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Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t unveiled many details about what he’d do if elected to the White House, but as The Hill reported, the Florida Republican has one plan he’s eager to brag about.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in a Thursday interview that, if elected president, he would fire special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two indictments against former President Trump, on “day one” of his hypothetical term in office. DeSantis made the case for why he was the best candidate to win the GOP nomination in 2024 in a Fox News interview with Jason Chaffetz.
Let’s briefly pause to note for context that Chaffetz and DeSantis served together as members of the House Republican conference for nearly four years. In other words, this was an interview in which one former far-right congressman interviewed another former far-right congressman.
Nevertheless, the on-air discussion was about Maine’s secretary of state concluding that Donald Trump is not eligible for the state’s 2024 ballot. “What do you think the GOP should do?” the host asked DeSantis. “And what should the presidential candidates like yourself do about this?
The White House hopeful responded by effectively making the pitch for his national candidacy. “I think that a guy like me as the nominee will be able to keep the focus on Biden, keep the focus on the Democrats’ failures, but then, more importantly, after you win the election, start holding these people accountable who have weaponized the legal system to go after their political enemies.
“And that starts with, day one, firing somebody like Jack Smith.”
There was no shortage of flaws in the governor’s pitch. For one thing, there is literally no evidence of the Biden administration having “weaponized the legal system” to “go after” its enemies. (If, however, DeSantis is looking for actual evidence along these lines, I’d refer him to the Trump administration’s efforts between 2017 and 2020.)
What’s more, given the state of the GOP race, it’s a little audacious for the Floridian to speak with any confidence about the steps he’d take on his first day in the White House.
But I’m also not altogether sure whether this is an effective campaign promise. What DeSantis effectively presented was an awkward vow: “What I really want to do is fire the prosecutor who uncovered evidence of my opponent committing several alleged felonies.”
There’s no proof of the special counsel having done anything wrong, or that his appointment was the result of any kind of corruption. All Smith has done is oversee a methodical process that has resulted in compelling indictments, approved by separate federal grand juries, that made brutal cases against Trump.
The fact that DeSantis’ priority is to fire Smith, rather than highlight Smith’s findings, offers some insights into why the governor is currently trailing the former president by roughly 50 points.