Donald Trump is running for President – but a lot of Republicans want him to step aside for Ron DeSantis. Is it going to be a bloodbath? Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss this.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Donald Trump is running for president, but a lot of Republicans want this guy to step aside and say, look, Trump, you’re a disaster. You actually cost the Republicans so much in this last election. If we look at your track record, it was awful. He was going around the country saying, this is my candidate. Okay, this was your candidate and they lost. Last one is Lake. Right? That’s the last one that took place.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: So it comes down to, to, to now you’ve got Ron DeSantis. Pick up from Ron DeSantis. Gimme your take on it.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. Ron DeSantis had the biggest victory of any single candidate last week and really any candidate in the last, you know, 80 years of Florida history.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: 1.5 million votes, he won his election by, he is a solid heir, I would say to Donald Trump’s MAGA empire.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Whether you endorse him or not, he, he, he maybe can bring some sense back to the Republican party is, is the talking point.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: He’s not a crazy man. And he, look, he has, here’s the difference. They say that he’s boring. He is a little boring, frankly. But you know what? He hasn’t been accused of rape. He hasn’t been found to committed fraud. He hasn’t been found to have committed tax evasion. He has, he wasn’t the best friends of Jeff Epstein. He didn’t have a close relationship. He had no silver spoon in his mouth like daddy did for little crazy Donny. He wasn’t regarded as the worst person on the planet as we’ve seen. I mean, you realize there’s, there’s been votes by both sides.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: Who’s, Donald Trump has been called that person. And, and so
Farron Cousins: He’s got military background too.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: So that works well for him with that, you know, Republican base. And listen, I don’t like the DeSantis at all, so, you know, and I know.
Mike Papantonio: I know you don’t.
Farron Cousins: But, but I do think if we’re looking at this in just terms of candidate strength, DeSantis beats Trump on every single level. And I love that you pointed out these things that he doesn’t have.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Because I’ve mentioned that as well. As much as I dislike the guy, there aren’t, as far as we know, and we’ve had plenty of time to look, there’s no skeletons in that closet.
Mike Papantonio: There really aren’t.
Farron Cousins: So.
Mike Papantonio: There really aren’t. I mean, when he says, I’m, you know, I love my wife. I’m a family guy. That is the story.
Farron Cousins: I mean, he’s got bad culture war legislation. Sure. But everybody’s got.
Mike Papantonio: There’s no question. I’m not, I’m not embracing this guy.
Farron Cousins: Oh, no, no, no. I’m just saying. But in terms of, have you had any affairs? Were you secretly paying for abortion?
Mike Papantonio: Exactly.
Farron Cousins: He hasn’t done that. And so that automatically puts him leaps and bounds above some of these other Republicans with embarrassing videos or whatever.
Mike Papantonio: This is the short list I got to thinking about before we came on the air. And it is, he, he is Trump is, has caused more harm to the Republican party and to American politics. And it’s just time for him to move over. And the only thing I see promising is you got a guy who might be able to do that here. And I, I’m looking at the numbers right now. He’s, he, he’s, he’s killing Trump already. And.
Farron Cousins: His poll numbers have gone through the roof in the last, you know, seven days. And Trump doesn’t, like, he’ll never step down. He is not gonna move out of the way, even though.
Mike Papantonio: No, he has mental, Trump has serious mental problems. He, he really does. It’s.
Farron Cousins: And the number of Republicans, his former allies, his MAGA people, the number of them coming out is increasing every day saying, uh-uh.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: No more Trump.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. I know.
Farron Cousins: So it’s bad for him.
Mike Papantonio: Well, the truth is, DeSantis is a rising star and, and, and Trump is a, a flaming out meteor that was there through the sky. He’s flamed out. Nobody will admit that he’s flamed out. But as you point out, DeSantis, 1.6 million votes in Florida ahead of Charlie Christ, the biggest difference it’s ever. Is it, is it just Florida history or is anywhere, Governor history?
Farron Cousins: I know it’s definitely Florida history. I’m not sure if it’s all over, but I, I have to imagine it’s at least in the top 10.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Maybe top five.
Mike Papantonio: Let me close by saying this. He needs to get out there now because Trump is gonna be out there trying to tie up the big givers.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. He’s gonna be out trying to tie up as much money as he can from the traditional conservative donors. But if you look at the field, you got maybe Pence, maybe Haley, you know, from South Carolina that, that’s in the mix. But you have Pom, Pompeo who, who I believe will come as a spoiler. You understand if Trump has a lot of people in the field that are just, just taking away potential votes from DeSantis in the primaries, that’s how Trump wins.
Farron Cousins: You know, who else has been trying to paint themselves as not a crazy person recently, somebody you and I actually talked about a while ago as a potential spoiler, Dan Crenshaw.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Dan Crenshaw has backed away from all of the, you know, Trump-like people.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, yeah.
Farron Cousins: He’s got the military history, you know, obviously the, eye patch that, that immediately draws your attention to the military history, gave up a part of his body for it.
Mike Papantonio: Mm-hmm.
Farron Cousins: That sells well.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: With average Americans.
Mike Papantonio: You, you agree though Trump is gonna hope that everybody stands back while he scrambles around trying to tie up as much money as he can from the big donors.
Farron Cousins: Absolutely.
Mike Papantonio: That’s what DeSantis needs to be aware of. Farron, thank you. Thanks for joining me. Okay.
Farron Cousins: Thank you.
Mike Papantonio: That’s all for this week, but all of these segments are gonna be available this upcoming week right here on this channel, and you can follow us on Twitter @AmericasLawyer. I’m Mike Papantonio and this has been America’s Lawyer, where every week we tell you the stories that corporate media won’t tell you because their advertisers don’t let ’em tell you that story. They won’t permit ’em to tell these stories or their political connections are just so tribal and so deep that they can’t tell some of these stories. I hope we’ll see you next time.
