What Trump needs to understand about criticizing DeSantis

Salon

 American Thinker  "New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg is rumored to be ready to bring a sham indictment against former president Donald Trump for allegedly paying porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign to be quiet about a former affair.  As of this writing, whether or not this happens remains to be seen.  In the interim, political figures across the spectrum have weighed in on the matter, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

"Behaving eerily like leftist thought police, some staunch Trump-supporters had demanded that Governor DeSantis voice his unequivocal and unquestioning support for the former president.  DeSantis did respond to inquiring reporters and spent almost three minutes (start at 22:30) defending Trump and knocking Bragg for using a seven-year-old non-crime to push a political vendetta against a former president.  Of those three minutes, he spent nine seconds subtly digging at the impropriety of Trump's extramarital proclivities.  To the extent that he attacked Trump, he simply restated the allegations against him, stating, "I don't know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair."

"DeSantis responded, but in a way that wasn't an exact carbon copy of how some Trumpists felt he should have.  Brianna Lyman of the Daily Caller thinks DeSantis "tanked" his 2024 chances.  Conservative think-tank cog Alex Bruesewitz accused DeSantis of "refusing to stand" with Trump.

"Refusing to stand with Trump?  Despite having "stood with" Trump for the near entirety of his response?  And this, despite the fact that Trump has launched unprovoked and libelous attacks at DeSantis for months?  I thought demanding unquestioned loyalty to mortal men was a tenet of totalitarian societies, not of self-described American conservatives. ". . .

Comment to this post:  Donald Henderson:  The real conflict here is not between DeSantis and Trump but instead the Republican Party and its grassroots. If Trump is brought up on Stalist charges yet again it is incumbent on the Republican Party to go full bar against the establishment. The Turtle, Mittens, and Bushes need to be openly challenged if they don’t support a very aggressive Republican Party defending trump. It is time for one voice and it is well past time for the Republican Party to step up.