As the only network morning show Tuesday to cover the 2024 campaign, ABC’s Good Morning America again did the bidding of parent company Disney by bashing Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Unsurprisingly, they continuing to fixate five days later on the bandwidth issues with his 2024 presidential campaign launch on Twitter, whined his interviews have been with conservative talk radio hots, and painted him as one of many top-line candidates.
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos pivoted to 2024 by focusing on DeSantis and Twitter as a way to permanently link the two in the eyes of voters (and not his policies or anything else): “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kicking off his campaign for the Republican nomination there after the botched Twitter launch last week. Donald Trump also heading to that early primary state this week.”
Chief Washington correspondent and lucrative Trump author Jonathan Karl noted Tuesday marks the start of a four-day tour for DeSantis through the first three voting states (Iowa, New Hampshire, then South Carolina) before throwing jabs.
“The announcement was plagued with technical difficulties, but DeSantis — the DeSantis team claims that they raised more than $8 million just on the first day,” Karl whined, seeming to be one of the few still obsessed with the less-than-ideal launch and questioning the veracity of Team DeSantis’s fundraising claims.
Karl again poo-pooed DeSantis for not having “actually interacted with voters since he announced he was running for president last week” and, when it comes to interviews, he bemoaned the Florida governor did “a flurry of” them, but mostly “with conservative talk shows.”
One word for Karl and the liberal forlorn DeSantis won’t appear on their airwaves for what would be a trap: Cope.
Karl finished his first of two parts by noting DeSantis has gone after Donald Trump directly.
Stephanopoulos replied this was proof DeSantis is “trying to turn it into a two-man race” by contrasting himself with Trump, but Karl wasn’t.
With another Trump book on the way, it’s in Karl’s financial interests to keep a splintered vote:
[I]t is not a two-man race. It’s starting to become a very crowded Republican field. Take a look at this. There are now more than a dozen either current candidates that have already declared they’re running or are actively considering they’re running.
When it comes to ABC newscasts, NewsBusters has shown that, based on DeSantis’s taxonomy term, they’ve upped the ante. Any attempt to suggest it’s a mere coincidence given DeSantis’s fight against ABC’s parent company Disney would be kidding themselves.
Tuesday’s DeSantis hits were brought to you thanks to the backing of advertisers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Nature’s Bounty. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant ABC transcript from May 30, click “expand.”
ABC’s Good Morning America
May 30, 2023
7:12 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New This Morning; DeSantis Kicking Off Presidential Campaign in Iowa; Florida Gov Heads to Early Primary State as GOP Race Heats Up]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We’re going to stay in Iowa. The race for 2024 now. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kicking off his campaign for the Republican nomination there after the botched Twitter launch last week. Donald Trump also heading to that early primary state this week. Chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl is on the scene in Des Moines. Good morning, Jon.
JONATHAN KARL: Good morning, George. Ron DeSantis will be here in Iowa tonight for his first campaign event since he announced he was running for president. It’s the beginning of a four day campaign swing that will bring him across the state of Iowa, also to New Hampshire, and to South Carolina. The announcement was plagued with technical difficulties, but DeSantis — the DeSantis team claims that they raised more than $8 million just on the first day. DeSantis hasn’t actually interacted with voters since he announced he was running for president last week, but he has done a flurry of interviews, almost all of them with conservative talk shows. And he’s used those interviews, George, to hit back a bit at Donald Trump, who has been relentlessly attacking DeSantis for months. In one interview he said of Trump, “he obviously is attacking me from the left,” adding, “I don’t know what happened to Donald Trump. This is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 or 2016.” So, some very unusual, direct criticism of Trump from Ron DeSantis.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, he’s trying to turn it into a two-man race.
KARL: He is. And, George, it is not a two-man race. It’s starting to become a very crowded Republican field. Take a look at this. There are now more than a dozen either current candidates that have already declared they’re running or are actively considering they’re running. This week alone, you’re going to see, of course, Trump in Iowa, but also Nikki Haley is going to be here, Tim Scott is going to be here, Mike Pence is going to be here, just to name a few.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Jon Karl, thanks.
