Why did DeSantis only give CNN 15 minutes to soft-launch his campaign to the mainstream media?
Tiana Lowe Doescher
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Although CNN had eagerly advertised that Jake Tapper had nabbed a rare, on-camera interview with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), the cable host ultimately conceded with more than a hint of disappointment that the Republican presidential hopeful only granted the network 15 minutes of time on air.
The interview was somewhat of a reboot for the Florida governor’s campaign. Despite persisting as the current second-place challenger to front-runner Donald Trump, DeSantis has failed to catch the fire Republicans expected after his breathtaking 20-point margin of reelection during the otherwise disappointing midterms for the party. So the CNN spot, which came after two months of his surrogates spending more time taking cheap shots at other candidates’ flirtations with the “mainstream media,” constituted a sort of soft-launch of DeSantis’s more “mainstream” brand.
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DeSantis did indeed debut a candidate less terminally online than his most vociferous supporters have pantomimed. When pressed by Tapper about hid posturing about LGBT issues, including that infamous advertisement blasting Trump for saying he would “protect our LGBTQ” citizens, DeSantis defended his proposal to ban transgender Americans from serving in the military.
“In the military, it’s all about the mission first,” DeSantis, a decorated veteran, said. “People’s individuality, you do have to check that at the door.”
While DeSantis then addressed and defended his opposition to biological men competing in women’s sports, he crucially noted, “I would respect everybody, but what I wouldn’t do is to turn society upside down.”
DeSantis avoided some major landmines. He avoided siding with prosecutors investigating Trump’s actions before the January 6 riots, while pointing out that perhaps this election is about moving on from the fracas. And while he boldly said that he wouldn’t send American troops to Ukraine (not that anyone serious in the GOP was asking), he did ultimately refuse to say that he would stop funding Ukraine’s defense.
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But the most telling piece of evidence that DeSantis 2024 has cleaned house, at least somewhat, is that he touched on the single most salient issue in the election. While he lumped in “inflation” with his war on wokeness as one of the most crucial “bread and butter issues,” the most potent attack on Biden (and Trump’s economic legacy, for that matter) was mentioned at long last.
And yet the interview felt more like a first date that ends half an hour too early because the candidate got cold feet. DeSantis could handle Tapper’s questioning, and Tapper’s questioning was characteristically substantive and fair, especially in the context of what his colleagues could have tried. So why did DeSantis deprive us of more content and not use the hour to the fullest?