You can still watch the "widely-derided and since-deleted video" at that link.
August 1, 2023
"Senior aides to Ron DeSantis oversaw the campaign’s high-risk strategy of laundering incendiary videos produced by their staff through allied anonymous Twitter accounts..."
"... a set of internal campaign communications obtained by Semafor reveals.... The meme-filled videos emerged from a Signal channel called 'War Room Creative Ideas,' screenshots of which were shared with Semafor and whose authenticity was confirmed by a second source familiar with the campaign. The chat in Signal, an encrypted messaging app, offers the first clear look into the 'war room' that has defined the Florida governor’s candidacy, and is presided over by his high-profile and confrontational director of rapid response, Christina Pushaw. The correspondence obtained by Semafor also offers a glimpse of a strategy that mixes digital aggression and (unsuccessful) attempts to keep the campaign’s own activities secret. The messages were set to disappear after one week. Screenshots of the 'War Room' chat reviewed by Semafor included staffers praising a widely-derided and since-deleted video...."
Write David Weigel and Shelby Talcott at Semafor in "This belongs in the Smithsonian’: Inside the meme video operation that swallowed Ron DeSantis’ campaign."
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65 comments:
Do not let your campaign be out-sourced or controlled by other life-forms.
The corrupt left have testicles everywhere.
I don’t get it, I guess.
What’s the big deal?
Democrats have all of cable and print media and bureaucrats within the federal government to distribute their memes. Am I supposed to not vote for DeSantis because of his operation is smaller? Is that the idea here?
No one will make God Emperor Ron memes for him. He's so try-hard it's pitiful.
Dude, it's actually easy. Be authentic. Sit in a neighborhood barber shop and talk about how many snakes have bitten you.
"a set of internal campaign communications obtained by Semafor reveals."
The DeSantis campaign has a rat. Ron should go all Jack Nicholsen from "Departed" on the rat. Is Leo the rat?
LOL - *tentacles. but testicles works too.
The left are terrified of DeSantis. This is something Ever-Trumpers do not recognize.
Democrats can be as corrupt as they want. If DeSantis stumbles (real or fake) ..why. IT'S OVER!
& Ever trumpers fall for it.
GOPers have to assume nothing stays secret.
Is "widely-derided" like "controversial"?
All the attacks so far are silly. But progs want to run against Trump and are doing their best to make that happen. It's a good calculation and they are likely to get their wish, so any speculation about other GOPers is a waste of time, especially since the elections will be rigged against the GOP even more.
But Ron does have to up his game. Not sure he can reach the nice women of America, who don't like to be associated with "widely-derided" material.
The smear job here is pretty impressive. Anybody who looks to be a plausible threat to Biden/Harris (or their substitutes) will get taken apart with stories like this!
It is increasingly clear to me that "Journalism" as we fondly thought of it, died in this country some years ago. Probably when the want ad page revenue was consumed by Amazon and Google.
I have nothing to offer but shrugs.
I'm with farmgirl. What is the story? Dull as dishwater to me, with the Nazi reference brought in obliquely; big whoop.
The DeSantis campaign will get moving when the American population gets serious. Complacency is still the rule; check the VIX. It ain't just Wall Street, it's the current psychology all over. Angry but sullen; dubious but fatigued; outraged but helpless. Whenever people get authentically shocked or appalled by the Biden farce and frauds, then DeSantis will get a little more attention too. It still seems to need an event to catalyze the downbeat moods.
The Trump numbers are mostly a proxy for that groundswell, which still has over 15 months to build. Whenever the last straw hits, that groundswell will take shape and it won't need all that time, either, I suspect.
Basically, the DeSantis campaign is being driven by some very online folks and it bit them on the ass.
Begley: "The DeSantis campaign has a rat."
That's not the takeaway here.
This is so dumb, but Trump people will lap it up. Remember how evil Carpe Donkum was when the shoe was on the other foot?
MAGAs did a better job smearing DeSantis than he did countering. Like many Republicans, he is better at governing than at politicking. Trump is a notable exception.
"laundering incendiary videos"... LMFAO! Democrat Party propagandists are such hysteria-addicted, silly fucking ninnies.
If DeSantis has a rat then it's one they hired.
Wonder how many rats he will hire if he makes it to the White House. Small ball Ron is the Scott Walker of 2024, already on the same trajectory.
"Am I supposed to not vote for DeSantis because of his operation is smaller? Is that the idea here?"
No. You vote for your candidate of choice.
DeSantis is a thuggish asshole, but many Americans like to see someone like themselves in office. Unfortunately for DeSantis, there's a bigger thuggish asshole presumably in the running, and his fans are as gone for him as were Rev. Jim Jone's dedicated followers in Guyana.
