Ron DeSantis is catching flak this weekend.

Does that mean he is over the target, or has he simply strayed too far over contested territory and taken damage for no good reason?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his presidential campaign over the weekend attempted to clarify comments he made to a reporter when he said that Republicans cannot be “listless vessels.” https://t.co/XRXfXXjwVl

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 20, 2023

DeSantis dropped a “Kinsley gaffe”  (a politician inadvertently says something truthful that they had not meant to reveal) in an interview with The Florida Standard, a conservative-leaning publication. He was discussing the Trump tactic of attacking people based solely upon their loyalty to Trump rather than their principled positions. Karen gave her take here.

For instance attacking Chip Roy as a globalist while embracing Lindsey Graham, a true globalist. It is the kind of principle-free aggression that has served Trump well over his career and that some people love way too much.

What did DeSantis REALLY say about "listless vessels"?

Listen for yourself. pic.twitter.com/ULVwJ7umVj

— Say When 🐊 (@theethos828) August 20, 2023

What he said was, I think, indisputably true. But Trump-supporting critics have seized on it and using it to hammer home the idea that Ron DeSantis dislikes the MAGA base. It is, for them, Ron DeSantis’ “deplorables” moment.

First the truth of what DeSantis says: who can deny that Trump, and hence MAGA fanatics, will turn on a dime when it suits them politically? Ron DeSantis, Kim Reynolds, and Glenn Youngkin were all heroes to MAGA types until Trump told them that these formerly admired people are to now be despised. Half of Trump’s team has made it clear that they do not intend to defeat DeSantis but to politically ruin him because he is a globalist blahdelyblah.

Yeah, right. Trump is running around with Lindsey Graham, who has never seen a war he didn’t want to join. Trump hired John Bolton.

Trump handed the country to Fauci and Birx. Trump makes all the best appointments because he knows how to hire people. Except everybody he ever hired is a traitorous snake. Truth changes daily in Trumpland, and his most hardened supporters will regurgitate whatever he says.

In other words, everything is about Trump. Principle, truth, and policy be damned. It makes your head spin. Except if you are a listless vessel for whatever Trump says.

Most people who support Trump aren’t like that. They simply think Trump was a good but flawed man and president, and they think he can win. They take him seriously but not literally. The listless vessels take him literally.

Bold move for Ronda Santis to follow the Crooked Hillary Clinton strategy and begin attacking Trump supporters.

Trump supporters aren't "listless vessels," they just know a globalist fraud when they see one. That's why your campaign is dying and @realDonaldTrump is surging!!!! pic.twitter.com/LqG4YSQErl

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 20, 2023

So DeSantis said something true, but possibly insulting to some Trump supporters. It would be like somebody telling my wife that I am fat. I am fat. But it is not polite to say so.

The question is this: does this amount to an attack on Trump supporters, and not just an argument that we should support principles over personalities?

The even bigger question is: will this harm DeSantis?

Hey Ron,

We aren’t “listless vessels.”

We are citizens from all backgrounds and all walks-of-life who are laser-focused on Saving America.

MAGA🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/UXtf6roZ5C

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) August 20, 2023

The Trump people sure think so, and it appears that DeSantis might agree with them. As Trump people are seizing on this issue Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ Press Secretary at the campaign, fired back. He puts DeSantis’ words in context.

NEW: @RonDeSantis campaign fires back at Trump and the media over the “listless vessels” hoax.

Trump World didn’t like it when Dems and the media tried the “very fine people” hoax, and now they are resorting to this same behavior. pic.twitter.com/m18iV2paNq

— Cryptid Politics 🇺🇸🐊 (@CryptidPolitics) August 20, 2023

As any political consultant can tell you: when you are explaining you are losing. And I think DeSantis is likely to take a hit from this. DeSantis’ team knows it too.

So DeSantis’ characterization of the small percentage of Republicans like Laura Loomer as “listless vessels” may be true, but does it hurt him, and if so, by how much?

Yes, and we don’t know. If he had used plainer words than some do, such as “cult,” it would be a show stopper. He would be dead in the water. But the term “listless vessel” is pretty hard to market as an unforgivable insult simply because most people would need to stop and think about what it might mean.

It doesn’t hit you between the eyes, as it were.

In other words, “listless vessel” is hardly fighting words. “Deplorables” was clearly a fighting word–an insult about certain people and a direct character attack. “Listless vessels” is an abstraction and describes a phenomenon, not a particular group of people that anybody would identify with, so I doubt it has the punch that Hillary’s gaffe did.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think it has legs except for those who might feel the sting personally. People, in other words, who are solely loyal to Trump and who would never vote for anybody else.

DeSantis could never get their vote anyway, so why care about it? And most people both recognize that there is a fanatical group like Loomer with whom they don’t identify for whom the description is entirely apt.

So for today, at least, I think it is a tempest in a teapot. But I am often wrong, so stay tuned.