The Hill’s Morning Report — DeSantis: Unlike Trump, I can beat Biden

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 05/19/23 6:30 AM ET

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has all but said he’s running for the GOP presidential nomination and is expected to make it official next week. In the governor’s telling, his leadership style, his biography and the policies he’s backed in the Sunshine State are political assets in a primary against former President Trump — and potentially in a general election against President Biden when Florida’s 30 Electoral College votes are in play.

During a phone call with top donors Thursday, monitored by The New York Times, DeSantis said Trump lost in 2020 and could be beaten again if he’s the GOP nominee.

“You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,” the governor said. “Biden, Trump and me, and I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him.”

“We’ve got to win this time,” DeSantis said on the call, which was organized by Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting him.

His assessment: Voters appreciate Trump’s policies but not his “values” and are lukewarm about a second term for the president. “I think the voters want to move on from Biden,” the governor said, adding, “They just want a vehicle they can get behind” but “there’s just too many voters that don’t view Trump as that vehicle.”

DeSantis is not without vulnerabilities. He has a large war chest, endorsements and a pile of conservative legislation he pushed through his state’s legislature and signed during carefully staged events this week. But he has been criticized for ducking the news media, stumbling during discussions of some major national and international issues, including calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute,” and what some VIP donors and former colleagues in Congress describe as a chilly persona. They are trying to envision DeSantis trouncing Trump, then defeating Biden.

The 45th president, who has been a candidate since November and has escalated his attacks on DeSantis, is about 30 percentage points ahead of the governor in hypothetical match-ups. But DeSantis would still be seen as the strongest challenger in the GOP presidential race thus far. Among those also interested in launching 2024 bids are Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), possibly on Monday, and former GOP Vice President Mike Pence, perhaps by June. Trump and Biden are neck and neck in polls that ask about potential 2024 nominees.

The Hill’s weeklong series focused on Florida turns to a significant political question for Republicans as well as the West Wing: Can Democrats in Florida make a comeback in that increasingly red state? The Hill’s Max Greenwood explains.

Biden’s campaign team says his strategy is to win reelection next year by defending his victories in 2020’s battleground states — but also by expanding the map to states such as Florida and North Carolina that Democrats haven’t won since then-Sen. Barack Obama was a candidate. Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez argued in a state-of-the-race memo Thursday that Democrats have strengthened their hand going into the presidential election after a strong performance in last year’s midterm races and in special elections this year (Bloomberg News).

CBS News, The Associated Press, ABC News: Biden’s campaign strategy depends on sharpening a contrast with the GOP nominee, attracting independent and moderate Republican voters, white rural and suburban voters and Latinos who have increasingly admired Trump and the GOP. His team wants to enlarge his map and build new coalitions of supporters willing to mobilize against “extremists” — as well as for the incumbent.

They also want to overcome doubts about a presidential candidate in his 80s and be prepared should the economy turn south.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage, The Memo: Exclusive — Nikki Haley to DeSantis:

“Welcome to the race, we’ve been waiting.”

▪ The Hill’s Alexander Bolton: GOP senators who want a Trump alternative in 2024 mull options as DeSantis struggles.

▪ The Hill: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) told MSNBC on Thursday he would consider defying the Supreme Court if justices ban the abortion pill mifepristone: “Everything is on the table.”

LEADING THE DAY

➤ CONGRESS

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), sounding more upbeat than he’s been to date about the debt debate, said Thursday that progress with Democrats in negotiations over the debt ceiling suggests legislation could be on the House floor by next week (Bloomberg News). The contours of a possible deal remained unseen. Both President Biden and McCarthy are expected to be tested while selling any deal to House and Senate allies on a short timetable before the projected U.S. default as early as June 1.

In fact, the Speaker’s challenge became instantly apparent Thursday as the Freedom Caucus balked, saying “no further discussion” about the debt ceiling is acceptable to their members until the Senate passes last month’s House-approved bill that would slash federal spending and temporarily approve new borrowing authority — but only into March. They told McCarthy they want that measure, considered a nonstarter in the Senate and opposed by the president, to become law (The Hill).

