POLITICO NIGHTLY: Inside the House of DeSantis

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BY CHARLIE MAHTESIAN

With help from Ari Hawkins

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump in 2018. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images

DESANTIS STRIKES BACK — Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former star baseball player at Yale, clapped back at former President Donald Trump today with a classic taunt straight from the playing field — he pointed to the scoreboard.

Following a weekend where Trump referred to him as “disloyal” and sought to dismiss DeSantis as a potential 2024 rival, the Florida Republican responded with a subtle dig that’s all but certain to get under Trump’s skin.

Asked during a press conference about his one-time ally’s recent criticism , DeSantis pointed to the fact that he had been reelected to a second term — unlike, say, the former president. He didn’t mention Trump’s name. But he didn’t have to.

“The good thing is, is that the people are able to render a judgment on that whether they reelect you or not. And I’m happy to say — you know in my case — not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has had in the history of the state of Florida,” he said.

With DeSantis rising in Republican primary polls in advance of his expected 2024 bid, Nightly asked Matt Dixon , POLITICO’s Tallahassee-based Florida bureau chief, about the governor’s relationship with Trump and about the political confidantes who surround DeSantis. This interview has been edited.

Donald Trump pointedly criticized DeSantis this past weekend during his early-state campaign foray, which suggests the former president views the governor as his toughest opposition in 2024. What is the relationship between the two camps?

There functionally is none. There is some staff overlap between the two, as a handful of Trump aides previously worked for DeSantis. But as both camps prepare for what seems like an inevitable clash, any pre-existing friendly relationships have fallen apart. To the extent any relationship does exist, it’s one of bad blood. Both sides know they are the other’s biggest hurdle to getting the Republican nomination, and the quiet insults have started to fly. That dynamic is amplified at times because key staffers have worked with each other in the past and have had personal relationships.

Both do share one thing in common: dishing to the press. As the tensions between Trump and DeSantis have seeped more into public view, there have been an increasing number of calls from both camps that start with “is off the record ok?” Those calls generally focus on planting seeds with reporters about perceived weaknesses or missteps.

DeSantis seems to be generating an unusually high amount of buzz among the GOP grassroots. What has he said to date about his presidential aspirations? Has he explicitly said anything about his intention to run for president in 2024?

DeSantis has been militant in brushing off questions about his 2024 aspiration. Though most of his public policy decisions are geared towards energizing the national conservative base rather than focusing on Florida-specific problems, he reacts with his well-known brand of condescension when reporters ask about whether he is considering a run for president.

His team is also very disciplined in this regard. For the most part, even in background conversations with DeSantis adivers, they generally frame things as though DeSantis is still making up his mind, or nothing is a foregone conclusion.

What can you tell us about the size and composition of his inner political circle? Is it a disciplined operation or more chaotic and fluid like Trump World? What traits does DeSantis value in his team?

DeSantis’ inner circle remains very small, and is significantly more disciplined than that of Trump World. DeSantis has a very good internal political radar, and nothing he does is by accident. His messaging, the fights he chooses to pick, and the fights he chooses not to pick are all very strategic and calculated.

Part of that comes with having a generally small inner circle , especially for someone plotting out a potential presidential bid. DeSantis in the past, including going back to his days in Congress, has had a reputation for not being loyal, and routinely firing staff and campaign consultants. The team he had in place for the 2022 midterms, however, is expected to make up the core of a potential presidential run.

The governor’s communications staffers are known for their confrontational, pugilistic style. Is that a fair assessment? Is that something he encourages?

Calling them confrontational does a disservice to the word confrontational. Under DeSantis, the institution of public communications has been upended. It previously was an area that always had some healthy tension between reporters and communications staff, but now the creation of tension is the point, as opposed to an occasional byproduct. DeSantis’ communications team has openly boasted about how it’s not their job to help members of the media, and are well known for taking screenshots of reporter questions and posting them on Twitter, a habit that only makes the relationship worse. Stories that they disagree with often end up as standalone headlines on right-wing websites or Fox News, and then will be endlessly retweeted and circulated by the community of Twitter trolls they have helped cultivate.

