nastier ones are more likely in the Chris Christie camp

All 239 of them. The dude is so pathetic, he can't even get the required 2000 petition signatures to get on the Maine primary ballot .

^^^ Anxiously waiting for his drop out notice!

Well, they're a very stubborn people, but I fail to see what it has to do with Iowa. Seems kinda racist anyway.

"The Poles will not move!!"

https://twitter.com/joma_gc/st.../1731845962262348099

She has no idea what she's talking about:

quote:

Who can caucus in Iowa? You can caucus if you meet the following requirements:

You must be eligible to vote in the state of Iowa.

You will be 18 years old by Nov. 5, 2024. That means if you're 17 and turn 18 between the date of the caucuses and the general election, you can caucus.

You must be registered as a Democrat or Republican. If you're registered under a third party or no party, you won't be able to caucus.

The DeSantis campaign, through their PACs, tried to use Casey as a front spokesman earlier this year when it became apparent that Ron had no skillset or charisma in dealing with live audiences. Of course this strategy crumbled; having her speak on behalf of her husband projected weakness on his part, and her as a controlling shrew. It is amazing how phony and contrived the DeSantis camapaign has become, a mirror of the GOP that gave us McCain, Romney.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
She has no idea what she's talking about:

Re: Who can caucus in Iowa?

A caucus is a closed, controlled event. To enter and participate you have to qualify and be credentialed. Once it starts, there is a defined number of participants and the doors are closed. Anyone who arrives late cannot participate even if otherwise qualified.

RNC Never Sanctioned Iowa and New Hampshire Debates That CNN Announced – But It Gets Weirder

When CNN announced they were hosting two debates for the GOPe candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire, the supposition was that the RNC had given two debates to the network. The assumption was because the RNC, and the four remaining first-loser candidates, had previously held an agreement that only RNC sanctioned debates would be permitted, and the candidates would only attend RNC sanctioned debates.

However, it turns out that fake news CNN went rogue in organizing the unsanctioned debates.

There are multiple facets worth considering, and considerable ramifications within the entire construct.

First, the RNC didn’t even know about the plans of CNN. “The respective debates, set for Jan. 10 in Des Moines and Jan. 21 just outside Manchester, aren’t sanctioned by the RNC, which has organized the first four debates, including Wednesday night’s broadcast in Alabama,” according to Politico. Additionally, “campaigns have continuously complained about current RNC rules, which say a candidate who participates in an unsanctioned debate is barred from future RNC-approved gatherings. But the RNC’s debate committee is expected to meet Friday to discuss officially removing that rule, according to three people with knowledge of the group’s plans.”

Fake News CNN lived up to their nickname by not even informing the debate venues of their plan prior to yesterday’s announcement. It’s all very weird and curious:

(New York Times) – […] With great fanfare this week, CNN announced it would host the network’s first debate of the 2024 presidential campaign, gathering the Republican candidates for a marquee event on Jan. 21 at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

There was only one problem: Saint Anselm had no idea what CNN was talking about.

“We were surprised to be included on a press release by a network about a debate which we had not planned or booked,” Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm, said in a statement on Friday.

The chairman of New Hampshire’s Republican Party, Chris Ager, went a little further. “The CNN thing came out and everybody’s like, ‘What the heck?’” Mr. Ager said in an interview. “I’m still scratching my head. And I still haven’t been contacted by CNN at all.” (more)

By midday on Friday, CNN was being battered with questions from Republicans, candidates and other media outlets. It’s all just seemingly bizarre.

The RNC made an official statement today saying the RNC is no longer hosting debates for the 2024 GOP primary. This is a little funny considering that Donald Trump never participated, and the candidates who aligned with the RNC debates have lower support numbers now than before the debate series began.

WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee is pausing its participation in 2024 GOP primary debates, the organization decided Friday.

The RNC’s decision, made by a 16-member internal body, means that any forthcoming debates will be hosted by networks independently of the committee. Two outlets — ABC and CNN — have announced plans to host future debates in Iowa and New Hampshire ahead of early state voting. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis already said he will attend CNN’s planned Iowa debate before next month’s caucuses and ABC’s planned New Hampshire debate.