McCarthy had previously said there could be a deal by the end of the week, which is looking unlikely, especially with Biden in Japan for the Group of Seven summit. But rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties are raising alarms about the concessions their leaders have made — pushback that has highlighted the hurdles certain to face leadership as they prepare to sell an emerging agreement to their respective troops (The Hill).

“We’re not there. We haven’t read anything yet. But I see the path that we could come through,” McCarthy told reporters Thursday morning, saying, “it’d be important to try to have the agreement, especially in principle, by sometime this weekend.”

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said Thursday that the ongoing debt negotiations were “not close” to a consensus deal (Bloomberg News).

The Hill: Democratic senators urge Biden to use 14th Amendment to raise debt limit.

Republicans and Democrats battled during a tense hearing Thursday over three FBI agents who Republicans say were retaliated against for blowing the whistle on bias at the agency — and who Democrats argue the GOP is using to legitimize the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. GOP lawmakers accused the FBI of retaliating against “truth tellers” by revoking their security clearances because they espoused conservative views (The Hill).

“This select committee is a clearing house for testing conspiracy theories for Donald Trump to use in his 2024 presidential campaign,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett (V.I.), the panel’s ranking Democrat.

“You all have employment grievances. That doesn’t make you whistleblowers,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said.

▪ The New York Times and NBC News: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is now back in the Capitol and using a wheelchair, was sicker with the shingles virus this year than previously known.

▪ The Hill: Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s recent white nationalist comments roil a military diversity debate.

➤ SUPREME COURT

Supreme Court Justices on Thursday shielded Twitter, Facebook and other companies from liability for terror-related content posted on platforms and left Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act untouched (CNN). The decisions handed Silicon Valley massive victories in two lawsuits that legal experts had warned could have upended the internet.

▪ The Associated Press: Trust in the Supreme Court fell to the lowest point in 50 years after abortion decision, poll shows.

▪ Politico: Supreme Court punts in Title 42 immigration fight.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ G-7 SUMMIT

Biden is in Hiroshima, Japan, where the G-7 Summit is underway. Leaders of some of the world’s most developed democracies are huddling to discuss new ways to punish Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine days before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joins the summit in person on Sunday (The Associated Press). The leaders are interested in sanctions enforcement, whether to provide F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv and the possibility of negotiations over an armistice or peace treaty (The New York Times).

The G-7 leaders’ statement about Ukraine and Russia is HERE.

▪ The Associated Press: Why Ukraine’s spring offensive still hasn’t begun — with summer just weeks away.

▪ The Washington Post: Europe’s military industrial capabilities fall short of Ukraine’s needs.

▪ Al Jazeera: “Pro-Russian neutrality”: How Ukraine sees China’s emerging role.

“The bottom line, Mr. Prime Minister, is that when our countries stand together, we stand stronger. And I believe the whole world is safer when we do,” Biden said at a Thursday pre-summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (The Hill).

As Kyiv gears up for a planned spring counteroffensive, the concern permeating world leaders in Japan is that Ukraine and Russia will continue in a grinding, bloody conflict in which the best hope would be an armistice (The New York Times).

Meeting at the site of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, summit leaders are divided, or at least unclear about two issues: the likelihood of Russia’s total military defeat and how to demonstrate to key players that alliances with the West are preferable to leaning on Beijing or Moscow, The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour reports.

▪ The New York Times: Pentagon says accounting mistake frees up $3 billion more for Ukraine.

▪ CNN: From Ukraine war to China’s rising power: Five reasons this G-7 matters.

▪ Bloomberg News: Russia is courting African nations as the G-7 gathers.

▪ Politico EU: China fears threaten to shatter G-7 unity.

➤ INTERNATIONAL

The Ukrainian military and Russia’s Wagner Group both reported further Russian retreats around Bakhmut on Thursday, as Kyiv continued on with its biggest advance in six months, ahead of a planned counteroffensive. “Now, for the most part, as we have started to advance, they are shelling all the routes to front positions, so our armored vehicles can’t deliver more infantry, ammunition and other things,” Petro Podaru, commander of a Ukrainian artillery unit, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Patriot air-defense system damaged in Ukraine Tuesday by a Russian strike has been fixed and is operational, according to deputy Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. Since Tuesday, Ukrainian officials have rejected Russia’s claims that it had destroyed one of the billion-dollar Patriot systems donated by the West (The Washington Post).