Cook - Biden is a thuggish Asshole. As proven. You have nothing to say about it.
Why? - You are a loyalist democrat.
Cook - the biggest Thuggish asshole of all is the democrat. Obama's former VP.
To me, this exhibits the sharp contrast between Trump and politicians.
Trump does his own wet work.
Lets be clear. Politics is a lot of wet work. Cringe worthy stuff, best not to dirty the hands of those in, or running for elective office.
Everyone clumb aboard to 'mean tweets, bad' train. Squealed how Trump was coarsening the political dialog. But all he did was own what was always happening. Much like the left is hiding behind "nothing ties Hunter to Joe", fig leaf, the left ignored any connections of slimy political attacks, the "their team"
You can wail about Trump, but at least he owned his own work.
A glimpse of the sausage being made. As a smear, I don't find it particularly impressive. As an expose (with accent) of the DeSantis campaign, well, 'yawn'. The memes were more interesting, and they weren't very good memes at all, to begin with.
“DeSantis is a thuggish asshole, but many Americans like to see someone like themselves in office.”
So, many Americans are “thuggish assholes”? Okay, I guess you could assume that.
But the high dudgeon rings hollow when you consider the core characteristics of Joseph Robinette Biden and the rest of his clan. Compared to Zhou Baiden, DeSantis is a sweetheart.
DeSantis, there's a bigger thuggish asshole presumably in the running,
You are taling about, Joe Robinette "Nobody fucks with a Biden", Biden right?
For thugs elected to office, Biden and LBJ are tied for first place, who ever is second, is a distant second. (Trump doesn't even get an honorable mention.)
Like all leftists, ignoring inconvenient truths is a requirement to join.
Is anyone besides me noticing how those (supposedly) conservative people that don't like Donald Trump are treating his supporters just like Hillary's fans did, in 2016? A 'basket of deplorables', I tells ya. About half of America... "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic...." And really, really stupid; all of them, smelly Walmart shoppers, I guess.
Nuance is the first casualty of presidential elections.
Ugh, doomer wojak and flash cut cut cut so no one can evaluate the message. And a symbol thingy at the end.
How do you do, fellow kids.
Cook's comments showcase who the left are most afraid of.
--- ...a thuggish asshole, but many Americans like to see someone like themselves in office.
Robert Cook thinks Lenin and Stalin were sunny optimists.
Will it go along side the Steele Dossier in the Smithsonian? It seems like weak sauce compared to that bogus document that cost the taxpayers millions of dollars to first hype and then later show as debunked. The dossier might be one of the most expensive pieces of art in history.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker: "The left are terrified of DeSantis. This is something Ever-Trumpers do not recognize."
LOL
Lunacy.
The left are going to physically remove Trump from the race and they will gleefully accept any other republican or "republican" candidate.
Why?
The dems know that without Trump the electoral map immediately reverts to 2008/2012 and thats before the added cushion of election fortifying is tossed in.
The DeSantis campaign has always been a centrally driven, top down campaign.
Large donors make up 80%+ of the DeSantis incoming campaign cash sources (Trump is reversed with 80%+ of his cash coming from small donors) and the GOPe-ers are all over the messaging and strategy.
The DeSantis handlers convinced Ron Trump would be gone by now...but he's not. Though it is my belief Trump will be removed at some point moving forward.
This particular story has some resonance for insiders because DeSantis was positioned as the dude that could easily step in and inherit the increasingly populist working class ethnic minority voters that Trump pulled in while simultaneously supposedly re-attracting the already democratical adjacent suburban woen vote.
Easy peasy.
But the reality is Ron doesnt have great appeal amongst that populist working class base, particularly in the midwest. He was a Ryan clone in the House of representatives and that will be driven home in a general election. Alot of these Trump working class/populist voters arent republican voters at all. They are simply Trump voters.
DeSantis cant even pull Florida latinos against Trump! Talk about a neon flashing warning sign.
So, back to this story which, when combined with the DeSantis Influencer Team months long kerfuffle and exposure, also initially denied, what we clearly see is a Rovian/Jeb/Cuccinelli-like astro turf effort to try and convince people that Ron has a broader voter base than he actually does to create an "inevitability" momentum.
Not a terrible strategy really, all things considered.
Again, this story is not the end of the world and, as mentioned above, its an inside baseball story. But with Cuccinelli getting nervous about DeSantis and sucking up to Youngkin (Youngkin wisely shot it down) it signals some of the "players" having structural doubts about DeSantis' campaign legs.