“We have held four successful debates across the country with the most conservative partners in the history of a Republican primary. We have no RNC debates scheduled in January and any debates currently scheduled are not affiliated with the RNC,” the RNC’s Committee on Presidential Debates said in a statement. “It is now time for Republican primary voters to decide who will be our next President and candidates are free to use any forum or format to communicate to voters as they see fit.” (more)

Essentially, it all boils down to this. The RNC initially thought they could stop Trump; however, the RNC debate series intended to generate that narrative has failed miserably. Donald Trump is supported more now than he was when the field of first-loser candidates assembled against him. Having failed, the RNC backs away slowly.

The CNN announcement, and the gleeful almost immediate acceptance by DeSantis et al, reflects a general desperation. The effort to stop Trump now falls on the leftist corporate media, who are aligned with the remaining four GOP candidates: DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy and Christie.

The agreement and alignment between the remaining candidates, and the corrupt media apparatus, only highlights the fraudulent reason those candidates were assembled in the first place. The ‘stop Trump’ effort was/is the purpose of their candidacy; actually, winning the GOP nomination was/is irrelevant. This non-pretending reality exposes the strings on the four remaining marionettes.

It is serendipitous the events rolled out the way they did. Fraudulent men had plans, but God has a sense of humor. The implosion of a heavily controlled GOP field is only spotlighted more by the few remaining candidates continuing to compete for first-loser status.

Why would any Republican agree to a CNN debate knowing the nature of the lies and fraud CNN has pushed for the past several years. Any normally minded Republican candidate would never agree or participate, and therein lies the point. These are not normally minded politicians; their agenda is something else entirely.

President Donald Trump is unlikely to participate in any debate. The premise of the debates themselves is silly, and the only reason the candidates are agreeing to more debates is that the corporate and billionaire donors to them are demanding every effort be exhausted. At this point it is pathetic.

https://twitter.com/IAPolls202...t-it-gets-weirder%2F



https://theconservativetreehou...weirder/#more-253613

Two candidates on the campaign trail today:

Trump-



DeSantis-

Jeff Roe Resigns from Ron DeSantis Super PAC After Staff Leaks Massive Turmoil Amid Campaign Collapse

Following a scathing insider report of the turmoil within the campaign and SuperPAC for presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, chief strategist Jeff Roe resigns.

It is stunning to contemplate the starting point of $269,000,000.00 [and more since] has essentially done nothing except destroy the public image and brand of Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis. No presidential campaign has ever amassed such a proactive funding war chest and blown it to smithereens before the first votes have even taken place.

Never Back Down Super PAC Chief Strategist, Jeff Roe, delivered the following statement via Twitter:



The Washington Post presented a scathing report [SEE HERE] outlining details provided by 22 people in the DeSantis campaign and Super PAC. Within hours of that report being posted, Jeff Roe quit.

WaPo – […] With just weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the experiment is now in tatters. The super PAC that funded almost all of the DeSantis advertising and field programs and much of the candidate’s travel and events has been sidelined by the people that created it.

[…] Five senior officials have left Never Back Down since late November. Three officials with Roe’s firm were fired, and the board chairman and the founding chief executive both resigned, amid internal concerns about legal compliance. A verbal conflict from inside the group’s Atlanta offices became public, as did DeSantis’s own misgivings about the outside group’s leadership. The governor and his campaign staff have been frustrated by reporting on the drama around Never Back Down and critical of the group’s ad strategy, with DeSantis’s second campaign manager, James Uthmeier, publicly instructing donors to give elsewhere for TV ads.

Rather than a new playbook for presidential campaigns, the broader DeSantis project has exposed the dangers of depending on emerging loopholes in campaign finance law that allow candidates to turn over traditional election efforts to groups that can take donations of any size from corporations or individuals.

“The super PAC model of winning a presidential primary, I think, is staggering, if not on the ropes,” said one DeSantis donor. “And if you’re going to have a successful presidential primary campaign you need to be able to raise hard dollars.”

