Tangle - Ron DeSantis drops out.

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Ron DeSantis. On Sunday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, just two days before the New Hampshire primary. In his announcement, DeSantis endorsed former President Donald Trump as the 2024 nominee.You can read today's podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story here, and today’s “Have a nice day” story here.You can also check out our latest YouTube video about misinformation and fake news that has spread like wildfire in the three months since Hamas’s attack on Israel and the subsequent fighting in Gaza here.Today’s clickables: Correction (1:00), Quick hits (2:03), Today’s story (4:23), Left’s take (7:52), Right’s take (11:37), Isaac’s take (15:44), Listener question (19:43), Under the Radar (20:10), Numbers (21:00), Have a nice day (22:06)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Take the poll. What do you think of Ron DeSantis’s decision to drop out? Let us know!Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

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Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. CBC News. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to

your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangled Podcast. I'm your host, Isaac Stahl, back in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after my little adventure out to Bolivia. I want to give a big thank you to all of our readers and listeners who sent in a lot of encouraging notes full of wisdom, kindness, telling me to go live life a little bit. It was awesome. I am so

grateful for this community and weeks like this more than ever. Today is Monday, January 22nd, and we are going to be covering Ron DeSantis dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. Before we do, I need to issue a quick correction. We belatedly caught an error in our December 14th podcast in which we said the Supreme Court granted special counsel Jack Smith's request to bring before the court the question of whether Trump can be tried on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election. In fact, at publication time, the court had only set a deadline for Trump's team to respond to the petition, and it ultimately declined to fast track the case as Smith had hoped. The language was a little bit squishy there, but a correction

was deserved. This was our 99th correction in Tangle's 232-week history and our first correction since January 11th. We tracked those corrections and placed them at the top of the podcast in an effort to maximize transparency with our readers. All right, with that out of the way, we're going to jump in today with some quick hits. I'm fighting off a little bit of a cold, so I hope you can excuse the nasally congested voice. First up, two Navy SEALs who went missing at sea during a mission to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen are now presumed dead. Number two, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says more than 25,000 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. U.S. officials estimate 20 to 30 percent of Hamas's 25,000 to 35,000

fighters have been killed. Separately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a hostage deal that included a full withdrawal from Gaza and would have left Hamas in power. Number three, Iraqi and U.S. troops were wounded when members of the Iran-backed Islamic resistance fired at an air base in western Iraq. Airstrikes in Lebanon killed a Hezbollah member and five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in strikes in Syria. Israel said it was responsible for the airstrikes in Lebanon but has not confirmed its involvement in the Syrian strikes. Number four, 27 people were killed and dozens were wounded by a missile strike in the Russian-held city of Donetsk in Ukraine.

Russia blamed Ukraine for the strike, but the responsible party is not yet clear. And number five, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade falling, President Biden announced new steps to expand protections for contraception, abortion medication, and emergency abortions at hospitals. If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it. But I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign. I'm proud to have delivered on 100% of my promises, and I will not stop now. It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary

voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. They watch his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance, and they see Democrats using lawfare this day to attack him. I've had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci. Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge

to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge. On Sunday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Republican, announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race just two days before the New Hampshire primary. In his announcement, DeSantis endorsed former President Donald Trump as the 2024 nominee. It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. Trump is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden, DeSantis said in a video posted on X. The move came as a surprise to most political strategists who thought DeSantis would wait to see how he performed in New Hampshire, a critical early primary state,

before determining his future in the race. Once considered the biggest threat to Donald Trump as the GOP's standard bearer, DeSantis was marred by his campaign's internal dysfunction and an inability to translate his success in Florida to the national stage. Over the past year, DeSantis' polling numbers fell by roughly 68%. DeSantis had a well-funded operation that pulled in tens of millions of dollars from donors but sputtered from the start, launching his campaign on X slash Twitter in an announcement that was beset by technical issues and widely ridiculed online. His campaign team oscillated between mass layoffs and controversies, including a campaign video that featured a Nazi symbol. DeSantis was also mocked regularly by Trump and hisies, including a campaign video that featured a Nazi symbol. DeSantis was also

mocked regularly by Trump and his rivals, who criticized everything from his appearance to his awkward attempts to connect with voters at in-person events. On Saturday night, Trump was already talking about DeSantis as if his campaign had ended. May he rest in peace, Trump said of DeSantis at a campaign rally. By Sunday, though, Trump's campaign said it was honored by the endorsement and encouraged Republicans to come together and rally behind President Trump. DeSantis finished second in the Iowa caucuses but trailed Trump by 30 points. In New Hampshire, he was polling near 6%, behind both Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, now the lone Republican challenger. Analysis done by 538 of GOP primary voters who