DeSantis has got to be worried about going cashflow poor (not all donations can be spent at all times during a campaign) and maxing out the large donor base, being seen as the GOPe sneaky switchout candidate (that would be very bad) and losing his status as The Clear Second Choice.
Now thats a tough path to navigate.
But it sure aint boring!
Kai Akker: "The DeSantis campaign will get moving when the American population gets serious."
This is the latest coping mechanism variation of "just wait until DeSantis officially enters the race!"
They (candidates) are who they are. Their weaknesses and strengths are already fully established.
The playing field is set. The only question is when will the combined dem/GOPe team of lawfare "referees" remove Trump from the game.
HBTPFH,
LOL - *tentacles. but testicles works too.
True story: In (I think) ninth grade, I was partnered in science class with another girl -- very strait-laced, very conservative. We were drawing pictures of hydras through a microscope and labeling the parts. It transpired that in her illustrations, she had several times labeled "tentacles" as "testicles." When I ventured to point this out, she was mortified.
This is complicated a bit by the fact that hydras actually do also have testicles. Only, IIRC, not all the time.
I will once again say this about DeSantis: he is much more adaptable as a candidate then Jeb, Scott Walker (my 2016 first choice before GOPe flameout), Romney, Cruz (my second 2016 choice), etc.
Case in point: DeSantis knows he's getting killed on the GOPe/globalist thing. It ain't pretty and he isn't trusted.
So DeSantis, to his credit, goes here:
"DeSantis Reveals Pro-American, Anti-Global Elite Agenda: 'We Win, They Lose'
GOP presidential contender Ron DeSantis has had trouble getting his campaign into gear, but that might change with Monday’s release of an explosive economic plan promising that “Our policies can no longer be driven by the ruling class."
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/08/01/desantis-reveals-pro-american-anti-global-elite-agenda-we-win-they-lose-n1715068
Will it work? Is it believable given Ron's donors and GOPe staffers? Is it enough? Will working class/populist voters "buy it" from a Ryan clone in the house?
Probably not. But maybe enough.
Certainly worth a shot and a strong effort.
Its certainly the right message at this moment. But is it the right messenger?
Comrade Cookie: "Unfortunately for DeSantis, there's a bigger thuggish asshole presumably in the running, and his fans are as gone for him as were Rev. Jim Jone's dedicated followers in Guyana."
Cookie is still pissed off about the failure of his russia collusion and dossier hoaxes.
Cookie is probably still pissed at those darn russian Refusniks from the 80's as well.
How dare these people defy the Party?!
I would be interested to know who made that one and what their reasoning for adding the sonnenrad bit was. Sabotage or stupidity?
Dave Weigel calling people out for culture war fights is definitely a case of sniffing too many of one's own emissions. And commissions.
Every campaign has a war room. And every war room has an idiot staffer, or fifty.
But I don't exactly understand this story. Was one video made by DeSantis' staffers and altered by someone fired from the campaign or outside it? Or are they saying they have proof that DeSantis himself participated in some, sigh, false flag attack on himself?
It's incoherent. And irrelevant. DeSantis is running a large state (very well) and a presidential campaign. Now everyone's trying to make a meme of the very term "culture war" and hang it around his neck.
That's idiotic. Everything in politics is a culture war, and leftists in particular have trumpeted the tenets of our current one for half a century, or a century and a half, depending on how you look at it.
TrumpSwab - Stick with Trump. He's your guy.
Michelle Dulak Thompson
That's a good story. I would have been mortified in that instance, too.
If you follow DeSantis supporters on Twitter they are very sanctimonious. Perhaps DeSantis isn't, but once again Trump nailed a nick name. At least for the DeSantis supporters. Fits to a tee. They are the new Charlie Sykes and Bill Kristols.
The indictments are all unjust. It's all a joke. I find myself caring less and less.
I'll vote for RJK Jr, in the WI primary. Trump in the general. If the GOP robs him of the nomination because of these indictments, or changes to delegate distribution...I'll write in Trump. I'm at the point of Trump or bust, and fully willing to accept the bust.
Gavin Newsome will be installed as President.
Trump holding a pride flag pretty much means he doesn't care what people do behind closed doors.
It's not an acceptance of the current transgender grooming and mutilation trend.
DeSantis can't meme.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker: "The left are terrified of DeSantis. This is something Ever-Trumpers do not recognize."
They are not terrified of pro-life, anti-woke DeSantis. Just because he used to look like John Stamos, doesn't mean women are going to forget their commitment to abortion and child grooming.
