Ron DeSantis apparently has some regrets about how his campaign has gone thus far. Coming off a double-digit loss to Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses, and with polls looking grim in the upcoming primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, Florida’s governor got a little introspective during an appearance on conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt’s podcast.
Before you get your hopes up about what this change of heart means, he’s not regretful for signing a draconian six-week abortion ban. Or suggesting that slavery had personal benefits for enslaved Black people. Or warring with Disney. Or continuing to foment racial division after a racist shooter left three Black people dead in Jacksonville last year. Or running a campaign premised on poor Trump mimicry. Or getting mopped up in a totally unnecessary debate with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The DeSantis campaign has been rife with political missteps.
But when Hewitt asked him to name his biggest misstep thus far, the governor cited his initial refusal to make the media rounds.
He said:
Well, look, I mean I think that you know, presidential campaigns are a lot about media. Like you know, I spent a lot of time on the ground in Iowa, and it’s good. And when you meet people, you convert them. But there’s just so many voters out there that you’ve got to do. And I came in not really doing as much media. I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all the corporate shows. I should have gone on everything. I started doing that as we got into the end of the summer, and we did it. But we had an opportunity, I think, to come out of the gate and do that and reach a much broader folk. Now, I’m everywhere. I mean, I’ll show up wherever.
Initially, DeSantis tried to stick with conservative outlets: Remember when he launched his campaign on Elon Musk’s conservative-friendly social media platform? But seemingly out of desperation, he pivoted to more mainstream outlets months into his campaign. While I clearly think that the DeSantis campaign failed on several fronts, and while I’m skeptical that voters seeing more of DeSantis would have helped, he has a point. It’s fair to say he shot himself in the foot by granting access only to decidedly conservative outlets. That boxed him in and had him pitching himself as a Trump substitute to an audience solidly loyal to the real thing.
In these dog days of the DeSantis campaign, the candidate has started to reflect more openly on how he feels the media influenced his presidential bid. Just last week, he publicly criticized Fox News for acting as Trump’s “Praetorian Guard” and shielding him from criticism. "They don’t hold him accountable because they’re worried about losing viewers and they don’t want to have the ratings go down.”
And he told Iowa voters that conservative media is just as responsible for spreading fake news as the “corporate press.” Sour grapes? Perhaps. But for what it’s worth: DeSantis the media critic does seem a bit more rooted in reality than DeSantis the presidential candidate.