participated in polls in November and December found that Trump was the second choice of 48% of DeSantis voters, compared to just 27% who said their vote would go to Haley. DeSantis still has two years left in his term as Florida governor, and has previously said he would not accept a position as Trump's vice president. Today, we're going to take a look at some perspectives from the right and the left about DeSantis dropping out, and then my take. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. Long before Fox News hosts were caught for saying one thing in private and another on air, two leading conservatives left the network

in protest of the network's tolerance of election denialism. Such claims were incompatible with their efforts to build a media company dedicated to the truth. Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes had launched the Dispatch in 2019 to build an enduring presence in the center-right for sane conservatism. No insulting clickbait, no false outrage, no annoying autoplay videos, Thank you. world gone crazy. Get news and analysis that is more than a scripted reality show.

Tangle readers claim your exclusive 90-day all-access free trial today by visiting thedispatch.com slash tangle. That's thedispatch.com slash tangle. First up, let's start with what the left is saying. The left believes DeSantis staked his campaign on flawed premises and wishful thinking that ultimately led to his downfall. Some criticize his endorsement of Trump as contradictory to what his campaign was supposed to stand for. Others say his campaign was doomed from the start, and he never should have run against Trump. In Vox, Zach Beauchamp argued that DeSantis got the Republican Party wrong. There are many reasons DeSantis failed, ranging from the candidate's awkward personality to his

weird, lavish spending on private flights. But there's also a more fundamental explanation. Ron DeSantis and his backers completely misread what the GOP electorate wanted, Beauchamp wrote. By seeming more competent and organized, he could scan as palatable to the traditional establishment. Except it turned out that the kind of culture war politics DeSantis offered, an often abstract assault on wokeness, paled in comparison to what Trump served up. That DeSantis felt boxed in like this reflects a fundamental flaw in his campaign's premise. They assume that Trump's supporters believe that Trumpism as a movement could be separated from Trump the man. Focusing fire on the bugbears of conservative

populist intellectuals, abstractions like DEI, ESG, and above all, wokeness would allow them to get at the base's populist sentiment and steal Trump's base out from under him. But the GOP faithful were not like DeSantis' backers in the pundit and activist classes. For them, the cause of Trump is inseparable from the cause of the party. The Miami Herald editorial board said DeSantis was supposed to save the GOP from Trump, not endorse him. The Florida governor tried to sell voters the idea that he's just like Trump, but more electable, more reasonable, but also more conservative. That didn't work, because in the end, DeSantis' brand wouldn't exist without MAGA, the board wrote.

It's not just that he was steamrolled by Donald Trump. DeSantis never appeared to want to save the GOP. He was more interested in making it a more ravenous, angrier, and intolerant party. That worked for Trump, but didn't work for the governor with all the charisma of Burnt Toast. Glorified by the media as Trump's heir apparent and buoyed by his legislative successes, DeSantis soon proved he wasn't ready for prime time. He refused to engage with mainstream media, a strategy that worked for him as governor until he felt forced to give more attention to outlets like CNN and network news. But that was too late, the board said. As he bows out, DeSantis leaves the Republican Party exactly as he found it, under Trump's dominance. In the Daily Beast, Alexander Nazarian wrote that DeSantis never should have run for

president. The conventional wisdom is that the dream of a DeSantis presidency has merely been deferred until 2028, maybe even preserved by his decision to forego weeks of humiliation that would have culminated in a Super Tuesday trouncing. But I'm not so sure. After all, the factors that doomed DeSantis in 2024 will still be around in 2028, Nazarian said. Primary among them is DeSantis himself. Anyone who followed him through his first term as governor could see that he was not made for politics any more significant than the House backbench. He constantly spoke about freedom, even as he erected ever more limits on what people could say or do. And he did it all with a grim, humorless diligence, as if checking off boxes on some political consultant's presidential to-do

list. It is difficult to come off as both persistent and inauthentic, but DeSantis managed to pull it off, Nazarian added. DeSantis failed to capitalize on his standing as the post-Trump candidate many Republicans and even some moderates were yearning for in late 2022 and early 2023. Next up is what the right is saying. Many on the right think DeSantis tried to emulate Trump as a candidate, but say Republican voters showed they only want the real thing. Some criticize his campaign decisions as poorly devised and badly executed. Others say DeSantis failed to offer a coherent message to GOP voters once Trump got in the race.

The faster money and data move, the further your business can go to a seamless digital future for Canadians. Let's go faster forward together. In life, interact. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot.

Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. In National Review, Philip Klein described DeSantis as a peloton candidate in a post-COVID world. The most basic explanation of what happened to DeSantis is that, by the time his campaign got going in earnest, there was simply not much demand for the product he was selling, Klein wrote. The political stock of DeSantis rose considerably during the pandemic. He benefited from having recognized earlier than most that the massive restrictions imposed on society in the name of fighting COVID did more

harm than good. His very public battles against COVID restrictions drew the ire of the left and the media and made him one of the most popular Republicans in the country among conservatives. There was reason to believe that he was the somebody who could cobble together a winning coalition in a Republican presidential primary. However, once it became clear that the demand for what DeSantis was offering wasn't there, no amount of campaign reshuffles or message retoolings were going to make a difference, Klein said. Coming off his gubernatorial re-election victory, DeSantis' star was probably as high as it would be. If his COVID record didn't resonate during this election cycle, just a few years removed from the pandemic, it's hard to imagine who would care four years from now or what other issues and conservative leaders would gain traction in the intervening

period. In red state, Jennifer Oliver O'Connell said DeSantis' candidacy offers lessons on how not to run for a campaign. From the lackluster start to the campaign to his initial lack of fight toward all his opponents, DeSantis' campaign reflected a man whose heart really wasn't in it. Moneyed donors and well-meaning friends pushed him in that direction, and with the Trump indictments looming, it seemed a credible possibility until it wasn't. That's not a dig, it's reality. In a presidential campaign, you cannot build to energy. It has to be both feet all in and energy in spades, especially since your main competitor is the picture of energy, drive, and charisma, O'Connell said. Much like Donald Trump, DeSantis

is at his best when sparring with the legacy media. He not only exposed their hypocrisy, but better illuminated his policies and showed what he stood for. By embargoing legacy media and isolating himself only to conservative outlets, DeSantis neutered any opportunities for him to promote what his candidacy was about. He blunted what made him shine. DeSantis did not speak with or sit down with legacy media outlets until well into his campaign, but it was too late to right this serious error, O'Connell said. Had DeSantis had this revelation back in June 2023, we could be looking at a more competitive primary season. In Reason, Eric Bohm questioned why DeSantis eschewed a compelling campaign about the value of freedom. It's been impossible to

escape the feeling that DeSantis' notion of freedom extended only as far as the preference for his political tribe, Bohm wrote. As a backbench congressman during the Obama years, DeSantis was part of the so-called Tea Party movement that pushed for smaller government, less spending, and yes, more freedom. As governor of Florida, he was relatively restrained in imposing COVID controls and stood by that approach when large swaths of the media denounced him for it. But as governor, DeSantis also earned a reputation for tax-funded political stunts and for expanding government with little regard for civil liberties. The older version of DeSantis might have offered an actual vision for the future, one that revived a small government republicanism as a necessary contrast to Trumpism. All of the strongest arguments for DeSantis is an

alternative to Trump lined up along that axis, Bohm wrote. In short, rather than trying to outflank Trump with the too-online fringe of the GOP, DeSantis could have courted the much larger segment of Republicans who were disgruntled by the government's handling of the pandemic, unsettled by inflation, which was triggered in part by overspending, and unsure about Trump's ability to overcome all that baggage. All right, that is it for the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So my first thought when I read the news was that this was a play for the vice presidency. On the one hand, the idea seems unlikely. DeSantis has two years left as Florida governor and can look ahead to a wide-open GOP race in 2028.

If he wants to be president, a smart play might be to simply keep pushing his agenda in Florida, rack up as many electoral and legislative wins as possible, and then run again in four years as the presumptive favorite. With this strategy, dropping out now is more about reckoning with the reality that he was about to come in third in New Hampshire behind Nikki Haley and had no shot of beating Trump this year. On the other hand, dropping out now could be the beginning of a new play. Trump's comments about DeSantis went from full-on mockery Saturday night to warm and fuzzy Sunday, with the Trump team saying they were honored to have his endorsement and looking forward to bringing the party together. If you're a DeSantis, you just realize that you can't be the GOP nominee without the Republican base,

which is now mostly made up of Trump supporters. And what could solve that problem more quickly than a stamping of approval from Trump as his pick for the vice president? Maybe pledging loyalty now is the best way to get there. I honestly don't know which is more likely. DeSantis has said he wouldn't take the number two position, but hasn't reaffirmed that stance in weeks. Either way, dropping out after Iowa represents a massive failure for his campaign and his team. It's hard to remember now, but after the 2022 midterms and DeSantis' strong night in Florida, it seemed like he could enter the Republican primary as the favorite. His national rise was meteoric, and he was quickly branded the Trump who got things done.