And if as Drago predicts, Trump is blocked from the nomination because of the indictments, MAGA will sit home or write Trump in. If DeSantis gains the nomination via GOPe methods I'll listen to the violins on the deck while the ship sinks.
Drago makes sense. Again.
That video's a mess. If I watched it without knowing anything about it, I still wouldn't know anything about it after watching it. It's like the opening to Big Bang Theory, but with a less fun soundtrack.
The playing field is far from set, Drago. What are you getting so frantic about? A little surprise can be good for the soul. Personally, I remain doubtful that either Biden or Trump will be major-party candidates next year. Those Trump numbers are good but I read them as a foot deep -- they could easily move toward another candidate, depending on what events occur. People are tired of him, his melodrama, and his inability to make a viable administration at any point when he had the chance. His age doesn't help either. The worst case will be if he does a Perot out of his egotistic confusion and messiah complex.
The takeaway is that while claiming he is above it all and a better man who doesn't get involved in "all that stuff," DeSantis is just another career politician who plays dirty when he thinks it will further his political career.
In this case, having his campaign staff throw a Fascist/Nazi association slur at Trump through a second party that is under their control. Which, since his attempt to garner the nomination is going nowhere, will benefit Biden and the Democrats more than it does DeSantis.
You could well call his behavior sanctimonious.
Aggie said...
Is anyone besides me noticing how those (supposedly) conservative people that don't like Donald Trump are treating his supporters just like Hillary's fans did, in 2016? A 'basket of deplorables', I tells ya. About half of America... "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic...." And really, really stupid; all of them, smelly Walmart shoppers, I guess.
Nuance is the first casualty of presidential elections.
8/1/23, 9:59 AM
Exactly. They are brutal. And yet, they want us to vote WITH them? They are just as bad as the Progressive party, which is why Trump and his supporters stand alone.
HEAR, HEAR!! Gusty Winds @ 11:40, 11:42, and 11:48!!
I doubt Trump will be blocked from the nomination.
Funny how MAGA insists everyone support Trump, or else...
Yet MAGA will stay home if Trump isn't the nominee.
btw- Trump will be the nominee.... So not to worry!
"Trump holding a pride flag pretty much means he doesn't care what people do behind closed doors.
It's not an acceptance of the current transgender grooming and mutilation trend."
Holding a pride flag and accepting the grooming and mutilation trend are one and the same thing. They are not separable.
Not sure what the story is here. A pretty poor video from (sic) the DeSantis campaign HQ?
Is that how we judge candidates, now? What others say, what videos are produced, or what they [the candidates] do?
The left is fine with the exact opposite: gramps Biden can say anything and they lap it up as fact. Lets ignore the actions.
And if as Drago predicts, Trump is blocked from the nomination because of the indictments, MAGA will sit home or write Trump in. If DeSantis gains the nomination via GOPe methods I'll listen to the violins on the deck while the ship sinks.
The GOP has basically been dying since Ross Perot's mortal blows in '92 and '96. If it wasn't for 9/11, Bush would have lost in 2004, and the GOP would have been forced to grapple with what it stood for and how to win. Instead, the Bushies burrowed in deep and have been getting fat ever since.
Slow news month in August. Everyone is on vacation.
"I doubt Trump will be blocked from the nomination."
He will not "be blocked from the nomination".
He will be removed from the nominating process.
Which is the entire rationale behind the DeSantis campaign existence, timing, messaging and strategy.
Wibble: "The GOP has basically been dying since Ross Perot's mortal blows in '92 and '96. If it wasn't for 9/11, Bush would have lost in 2004, and the GOP would have been forced to grapple with what it stood for and how to win. Instead, the Bushies burrowed in deep and have been getting fat ever since."
True.
9/11 also ended up providing the very security state tools the dems/GOPe are using to target citizens and political opponents today.
I'm not surprised to see Desantis doing the same thing, but only the exact same thing, he recently criticized Trump for doing. No wonder his traction is unsteady, to say the least. If he wants to beat Trump then stop trying to BE Trump stealthily.
"Cook - Biden is a thuggish Asshole. As proven. You have nothing to say about it.
"Why? - You are a loyalist democrat."
No, I am not. I will usually vote for Democrats in local elections, unless there are third party candidates, but I haven't voted for a Democrat for the White House since 1992, (Bill Clinton's first go-round, and my vote for him that first time was grudging). I haven't voted for a Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Let me make simple for some of you- the Left isn't afraid of any of the GOP candidates. With mail-in-ballots, the Democrats cannot lose Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania, and since they cannot lose any of those states, they cannot lose the electoral college- that is the hard reality.
