NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday questioned whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “indirect criticism” of former president Donald Trump as a loser will work in a 2024 Republican primary challenge. (Watch below.)
The “Meet the Press” host, in an appearance on “Sunday Today,” told Willie Geist that he’s uncertain whether Trump supporters will “accept the premise that they’ve been losing.”
“Well, Donald Trump has convinced his supporters they haven’t been losing, they’ve been winning,” Todd said. He added that Trump claims “the deep state and Democrats and the media have been in cahoots to sort of rig it against them,” and “that’s the problem here.”
DeSantis, in a visit to Iowa over the weekend, called on voters to reject the GOP’s “culture of losing” as he gears up for a possible 2024 presidential campaign. Trump led the party to defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and the GOP’s showing in the 2022 midterm elections was weaker than polls predicted.
Todd described Republican leaders’ “sheer paralysis” toward Trump, pointing to the shrugs after a Manhattan jury last week found Trump liable for sexual abuse.
“So, here he is convicted by a jury of defamation about a sexual assault and it was crickets from his party,” said Todd.
“I don’t think they have figured out how to take him on yet, and I think that’s Ron DeSantis, as well,” Todd said.