Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks against Ron DeSantis have left one prominent Republican commentator “mystified.”
During a Fox News Channel interview, Karl Rove took issue with the former President issuing “retrogressive” attacks on the Florida Governor, which he believes worked against the narrative Trump should prefer.
“I was mystified that the former President spent so much time trying to take down DeSantis. He lowered the expectations for DeSantis and raised some questions in people’s minds. Like the question of ‘If this guy is so bad, how did he win so big (in 2022)?’” Rove said.
“DeSantis benefited from that because Trump was not going to get him out of the race and Trump was lowering the expectations for him.”
Polling of the race shows, on average, at least a 30-point national lead for Trump. Rove ripped the former President for “hyperventilating about the latest poll results.”
“That’s a mistake,” Rove contended. “First of all, the early polls are not necessarily that determinative of what’s going to happen at the end.”
Rove used recent Presidential Elections to make his point.
“Think about this. Rudy Giuliani led in 2008. Hillary Clinton led in 2008. Days before they started voting in Iowa in 2012, Newt Gingrich was ahead. Jeb Bush was leading at this time in 2016. So the early polls are not necessarily determinative of what happens at the end,” Rove said.
“So, why spend a lot of time talking about them? Because those polls are likely to tighten as people get into the race and sort of catch some public attention and they get better known. Those numbers are likely to tighten and what’s the former President going to say then?”
Rove said Trump’s strategy was a “mistake” and that he was spending too much time “knocking DeSantis.” Instead, the former President should be “telling us what he wants to do in a second term.”
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