As Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis formally announces he is withdrawing from the presidential race and endorses former President Trump, his yo-yo approach to legacy media could undermine his now-defeated candidacy. There are growing questions about whether it had an impact.
In his final days on the campaign trail, DeSantis reflected on himself and acknowledged the “mistake” he made in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt last week.
“I came in without doing much media work. I should have just done a blanket,” DeSantis said. “We should have been in all the corporate shows. We should have been in everything. We started doing that towards the end of the summer and we actually did it. But I think we had a chance to get out.” “If I do that out of the gate, I'll reach a wider audience. Now I'm everywhere. I mean, I'll show up everywhere.”
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continued to change his media approach during his successful reelection bid in 2022 and unsuccessful presidential bid in 2024. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Jeffrey McCall, a journalism professor at DePauw University, told Fox News Digital that DeSantis made a “mistake” in sneering at the media and “diminished his own relevance.”
“What was strange was that Mr. DeSantis didn't have to fear media exposure,” McCall said. “He's very good at dodging partisan attacks and is clearly smarter than the journalists who would have asked him questions. His potential supporters are very good at deflecting partisan attacks and are clearly smarter than the journalists who would have questioned him. would be pleased to see it allay the fears of partisan media interviewers.”
His strategy to avoid liberal reporting did not begin with his inauguration. It began in preparation for his 2022 re-election bid, which he won by a whopping 20 points after winning by less than a point in 2018. And it didn't just happen.
direct combat
While his profile certainly increased when he was first elected governor, it wasn't until the coronavirus pandemic hit that he truly gained national attention. DeSantis is one of several red state leaders who have made headlines for defying lockdown groupthink, with media members praising the response of blue state governors like New York's Andrew Cuomo. ” and attacked DeSantis. And it is likely that he was running for president as his approval rating among Republicans continues to rise, and as of 2021, some media outlets believe that electing him means electing Trump. It promoted the idea that it was “even more dangerous'' than it was.
He got a lot of praise from conservatives, from a CNN reporter about Florida's vaccine rollout to a local NBC reporter who mentioned the Parents' Bill of Rights in a “Don't Say Gay” bill promoted by liberal activists. It was his combative style toward reporters from affiliated stations.
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Mr. DeSantis won praise from conservatives for his combative interactions with liberal reporters at press conferences. (AP)
The hostile media treatment of DeSantis didn't stop at the press conference. News outlets reported that when CNN and MSNBC touted a false conspiracy theory by fired Florida health official Rebecca Jones that the DeSantis administration falsified coronavirus data to reopen the state. , promoted false stories about the governor. Or when CBS' “60 Minutes'' infamously accused DeSantis of pay-for-play tactics.
Members of Mr. DeSantis' team retaliate by leaking email exchanges with liberal journalists that expose blatant bias, and by proactively reacting to so-called “hit stories” written about Mr. DeSantis. There were many things.
“Cut them out.”
Eventually, the conflict with Team DeSantis reached a boiling point, with Team DeSantis implementing a media strategy in 2022 that ultimately led to DeSantis' presidential campaign. It was to “separate them.”
“Treat them like activists, because that's what they are…You're part of a movement to help elect a Republican candidate, but you're not trying to keep Democratic trackers you're aware of in a private campaign.” Do we allow them to participate in athletic events? I hope not. That should be the mainstream view.” DeSantis aide Christina Pushau said in September 2022 that “media activists… are not here to report fairly on you. They need access. Otherwise, if they don't have access to conservative and Republican elected officials, they won't be seen by the people. It will happen,” he explained. Everyone who is a Democratic communications operator or activist can participate as they are. So you don't need to give them access. ”
A new strategy has barred liberal reporters from DeSantis campaign events. Whether that strategy was the right one at the time remains a mystery, but it's no mystery that the landslide victory DeSantis achieved in the 2022 midterm elections was largely a disappointment to Republicans across the country.
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Ron DeSantis attended with his family after his re-election victory in November 2022, but his wife and children were noticeably absent as part of his official presidential campaign launch. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
launch failed
Early Republican primary polls for 2023, fresh off a successful re-election bid, show that DeSantis, who officially launched his presidential bid a week after the November midterm elections, has a strong lead over Trump. was shown to be competitive. Meanwhile, Mr. DeSantis remained on the sidelines, postponing his candidacy until the end of the Florida Legislature in the spring.
However, a seismic shift occurred in presidential politics with the indictment of New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The indictment against Trump focuses on whether the hush money he paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 violated the law, and has been widely criticized for its legal flimsy. It was done. But outside the courtroom, Republican lawmakers acknowledged that the first of what would ultimately be four indictments targeted the Democratic-controlled justice system of his political opponents and supported the former president. We rallied. And that gave Trump a huge boost in the polls.
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“I don't know if Ron DeSantis could have done anything to overcome the backlash effect of the indictment against Trump,” William A. Jacobson, a Cornell Law School professor and media commentator, told Fox News Digital. told. “With each successive indictment, a significant number of Republicans continued to defy the political establishment and move closer to President Trump.”
Jacobson said, “If the Democratic Party wanted to make Trump the candidate because they thought he was more likely to win, then they have accomplished their mission of preventing DeSantis from resurfacing.'' was beyond Mr. DeSantis' control to a significant extent.”
Fast forward to May 2023. DeSantis is finally in the race. Except that the traditional televised rallies, where candidates launch their campaigns on stage with their beautiful families and adoring fans, were often left in the background. Instead, he held an audio conversation with Elon Musk on the X, which has been plagued by technical issues and crashes (the DeSantis campaign made the fiasco that the governor “broke the internet”).
Despite ridicule from traditional media and Trump supporters, DeSantis continued and maintained his strategy of fending off liberal coverage.
DeSantis' presidential inauguration was a disaster after a live audio conversation he had with Elon Musk about X repeatedly crashed on listeners. ((Photo Credit: Pedro UGARTE/AFP) (Photo Credit: PEDRO UGARTE/AFP via Getty Images))
Reversal course
Despite weeks of campaigning, there was no change in the polls for Florida's governor. According to RealClearPolitics in July, former presidents' approval ratings averaged over 52%, compared to 21% for former presidents. In January, the difference between the two teams was just 14 points.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. In a desperate move, DeSantis broke the liberal media boycott and agreed to an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper.
This led to an avalanche of television hits on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and multiple appearances on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.”
These networking interviews were mostly cordial. DeSantis has been combative at times, but his interactions with liberal journalists paled in comparison to the coronavirus-era news conferences, where there were real fireworks.
DeSantis broke the liberal media boycott in July 2023, giving an interview to CNN's Jake Tapper. (Screenshot/CNN)
DeSantis himself has expressed regret for not embracing the liberal media from the beginning of his campaign, but would it have made a difference if he had?
“No,” FOX News contributor Joe Concha told FOX News Digital. “It wouldn’t have changed a single vote.”
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Concha praised DeSantis for being “prepared” during various media appearances late in the campaign, but especially since the former president was “blowing the sun out to the media.” said it would be “nearly impossible'' to strip President Trump of his support. Attention and coverage. ”
Jacobson agreed. Whatever DeSantis' media strategy was, “none of it mattered.”
Jacobson added: “Things might not have changed if we hadn't interacted with the media.”