[…] On Saturday, a top official at Never Back Down elaborated on the firings in a statement that for the first time publicly suggested their rationale. “Following mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, senior officials were terminated,” said Never Back Down chairman Scott Wagner. “We don’t have time to indulge false narratives from those with ulterior motives.”

The Post asked employees for a response. A lawyer for the employees then contacted Wagner claiming his assertions were categorically false and he revised his statement, replacing the first sentence with: “Following some opinions regarding mismanagement and conduct issues, including some who believed there appeared to be numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, NBD and some senior officials parted ways. ”

A representative for the three former employees declined to comment Saturday.

Three people familiar with the super PAC’s decision-making described reasons for suspecting the three fired officials of wrongdoing, but the organization did not provide clear evidence implicating them. Two other people familiar with the inner workings of the group said they are not aware of proof.

[…] Still, some in DeSantis’s orbit are holding out hope for a comeback. During his first campaign for governor, DeSantis won despite shaking up his team late in the race.

“Clearly, we are underperforming. Clearly we haven’t lived up to the billing. But I do think this adaptive behavior is going to produce better results in the end,” said Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor. “Clearly, Haley has some momentum nationally. Clearly, Trump is lapping the field. But I think he’s got an underdog’s chance at pulling off a humongous upset.” (read more)

The DeSantis loyalists promise to keep swinging for the fences. However, everything around their effort was/is built upon fraud, manipulation, deceit and astroturf. This outcome should not come as a surprise to those who have followed along.

Almost everyone in the operation and in the promotion thereof, are retreads from the failed Ted Cruz campaign of 2016. Someone in professional GOPe circles had the idea to enmesh the Never Trump group with the Bush team and try to build a brand image for Ron DeSantis that could co-opt the MAGA base.

It was a stupid strategy from the outset, made even worse by their tone-deaf missing of reality. Tens-of-millions of core base voters have their eyes wide open now. They are not going to destroy the movement, and the collapse of Ron DeSantis just shows how strategically smart the base voter has become.

At a certain point, the pretending hits the sunlight of reality.

https://theconservativetreehou...ollapse/#more-253866

quote:

It is stunning to contemplate the starting point of $269,000,000.00 [and more since] has essentially done nothing except destroy the public image and brand of Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis. No presidential campaign has ever amassed such a proactive funding war chest and blown it to smithereens before the first votes have even taken place.

One of Ronny's big mistakes- to rely so heavily on Super PAC money for his campaign. But he had little choice; to compete with Trump, he needed big dollars and could barely raise it through grassroots fundraising. A figure I read awhile back was that DeSantis' war chest was 85% Super PAC and 15% grassroots while Trump's was the opposite.

Yes, I'm sorry to say that DeSantis' presidential campaign has changed my view of the man completely. Before he began this campaign, I saw him as a strong governor who might ascend to the presidency, but everything he has done since- including his awkwardly-timed and awkwardly-executed campaign launch has served to make me doubt the man's judgement.

As far as I'm concerned, he's not presidential material. I am genuinely sorry to say this: I think DeSantis would be an embarrassment to conservatives as POTUS. I'm as surprised as anyone at how awkward he is, and how poor his judgement seems, and this is especially so in light of some of the strong decisions he has made as the governor of Florida.

It's just not meant to be and it would have better for all involved if he had sat this one out.

I think he thinks he has a chance if Trump gets thrown in prison, but I just don't see it happening. On top of that, if Trump is not the nominee- for any reason other than Trump himself withdrawing (and that's not going to happen)- the anger of the Trump followers will be such that if Donald Trump gets put aside by the RNC, no one the RNC puts forth as the candidate will stand a chance.

And I think it's lower than low for DeSantis to hang on, waiting for the vultures. It makes him little better than Christie, who is a truly vile man.