What role does DeSantis’ wife, Casey, play in his operation? What is her public profile like?

Casey DeSantis is the top adviser, most trusted voice, and architect behind much of her husband’s policy and political decision making. She is widely regarded as the most powerful First Lady in Florida history, and has been given a larger and public policy portfolio that most notably includes heading up the administration’s mental health initiatives.

Fill in the blank here. In Tallahassee, DeSantis’ inner circle has a reputation for being _______.

Insular.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmahtesian@politico.com or on Twitter at @PoliticoCharlie .

 

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WHAT'D I MISS?

— Mitch Daniels opts against a run for the Senate: Mitch Daniels is passing on a bid for an open Indiana Senate seat , forgoing what would have been one of the most hotly contested primaries in the 2024 cycle. In an exclusive statement to POLITICO, the former Indiana Republican governor and Purdue University president said he concluded a Senate run to replace retiring Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) wasn’t the right fit for him at this stage of his career.

— Matt Schlapp accuser files a second suit against top conservative operative: The Republican staffer who accused conservative stalwart Matt Schlapp of sexual assault and filed a lawsuit against him for nearly $10 million has filed a separate suit against another top GOP operative alleging defamation. Caroline Wren, who most recently ran Harmeet Dhillon’s campaign for RNC chair and Kari Lake’s run for governor, was sued today in D.C.’s federal district court , according to a complaint obtained by POLITICO.

— Federal judge blocks New Jersey law that allows state to sue gun industry: A federal judge today blocked a New Jersey law that allows the state attorney general to sue the gun industry if it endangers public safety through its sales or marketing practices. U.S. District Judge Zahid Nisar Quraishi, an appointee of President Joe Biden, issued the preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law. In his 20-page opinion, Quraishi, sitting in Trenton, said the New Jersey law appeared to be at odds with the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005, a federal law that shields the gun industry from lawsuits when their products are used during the commission of a crime.

— Dems’ new primary calendar nabs support from Southern DNC members: The new Democratic presidential calendar got a fresh boost of support ahead of a final vote before the Democratic National Committee this weekend, after the DNC’s Southern Caucus publicly backed the plan this week. Eight members of the DNC’s Southern Caucus leadership team — a mix of state party chairs and DNC members from North Carolina to Texas — signed on to a statement endorsing Biden’s proposed changes, which include elevating South Carolina to the first-in-the-nation primary slot and eliminating Iowa from the process.

AROUND THE WORLD

Police officers examine the site of Monday's suicide bombing after authorities finished the rescue operation in Peshawar, Pakistan. | Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo

RISE IN TERROR — The death toll from a suicide bomb that tore through northwestern Pakistan on Monday rose to above 100, according to hospital officials. The blast, which is one of the deadliest in recent history, underscores a growing security crisis as the Pakistani Taliban seeks greater control over the populace, Ari Hawkins writes for Nightly.

More than 300 worshippers were praying in a mosque in Peshawar, the highly secured capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa near the Afghanistan border, when a bomber set off an explosive from his vest.

Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif blamed the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the TTP, for the attack and said they were operating with neighboring Afghan terrorists. A TTP commander originally claimed responsibility, but a spokesman for the group later distanced themselves from the carnage, and said it was not their policy to attack places of worship.

The bombing comes two weeks after a police station on the outskirts of Peshawar faced an onslaught from TTP fighters in a coordinated attack which killed three officers. Earlier this month, the group claimed one of its members shot and killed two additional policemen.

“We’ve seen a serious intensification of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan in recent months, especially since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan,” Michael Jugelman, the senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center, told Nightly in an interview.

“Most of the terrorist missions have been carried out in rural areas, particularly near the border with Afghanistan, but this was a major city and it was a mass casualty attack … the resurgence has really been galvanized by the fact that the Taliban won its war in Afghanistan.”

