Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has certainly made his share of mistakes while campaigning for the 2024 Republican presidential. nomination. Another may have just cropped up in the form of his comments seemingly referring to Donald Trump supporters as “listless vessels.”
The remarks were made during an interview with the Florida Standard.
“A movement can’t be about the personality of one individual,” DeSantis said.
He later added: “If all we are is listless vessels that’s just supposed to follow, you know, whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.”
It’s clear he’s referencing the “cult of personality” that many Trump supporters have been accused of propping up. And it’s clear he’s referencing Trump supporters in his mention of Truth Social since, well, nobody really uses Truth Social other than to see what the former President is saying.
Fans of Trump were quick to seize on the statement as DeSantis’s “deplorables” moment.
Bold move for Ronda Santis to follow the Crooked Hillary Clinton strategy and begin attacking Trump supporters.
Trump supporters aren’t “listless vessels,” they just know a globalist fraud when they see one. That’s why your campaign is dying and @realDonaldTrump is surging!!!! pic.twitter.com/LqG4YSQErl
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 20, 2023
DeSantis’ ‘Listless Vessels’ Clip Was Deceptively Edited
Adding to the woes from Camp DeSantis is the fact that CNN has been airing a clip of his “listless vessels” comment and, as they are prone to do, edited it in a manner that made it seem even worse.
And herein lies why you should never trust legacy media – even when they’re trying to convince you of things that will help your chosen candidate, or hurt the one you don’t necessarily support.
Former Deputy Secretary of DHS Ken Cuccinelli called out CNN’s editing of the clip live as they aired it once again and asked for his commentary.
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Host Kasie Hunt played the video and Cuccinelli immediately said, “But he wasn’t talking about Trump supporters.”
.@KenCuccinelli calls out CNN’s Kasie Hunt for deceptively editing Ron DeSantis’s comments during an interview with The Florida Standard. pic.twitter.com/Z4RlAgLyMr
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) August 20, 2023
After the clip airs, you can see the smile on Hunt’s face. She knows what her network has done. She knows they are producing fake news.
“Everybody just saw there that there was a cut,” Cuccinelli fired back after the clip aired. “You cut from the beginning of that quote to the listless vessels. You just did what the problem is.”
Cuccinelli encouraged viewers to go back and read the transcript which, yea, nobody watching CNN is actually going to do research. It’s not who they are.
But he’s right. Here’s what CNN aired:
DeSantis: A movement can’t be about the personality of one individual. If all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable moment.
And here’s what was actually said:
DeSantis: So there will be people who are huge Trump supporters, like in Congress, who have incredibly liberal left-wing records that is really just atrocious, and yet they’re viewed by some of these folks as like, really, really good. Then you have other people, you know, like a Congressman Chip Roy, who has endorsed me, Congressman Thomas Massie. These guys have records of principle fighting the swamp that are second to none. And yet, they will be attacked by some of these people and called RINOs.
So it’s just been totally detached from any type of substance. And ultimately, a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual. The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people? And that’s got to be based in principle. Because if you’re not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.
Not only has CNN left the context in his preceding comments out, but they do, in fact, remove two and a half sentences in between his statement.
Does it change the context for you? You decide.
BOOM!
Ken Cuccinelli drops a TRUTH BOMB on Kasie Hunt over misleading DeSantis videohttps://t.co/XWS6BK6ESH
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 20, 2023
DeSantis Has Made His Mistakes
Listen, there is no doubt that DeSantis has made his share of mistakes during his campaign. It’s why he went from being a solid second pick behind Trump to floundering in the polls and dropping into the same territory as candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy or Chris Christie.
Just last month, he made ill-advised comments following news of the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump regarding the January 6th riot at the Capitol by suggesting that the former president should have done more to stop it.
“I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do anything while things were going on,” DeSantis said at a press conference in South Carolina. “He should have come out more forcefully.”
DeSantis goes after Trump over January 6th:
“I think it was shown how he was in the White House & didn’t do anything while things were going on. He should have come out more forcefully.” pic.twitter.com/SErzEn8ib0
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 18, 2023
Those are buffoonish comments that never should have been made.
Prior to that incident, DeSantis left several viewers baffled after suggesting that the Trump administration “colluded” with Big Tech to bury the Hunter Biden laptop story, ostensibly causing him to lose the 2020 presidential election.
“I look back at the Hunter Biden censorship, which was a huge, huge deal to happen in the 2020 election, and yet those were Donald Trump’s own agencies that were colluding with Big Tech,” he said. “I would never allow that to happen. I would fire those people immediately.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused Trump administration agencies of “colluding” with Big Tech to bury the Hunter Biden story in 2020 and criticized the former president for not firing those involved with the alleged collusion at the time.
— The Hill (@thehill) July 9, 2023
Again – Buffoonish comments that never should have been made.
The man doesn’t need any help in dragging his own campaign down at this point, but CNN needs to be called out for deceptively editing comments to make them seem much worse than they are.
Both Trump supporters and those behind DeSantis should be able to at least agree on that.
Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
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