The only doubts about the 2024 election are in the down-ballot races- can the Democrats hold onto control of the Senate? The only seat the Republicans can probably take from the Democrats is Manchin's WV seat. They can probably win Sherrod Brown's OH seat if they can win OH at the top of the ticket by 3%+, but I don't think any Republican other than Trump can do that in OH. The only other seat that might be winnable from the Democrats is MT, but Tester won in 2012 by 3.7% with Romney carrying the state by 13.6% at the top of the ticket. Montana has moved at least 5% further to the left since that election, so Tester is a probable winner once again. So, at best, the Republicans can gain a 51-49 edge, and this assumes they hold onto Texas and Florida.
In the House, the Democrats held the Republicans to a near draw in 2022 in a political environment that should have favored the Republicans in the House races by a significant amount but didn't. I know some of you blame Trump for that, but it is nonsense- it was a combination of the Dobbs decision and the fact that the Democrats have worked hard at making mail-in-ballots more effective outside of the core cities they control politically- they have gained increasing political control of the suburbs, and mail-in-ballot fraud is spreading like a cancer in those areas, too. Nothing has changed in the interim, so I expect the Democrats are likely retake the House in 2024, especially given the recent SCOTUS decision interpreting the Voting Rights Act- the territory is now more favorable for the Dems than it was in 2022.
Mike (MJB Wolf): "I'm not surprised to see Desantis doing the same thing, but only the exact same thing, he recently criticized Trump for doing. No wonder his traction is unsteady, to say the least. If he wants to beat Trump then stop trying to BE Trump stealthily."
DeSantis is in a very tough spot.
Picture it: its 2021 and the GOPe/globalists come to you and say hey, after Jan 6 and everything that we know is coming down the pike, Trump is done. One way or the other, he's done.
It doesnt matter if we want that or not, its going to happen.
We (GOPe/globalists) know Trump has endorsed you, helped you along and we think you can get the Trump faithful to come over while still being the Trump Without Trump Drama guy for the suburbanites. Its perfect. We'll even make you Trump's eventual savior via pardon.
Yes yes, we know you swore you would never run against Trump but lay back and play it cool...we wont even announce your campaign until the die is cast.
By the way, we'll get all the major funders behind you early to scare off the runts and you can still fight the culture war stuff as long as we have some basic promises in economic, foreign and deep state policy areas.
Here's a $10M book deal and we can guarantee positive coverage across the Murdoch Fruited Plain.
But here's the catch: you have to use the GOPe advisory team that we trust. Cant get the rest of it all without that.
Now watch the swinging pendulum and repeat after me...I can be the President...I can be the President...the country needs me...
That would be more than enough to pull ANY politician into the mix.
And let me disabuse some of you from one other delusion- you think if you can just get someone other than Trump on the ballot, that person can defeat Joe Biden. Here is the reality- Biden isn't going to be the nominee- the nominee is going to be Gavin Newsom, or some female in his mold. Biden is toast, and even the Democrats know this.
That video is bad because it is incoherent. Whoever made it knows nothing about how to construct a viral campaign ad and should be fired or reassigned to gofering duties in the campaign.
DeSantis' main problem is that the race isn't heads up against Trump. He really does need for the field to narrow down to no more than 3 candidates, and 2 is far preferable. I do still believe that he can win the nomination if it is just him versus Trump.
However, I am not deluding myself- he won't win the Presidency even if he wins the nomination- that battle was lost with mail-in-ballot spread in 2020.
Kai Akker: "The playing field is far from set, Drago. What are you getting so frantic about?"
Interesting.
There isn't an iota of "frantic" in anything I've written.
Just the opposite in fact.
And the "field" is absolutely set.
On the dem side you've got complete top down control, so leadership can do whatever they want whenever they want, with half a dozen or more subs for Biden waiting in the wings, including my personal "favorite", Michelle.
On the rep side you've got the dem/GOPe target, Trump, teed up to be removed with DeSantis and Vivek in tbeir own lanes and the entire cluster of everyone else that are useless and crowding each other in Washout Lane.
But do feel free to identify the "here comes the cavalry!" candidates on the rep side that are currently not declared. All the "different" "flavors" of GOPe/globalist vanilla are already well represented in Washout Lane.
"There isn't an iota of "frantic" in anything I've written."
Says Mr Zero Self-Awareness.
Your posts make a mockery of this claim.
"There isn't an iota of "frantic" in anything I've written."
Says Mr Zero Self-Awareness.
Your posts make a mockery of this claim.
Dumb Lefty Mark: "Says Mr Zero Self-Awareness.
Your posts make a mockery of this claim."
LOL
Not even a "nice try".
But a standard Dumb Lefty Mark "try".
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