The New York Times, which Daily Wire pundit Andrew Klavan calls a "former newspaper" because of its bias, declared on Sunday that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's GOP presidential campaign is now on "hospice care" with "inevitable death" to follow, but a spokesperson for DeSantis called the story bogus.
The Times piece quoted close advisor Ryan Tyson as having said privately "to multiple people that they are at the point in the campaign where they need to 'make the patient comfortable,' a phrase evoking hospice care."
DeSantis communication director Andrew Romeo denied the report and produced a statement from Tyson denying the quoted comments, however.
"Different day, same media hit job based on unnamed sources with agendas,” Romeo said.
"While the media tried to proclaim this campaign dead back in August, Ron DeSantis fought back and enters the home stretch in Iowa as the hardest working candidate with the most robust ground game," he added. "DeSantis has been underestimated in every race he’s ever run and always proved the doubters wrong. We are confident he will defy the odds once again on Jan. 15.”
Two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, polls show DeSantis more than 30 points behind former President Donald Trump and virtually tied with former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley with about 17% of the vote.
It's a far cry from the 30% support he had in May when he declared his candidacy.
DeSantis acknowledged that the Trump indictments "sucked a lot of the oxygen" out of his campaign as outraged Republicans threw their support behind Trump in reaction to the charges against him.
"If I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff," DeSantis said in a recent CBN interview.
Nationally, Trump now stands at almost 70% Republican support with DeSantis closer to 12%.
With some more campaigning in later primary states, DeSantis could pick up a few points, but it seems clear that Republicans want Trump back in a bad way for 2024, despite his many legal woes.
DeSantis has similar policies (other than abortion) and none of Trump's baggage, but he has not managed to grab voters the way only Trump seems able to do.
While anything may still be possible, it certainly looks like Trump will get the nomination and face President Joe Biden or whoever ends up being the Democrat nominee.
Let's hope Republicans' desire for justice--or revenge--doesn't backfire on them and the whole country along with them.
