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Gov. Ron DeSantis made a campaign appearance in Nevada a couple of months ago, and told a group of GOP voters that he was concerned that his party had “developed a culture of losing.” The Florida Republican was cautious, however, about the details: He didn’t explicitly say that Donald Trump was a part of this culture.
The apprehension was understandable, because the intra-party pressures surrounding the former president’s defeat were — and are — complex and potentially damaging. On the one hand, DeSantis wants Republican voters to know they should steer clear of candidates who’ve already lost. On the other hand, more than two-thirds of GOP voters have embraced Trump’s bonkers conspiracy theories and see Joe Biden’s presidency as illegitimate, reality notwithstanding.
If DeSantis were to say that the former president really did lose, he’d risk being seen by most of his party’s base as a traitor who sided with Democrats, election officials, judges, and people with access to calculators. If the governor were to say that Trump’s lies were true, and that the 2020 race was “rigged,” he’d undermine GOP voters’ motivation for a new and different nominee.
What would DeSantis do about this? It took a while, but we now finally have an answer. NBC News reported on comments the Floridian made while campaigning in Iowa.
Asked by a reporter during a campaign stop in Iowa whether the 2020 election was “stolen,” DeSantis said the fraud theories “did not prove to be true.” He did not, however, mention the name of his top rival for the GOP nomination, who was just indicted for allegedly working to overturn the last presidential election.
To be sure, the governor did not come right out and say, “Trump lied about his defeat,” despite the fact that Trump really did lie about his defeat, but DeSantis went considerably further than he has before.
“I’ve said many times, the election is what it is,” DeSantis said. “All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true.” He added that assorted theories, “you know, proved to be unsubstantiated.”
Note the classic and clumsy use of passive voice: The Florida Republican referenced “theories that were put out,” carefully avoiding reference to those responsible for the theories. It was effectively DeSantis’ way of saying lies were told, instead of pointing to those who told the lies.
What’s more, I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention that the phrase “the election is what it is” has no apparent meaning.
Nevertheless, the GOP governor has dodged questions about Trump and the 2020 race repeatedly for months, and he’s never come close to saying what he said today.
This shift appears to reflect the simple fact that DeSantis couldn’t stick to the same vague rhetoric indefinitely and expect to win his party’s nomination. To succeed, he’ll need to convince a whole lot of Republicans that Trump peddled nonsense and lost his re-election bid — which, fortunately for the governor, is what actually happened.
Having facts on his side, however, might not be enough, and it’s all but certain that Trump will seize on these comments as evidence of DeSantis siding with the reality-based community over the 69% of Republican voters who actually believe the former president’s “Big Lie.”
I won’t pretend to know whether this grudging acknowledgement of the truth — late on a Friday afternoon in early August — will help or hurt DeSantis’ candidacy, but at least it’s something new and different, in a race that’s been gradually slipping away from him.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.