But nearly everything about his campaign from start to finish has been a mess. By the time he showed any willingness to stand up to Trump and go after him, it was basically over, and the criticisms DeSantis levied against Trump will now forever be used against him. Obviously, the biggest implication here is that the Republican primary just became a one-on-one race. A lot of people have interpreted DeSantis' move as bad for Haley, since polling shows a good chunk of his support is going to go to Trump in New Hampshire. Honestly, that conclusion is hard to argue. But a head-to-head race was always the only chance Never Trump Republicans had to stop Trump, and now they have

it. I wouldn't be totally shocked if Haley were to hold on for another few weeks and give us at least a few more interesting moments in this race. In 2021, I wrongly predicted that DeSantis would be the nominee this year, and by August 1st of last year, I knew how wrong that prediction was. This is what I wrote then, nearly six months ago. The GOP primary is over. After looking deep in every poll I can find, I simply haven't found any data to suggest that anyone other than Trump will be the Republican nominee in 2024, end quote. Much of the country has spent the last six months pretending the inevitable wasn't happening, and now Haley is the final domino yet to fall. Of course, all the typical caveats apply. is the final domino yet to fall. Of course, all the typical caveats apply. Trump is facing serious legal threats, and he could end up ineligible for the ballot or pleading out of running for a variety of charges. He's also 77, and just as with Biden, there's always a chance he suffers some kind of

health issue. Notably, Haley has also started to roll out some competence-related attacks, calling out Trump for claiming Biden was going to get us into World War II, for saying he ran against Obama, which he never did, and for repeatedly mixing up Haley with Nancy Pelosi. But the most likely outcome is still the same as it was on August 1st. Trump will be the Republican nominee in 2024, facing President Joe Biden. His challengers didn't just lose Iowa, they got steamrolled, with the second and fourth closest competitors dropping out and the race never really appearing competitive at any point. We'll be right back after this quick break. All right, that is it for my take. We are skipping today's reader question because our podcast got a

little bit long today. So we're going to jump straight to our under the radar question. But a reminder, if you ever have a question you want answered in the podcast, just email me, Isaac, I-S-A-A-C at readtangle.com. And if you put in the subject line reader question, that is a good way to get my attention. All right, next up is our under the radar section. The IRS says it is inundated with bogus claims from the pandemic era employee retention tax credit, which has limited its ability to refund valid claims from employers who actually need the money. The agency is sifting through more than a million requests from employers around the country

in hopes of keeping government aid from going to the wrong people. The legitimate claims are surrounded in our inventory by a lot of illegitimate claims, and it's taking us a long time to sort this through, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told the Wall Street Journal. The program, designed by Congress to encourage employers not to lay off employees during the pandemic, has already cost $230 billion, far more than initial projections. The Wall Street Journal has this story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description.

All right, next up is our numbers section. Ron DeSantis' polling average in the Republican presidential primary polls on January 22nd, 2023 was 34.9%, the highest at any point in his campaign. DeSantis' polling average in national primary polls on January 21st, 2024, when he exited the Republican primary, was 11.1%. His polling average in the New Hampshire primaries on January 21, 2024 was 5.8%. The amount spent by three super PACs supporting DeSantis on advertising in Iowa prior to last week's caucuses was $31 million. The estimated budget of Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis at the start of his campaign in May 2023, of Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis at the start of his campaign in May 2023,

was $200 million. The approximate amount spent by the DeSantis campaign and super PAC supporting it over the course of his candidacy was $100 million. And finally, the number of days DeSantis spent traveling outside of Florida for political purposes between April 2023 and January 2024 was 117. April 2023, and January 2024 was 117. All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day story. Sickle cell is a heritable blood disorder caused by a genetic mutation that affects over 100,000 Americans and 20 million people worldwide. Other than a childhood vaccine that prevents pneumococcal disease, treatment options are difficult or expensive. But in November, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, delivered some good news. The FDA approved two gene therapies, one by Bluebird Bio, the other by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, for sickle cell disease.

The Vertex treatment, called Exacell, is also the first approved therapy in the United States that uses the gene editing tool CRISPR, though the drug had already been approved in the United Kingdom and Bahrain. While Exacel is not a cure, as NPR reports, the hope is that it will be a one-time treatment that will alleviate symptoms for a lifetime. The first gene therapy treatment approved was by the FDA in 2017, and since then 14 others have been greenlit, meaning that treatments like these could be getting much more common. The Progress Network has the story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you want to support our work, please go to readtangleit.com forward slash membership and consider becoming a member. I am glad to be back here in the saddle here in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and looking forward to sharing some tales from my travels in this week's Friday edition, which you can obviously get if you are a Tangle member. And we'll be right back here same time tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace. Peace. Kova, who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. If you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website. We'll be right back. unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in

Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.