▪ The New York Times: Another casualty in Ukraine — teenage years.

▪ Politico EU: Sweden scrambles to project military strength ahead of NATO bid.

▪ Reuters: NATO reaches back to Cold War past with first major defense plans.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: In South Korea, a Pride festival snub heightens a clash over LGBTQ rights.

▪ The New York Times: The long isolation of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is over.

OPINION

■ Two GOP senators smear a witness to defend Clarence Thomas, by Ruth Marcus, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3Ilndsz

■ Biden can, and should, ignore the GOP’s debt suicide attempt, by

Robert Hockett and Laurence Tribe, opinion contributors, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3MgUTZt

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will meet at noon on Monday.

The Senate will convene at 9:45 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president is in Japan, participating in the Group of Seven summit. Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Hiroshima Memorial Museum with G-7 leaders to participate in a wreath-laying at the start of their day. The president posed for an official welcome photograph with his counterparts and joined a tree planting at the Hiroshima Peace Park. Biden and G-7 leaders shared a working lunch at Hiroshima’s Grand Prince Hotel in the afternoon, followed by a work session. The president in the evening departs Hiroshima for Miyajima Island to tour Itsukushima Shrine with G-7 leaders and pose for a group photo before their working dinner. Biden plans to depart the island a bit early to return to Hiroshima in order to receive an update from his debt ceiling negotiation team in Washington (where it is Friday morning), the White House said.

Vice President Harris will travel this morning to Los Angeles with second gentleman Doug Emhoff to deliver remarks about the maternal health crisis. The vice president will tour the Baby2Baby facility at 3:20 p.m. PT, where she will speak. Later, she will headline a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Japan with the president.

The first lady, as part of the G-7 summit spousal program, will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the morning, attend a luncheon at midday, participate in a “Next Generations” event at 5:15 p.m. local time, and later attend a dinner with summit spouses.

ELSEWHERE

➤ HEALTH & WELLBEING

Montana’s ban on a second-trimester abortion procedure was temporarily blocked by a state court Thursday. District Judge Mike Menahan granted Planned Parenthood of Montana’s request for a temporary restraining order on the enforcement of a law, signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) that bans dilation and evacuation abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and would fine or carry prison terms for healthcare professionals who perform them. Menahan, however, found that the ban cannot be enforced because it likely violates the Montana Constitution (The Hill).

▪ The Washington Post: Bogus nurses, fake diplomas: Officials search for unqualified health workers.

▪ The Hill: Walgreens is paying San Francisco $230 million after the city’s win in an opioid case.

▪ The Associated Press and NBC News: An RSV vaccine for pregnant women protects their newborns, but is it ready for U.S. sale? An expert panel of the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended the first shot to prevent RSV in infants by vaccinating pregnant women.

The Jynneos vaccine provides real-world protection against mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), and two doses seem to be more effective than one, according to three new observational studies published Thursday in a weekly report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Still, more work is needed to determine how long protection lasts, how well the vaccine works in immunocompromised people and whether that varies depending on how the shots are administered (The New York Times).

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Bravo to winners of this week’s Morning Report Quiz! While mulling Biden’s trip to Japan, we asked for smart guesses about presidential travel.

Here are the champion puzzlers who went 4/4: Richard Baznik, Paul Harris, Adam Prucka, Patrick Kavanagh, Bill Grieshober, Randall S. Patrick, Harry Strulovici, Kathleen Kovalik, TS O’Brien, Robert Bradley, Luther Berg and Steve James.

They knew that Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to travel abroad while in office. He went to the Panama Canal to inspect construction.

Former President George W. Bush visited more countries while in office than the other POTUS options we included.

Former President Lyndon B. Johnson made the first around-the-world trip aboard Air Force One.

U.S. presidents flew to the United Kingdom for eight visits in the past decade, their most frequently visited international destination and evidence of the “special relationship.”

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch. Follow us on Twitter (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!