Since November, the security situation has quickly deteriorated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province closest to Afghanistan.

The TTP has carried out almost a dozen deadly attacks against police and military in the region and in one incident in December, Taliban detainees overpowered their guards at a counter-terrorism unit and killed more than a dozen army and police officers.

The TPP has waged a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani government, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic law. The group has been responsible for some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country, including the 2014 Peshawar school massacre in which 132 children were killed.

The Pakistani government’s bloody counteroffensive between 2014 and 2017 temporarily suppressed the TTP's mission, but the group has since stepped up its attacks. Across the country, the TTP has conducted close to an estimated 100 attacks since November, when the group ended their ceasefire after failed peace talks with the Pakistani government.

“We’re seeing a TTP organization that, in some ways, is still trying to establish what its goals are. Officials have tried to project it as more moderate compared to the likes of other groups, like Al Qaeda, but at the same time, we are seeing this brutal, maximalist approach to gain power,” Jugelman added.

 

JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE .

  

NIGHTLY NUMBER

$100.3 billion The amount of revenue that Pfizer recorded in 2022 , a record for the pharmaceutical giant. Over half came from Covid vaccines and the antiviral drug Paxlovid; Pfizer expects a drop in revenue in 2023, when the company predicts only $13.5 billion will come from the vaccine and $8 billion from Paxlovid. This is partly because while 31 percent of the population received at least one Covid vaccine in 2022, only 24 percent is expected to receive a Covid vaccine dose this year, and the U.S. government is likely to wind down its purchasing of the vaccine as it becomes available on the open market. Pfizer expects to account for about two-thirds of Covid vaccinations next year.

RADAR SWEEP

THE ‘IC’ FACTOR — Has “trolling the libs” been going on for longer than anyone realizes? One particular nickname that sticks in liberals’ craw — the swapping out of the “Democratic” Party for the “Democrat” Party — has been going on since at least 1946, when Tennessee Congressman and Republican National Committee Chair B. Carroll Reece popularized the “so-called Democrat Party” name as a dig. Reece got it from anti-New Deal Republicans even more seasoned than him, who wanted to make the point that the new Democratic Party was not so democratic at all. Read the whole history from Lawrence B. Glickman in Slate.

PARTING WORDS

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss. | Carl Court/Getty Images

SECOND ACT — In her 49 days as Britain’s prime minister, Liz Truss terrified financial markets, sundered her party and doomed her government in a crusade to remake the British economy with slashing tax cuts. When she resigned, her economic vision was in ruins and Truss looked finished as a political force.

Yet on a visit to Washington before the winter holidays, Truss indicated she did not see things that way , writes Alex Burns . Far from abandoning her ideological ambitions, the former prime minister used her trip as a research expedition to inform a comeback. Conferring with Republican lawmakers and activists, Truss said she remained determined to rouse Britain from economic stagnation — and intimated that she did not trust her successor, Rishi Sunak, a more technocratic Tory, to do the job.

Truss conceded she had made mistakes: She had not done enough to build support for her ideas and had moved too abruptly on an agenda that shocked the country. Truss did not put it this way, but she had tried to transplant American-style anti-tax politics onto British soil and she had failed.

And in Washington, Truss found a new one she admired: the Republican Study Committee, an influential body within the House of Representatives that serves as an ideological anchor for the GOP and a clearinghouse for government-shrinking policies. In a meeting with Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the group’s chair, Truss said she wanted to create a similar caucus in Westminster to “house all of their ideas into a collective group, in order to hold the current prime minister accountable,” according to Hern.

Truss floated a few names for that entity. One, Hern told me, was the “Conservative Growth Group.”

Weeks later, POLITICO’s Eleni Courea reported that a handful of MPs, including Truss and several former ministers, had gathered to toast the creation of a group with precisely that name.

Did Truss’ redemption tour begin in Washington?

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