A Trump-aligned super PAC also blasted DeSantis’ statement.
“To Hillary Clinton, Trump supporters are ‘deplorables.’ To Ron DeSantis, they are ‘listless vessels.’ The truth is, Trump supporters are patriots,” MAGA, Inc. spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “DeSantis must immediately apologize for his disgraceful insult.”
“Looks like Ron DeSanctimonious just had his ‘Basket of Deplorables’ moment,” said Trump adviser Jason Miller.
The statements’ reference to Clinton alludes to an episode during the 2016 election when the former Democratic nominee called supporters of Trump “deplorables” that were motivated by “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” feelings. After blowback from Trump, she later walked back those comments, saying that she was referring to his campaign rhetoric and not his supporters.
In a response posted to X, DeSantis campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin said the governor’s comment was aimed at Trump and his congressional allies.
“The dishonest media refuses to report the facts — Donald Trump and some congressional endorsers are “listless vessels.” Why? Because Trump and DC insiders feel he is entitled to your vote,” Griffin wrote.
DeSantis, who has shaken up his campaign in an attempt to make up ground against Trump, has generally tried to ride a fine line between opposing the former president and not alienating his supporters, given their prominence in the Republican primary electorate.
Before making the “listless vessels” comment during the interview, DeSantis pushed back on the tendency of Trump and his allies to label conservatives who cross his line as RINOs, or Republicans in name only. The governor said some of Trump’s biggest allies have “incredibly liberal left-wing records.”
The comments point to Trump’s tendency of using Truth Social, a platform he owns, to attack his adversaries. Trump was banned from X, the platform previously known as Twitter, in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and he has since made Truth his new digital home.
WoundedKnee82 on August 19th, 2023 at 21:52 UTC »
And the sad part is he isn't wrong. Who is going to go vote if Trump isn't on the ballot for Republicans? What if states start barring Trump for sedition after he wins the primary? GOP doesn't believe in RCV. A lot of people are going to feel cheated. And nobody in the GOP wants to talk about the orange elephant in the room. Shit is going to get ugly.... and there isn't enough popcorn to watch. 😲
JaD__ on August 19th, 2023 at 21:10 UTC »
The deranged weirdo just doesn’t seem to grasp these people are out of his reach; insulting them with big-city fancy learned talk is just widening the chasm.
May as well have called them mindless drones.
2ndprize on August 19th, 2023 at 21:06 UTC »
1 that's way too complicated a reference for Trump supporters and
2 this guy isn't even worth paying attention to anymore. His campaign is so dead it is gonna become a metaphor for dead things. Years from now people will describe a failing business or broken car as deader than a Desantis presidential campaign