What Makes DeSantis Scarier Than Trump
New Abnormal hosts Andy and Molly think the Florida guv is smarter than Trump—but also a lot scarier, too. Plus, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul talks Trump and SCOTUS.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Is Ron DeSantis going to run for president in 2024? If he is, New Abnormal co-hosts Andy Levy and Molly Jong-Fast think he’ll be a scarier candidate than Donald Trump. They point to a lackluster speech the former president recently gave during an event run by conservative student activist organization Turning Point USA.
“Part of why Trump wasn’t as effective as he could have been was because he was hindered by his emotionality, right?” says Molly. “I don’t think that DeSantis is gonna get up there and say, ‘It’s really about the 2020 election.’ He’s gonna get up there and say, ‘We need to, you know, punish trans children.’”
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“Even though DeSantis is boring as hell, he’s sort of the new boring,” she adds.
“DeSantis won’t get up there and say, ‘We’re gonna punish transgender children.’ What he’ll do is get up there and say, ‘We believe in parents’ rights,’ and he’ll couch it in various ways because he’s smarter than Trump in that way. So he’ll get up there and say it in a way that is somehow more palatable to even the people who are not the most rabid of the base,” Andy adds.
The two expand on this in the episode, followed by an interview with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. She talks to Molly about what she and her administration are doing to prevent ugly fallout from the Supreme Court ruling on guns in the state and her opinion on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg not prosecuting Trump.
Plus! James Obergefell, the plaintiff in the historic Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, shares the events that led to his case and why he’s “disgusted” today.
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