Tucker Carlson on the DeSantis' campaign

quote:

Speaking at the Turning Point USA event to Tim Pool {Direct Rumble Link}, Tucker Carlson gave his opinion on the Ron DeSantis online influence campaign; saying, “the people who represent him online are the nastiest, the stupidest, and the most zero-sum people I’ve ever seen in my life.”

https://theconservativetreehou...my-life/#more-253949

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
Tucker Carlson gave his opinion on the Ron DeSantis online influence campaign; saying, “the people who represent him online are the nastiest, the stupidest, and the most zero-sum people I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Wow

Ha haaa!

Oh, bruh man. How clueless you've proven to be. Listen, Ron- hear that sound? That's the door closing on you for good, baby.

https://twitter.com/bennyjohns.../1737599819588292621

Texas Congressman Chip Roy Defends Support for DeSantis, Calls Out Trump for Skipping Debates: “Trump Hangs Out in His Basement in Florida, Afraid to Actually Debate”

Dec. 20, 2023 10:00 pm

During an interview on CNN, Texas Congressman Chip Roy criticized former President Donald Trump for refusing to participate in GOP presidential primary debates and expressed his support for Governor Ron DeSantis.

Roy spoke with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, highlighting the contrasts in leadership between Trump and DeSantis, emphasizing the need to address key issues facing the nation.

On Monday, Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to encourage a Republican primary challenge against Texas Congressman Chip Roy.

Trump expressed his belief that the RINO congressman could be unseated by a “smart and energetic” Republican candidate, stating “For the right person, he is very beatable. If interested, let me know!!!”

Despite Trump’s call on Truth Social for a primary challenger to “RINO Congressman Chip Roy,” the congressman pointed out that the filing deadline in Texas had already passed and he has no primary opponents for the upcoming election.

“Well, somebody didn’t get the memo. The filing deadline was last week in Texas. And look, I’m privileged and blessed not to have a primary opponent this time. I did get three primary opponents in 2021 when I voted to certify the electors of something I thought was constitutionally appropriate. And I still won with more votes than any other member of Congress in Texas,” said Roy.

Roy highlighted his own conservative credentials and his past support for Trump’s policies when aligned with his beliefs. However, he emphasized his current endorsement of DeSantis, citing the latter’s achievements in Florida and potential for national leadership.

“I’m an unapologetic conservative, unapologetic defender of Donald Trump when he does things that I agree with. For example, right now, I’m critical of the opinion out of the Colorado Supreme Court. I don’t think that’s following the Constitution. I think that’s stretching the bounds of the 14th Amendment unconstitutionally.”

“But I’m proudly supporting Ron DeSantis. He’s a good man, a friend to someone I’ve known for a decade. And for some reason, that gets under President Trump’s skin. And this is exactly what the American people are tired of.

“They want us to focus on the job at hand. They want us to secure the border, stop spending money we don’t have, make sure we have a strong military, do the things that they want us to do to get their lives back on track so people can achieve the American dream. That’s Ron DeSantis. He’s been doing it in Florida. He’ll now do it for the country.”

Collins asked Roy about Trump branding him a “RINO” and his avoidance of the debates. Roy didn’t shy away from stating his opinion that Trump may be avoiding debates because he’s “afraid” to face scrutiny on his record.

“First of all, that’s not something that I’m going to spend a whole lot of time worrying about. I’m focused on the job at hand, being a member of Congress, doing the things I just told you. But the point kind of answers itself. Pretty much everybody in the conservative world who understands what we do in Washington knows that I’m a conservative with a strong record. I have voted against Biden more than virtually everybody member of Congress. I have a strong conservative 100% score from the Conservative Review, 98% from Heritage Action pro-life community.”

Roy questioned Trump’s reluctance to participate in debates, claiming that a direct comparison of records would reveal DeSantis’ superior governance.

“I was just at multiple events with Ron DeSantis where he’s shaking their hands and looking them in the eye while Donald Trump hangs out in his basement in Florida, afraid to actually debate. What’s he afraid of? Look, I’m happy to debate him if he wants to anywhere. I’m just a little old congressman. Why won’t he debate Ron DeSantis or any of the other candidates? I think he should.