It was election eve night. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in the studio with Stephen A. Smith, the legendary and bombastic sports personality, along with a live audience. There was virtually no hype ahead of the interview – the looming midterms were sucking up all the oxygen – and just the idea alone that DeSantis was chopping it up with the iconoclastic Smith, still widely perceived as a sports broadcaster, in Washington, D.C., was a bit odd and amusing. But once the clips started making the rounds on social media, the interview quickly blew up, drawing national headlines.
Why? Because DeSantis was dropping one bombshell after another. Right there in the studio with Stephen A. Smith, the Florida governor openly rebuked fellow Republicans, accusing them of “gaslighting” voters over the Iran War – “a big, big drag,” in his words – gas prices, inflation, and affordability concerns from working and middle-class voters. He trashed Kristi Noem and other Trump admin figures, such as MAGA lawyer Alina Habba, for being grossly incompetent and corrupt. He called out the Trump World’s graft – “You look at the amount of money these people in the administration are making” – and put a nail in the GOP’s coffin: “This swamp here is the worst it’s ever been.” It was a crystal-clear break away from Trump and MAGA – however disingenuous his intentions might be. And the timing, the night before the midterms, was a sure sign that he will be running for president in 2028. As the blue tsunami wiped out Republicans across the country, DeSantis was vindicated by late Tuesday night.
But how did DeSantis, once a staunch Trump ally, get to a point at which he was comparing Republicans to the tone-deaf Biden officials who dismissed the widespread inflation concerns of the early 2020s? How did he manage to be the one prominent Republican figure who came away from the midterms actually looking … better? He wasn’t on the ballot, of course, as his term ends in January, and his state was one of the few that weathered the storm and stayed red. But what else gives? It all goes back to a wise decision he made two years ago when he was at his lowest point.