Has Fernand Amandi been binge-watching Joe Scarborough? You have to wonder, given his attack vocabulary on Ron DeSantis on Jonathan Capehart's MSNBC Sunday Show this morning. Amandi—an MSNBC analyst and Florida-based Democrat consultant—borrowed one of Scarborough's signature moves: riding a favorite phrase into the ground.
No fewer than four times, Amandi described DeSantis, with full stops between each word, as a "MAGA. Extremist. Bully."
For good measure, Amandi employed another tired Scarborough trope: referring to DeSantis as a "fascist."
To his—dubious—credit, Amandi did supply some attack lines of his own:
"To know DeSantis is to loathe DeSantis."
Among Amandi's other slurs on DeSantis:
- Coward
- Awkward
- Uncomfortable
- Arrogant
- A "Richard" [i.e., a dick]
- Nothing very positive about him
- Imperial
- Not very likeable
- Very condescending
- Very aloof
DeSantis and his allies will likely take Amandi's attacks as an encouraging sign. The Democratic apparatchiks wouldn't be breaking out the big guns this early against DeSantis unless they saw him as a real threat to Biden's re-election.
On Jonathan Capehart's Sunday Show on MSNBC, Florida-based Democrat consultant Fernand Amandi repeatedly calling Ron DeSantis a "MAGA extremist bully" was sponsored in part by Chase and 4Imprint.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
The Sunday Show With Jonathan Capehart
3/12/23
9:21 am EDTFERNAND AMANDI: He is doing a soft launch for a presidential campaign. So, in doing that, he is trying to define himself nationally. But the problem is, he's already been defined here in Florida.
And the definition of Ron DeSantis: what he is and who he is, Jonathan, is a MAGA. Extremist. Bully. That is what and who Ron Desantis is. And so long as the Democrats and the Biden administration, and President Biden's campaign, should he run for re-election, and I think and hope he will, understand that the opportunity to define him on the basis of that definition of him being a MAGA. Extremist. Bully.
Based on his record here in Florida, someone who wants to ban abortions after six weeks. He's literally in favor of banning books that are against anything that he disagrees with. He wants to ban the free market when they exercise their own free choice to disagree with policies of the state. A fascist type of approach. See that in what he's doing with the Walt Disneyworld company.
So, this MAGA. Extremist. Bully is what he is and who he is. So long as he's defined on those terms before he can try and present himself as this woke-culture-warrior, I think he's going to be in a box that's going to be very difficult to get out of should he vanquish Donald Trump and win the nomination in 2024, Jonathan.
. . .
Fundamentally, like all bullies, even though he's a MAGA extremist bully, Ron DeSantis is a coward. And what I mean by that, Jonathan, is that he cannot handle any sort of criticism. Yet the problem for him is you have perhaps the greatest bully in political history, certainly in American political history, staring at the other end of him in Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is going to hit him hard, repeatedly, as many times as possible, if he dares get in the race against him.
That's why I think as the coward, bully, that Desantis is, he's hoping others do the dirty work for him. He's not willing to confront Donald Trump on his own. And the road to the Republican nomination in 2024 goes absolutely, positively, through Donald
. . .
To know DeSantis is to loathe DeSantis. He is the most awkward, uncomfortable, porcupine-type figure on the stump. He's arrogant, he's a bit of a Richard. There's just nothing very positive about him. And you don't really walk away feeling warm and fuzzy. And DeSantis allies in Florida say that about the man. So, if you want to keep distance and have this kind of imperial air about him, I think it's a better approach than to have him engaging one-on-one. Because he's just not very likable, he's very aloof and very condescending. So I think it's actually smart to keep him distanced from voters. Whereas again, Trump has that quality that Republican MAGA voters at least appreciate—his ability to engage and be one-on-one.
