CNN was the kingmaker in 2016; why shouldn’t it be now? In a shift for his campaign, Ron DeSantis plans to sit down with CNN’s Jake Tapper to discuss the Florida governor’s vision for America. It will no doubt make CNN some cash that the network apparently needs. Like a quickly arranged fight between two spendthrift boxers, both the network and the campaign have a sense of urgency.
While I remain unconcerned about DeSantis’s prospects, the early success of DeSantis’s campaign in national and state-level polling has slipped ever since Trump regained the news cycle, in the wake of investigations and splashy bombast. DeSantis initially eschewed confrontational media hits, but he now has the opportunity to harvest more than a few cuts of red meat for a base that hasn’t seen as many gladiatorial trophies from the gator governor as they may have expected.
JUST ANNOUNCED: GOP presidential hopeful and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will sit down with @CNN’s @JakeTapper on the campaign trail in South Carolina for an exclusive interview. Tune in to @TheLeadCNN on Tuesday 7/18 at 4pmET for the full interview. pic.twitter.com/7ixiejqFaR
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) July 16, 2023
But is CNN the place to start for a DeSantis media blitz? Yes, even though a lousy showing would be costly. While there may be friendlier or less skeptical interviewers than Tapper — on a Daily Wire or Joe Rogan Experience appearance, say — many primary voters either watch CNN or hate CNN, and they would like to see Tapper, the network’s face, humiliated. Fogies have opinions about CNN one way or the other. DeSantis is 20 points behind Trump in that elder segment, compared with a 50-point gap with the youngest voters, but there are no more than seven GOP voters under 25, and three of them are Trump grifters (good work if you can get it). So while the Trump–DeSantis gap is narrowest with the older electorate, there are a great many voters in the bloc who remain unconvinced of DeSantis’s future.
If DeSantis has any chance of unseating Trump, he needs the free press that a CNN appearance offers. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Fox News, and ABC will all have opinions about his appearance there that they wouldn’t even comment on if he went to a podcast or Web-based news outlet — old media loathe new media, after all.
DeSantis grappling with Tapper will prime the network windbags, and there’s nothing better for a ship’s sails than Favonius’s blessing.