The gotcha question this past weekend on CNN went something like this. Given the death toll out of Lee County, which took the brunt of Ian last week as it destroyed Fort Myers Beach, how come there wasn’t an evacuation order given until the day before? Two different Florida governors, one past, one present, were put on the spot, and the results of both should be a lesson to all conservative politicians when dealing with the media.
Senator Rick Scott currently is chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the arm of the Senate Republicans trying to gain control of the upper chamber. Scott’s job would normally have been considered an impossible task, having to defend many more seats than are available to pick up on offense. This is no ordinary political cycle, though, with Democrats everywhere having to run away from the fecklessness of Joe Biden, and their votes on his American Rescue Plan tanking the U.S. economy by bringing on inflation not seen in 40 years.
Scott was a guest of Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, and she was less interested in asking him about Republicans’ chances in the midterms, and more interesting in getting him to admit Ron DeSantis screwed up. Here’s the exchange:
Now let’s contrast that with current Governor Ron DeSantis, who was interviewed by CNN’s Nadia Romero. She attempted the very same question, and DeSantis handled it in a much different way than Senator Scott.
The big difference? Senator Scott went along with the perfect 20/20 hindsight of CNN, whereas Governor DeSantis did not. Among many other strengths DeSantis has demonstrated, he seems to recognize a gotcha question before the question has finished being asked, and turns it on its head before addressing the underlying issue. Ian was supposed to hit Tampa. That was the best guess of the experts as being center of the cone of probability before it wobbled a bit to the east and towards Fort Myers Beach.
To be certain, CNN is not trying to do good faith government accountability here. Remember that just before the storm, several major media outlets hijacked a press conference of DeSantis where he was telling people in Ian’s path to get out and what resources were being staged if people were going to shelter in place and ride it out. Media was more interested, however, in exploiting the political rift between DeSantis and President Joe Biden.
DeSantis didn’t take the bait then, and didn’t take it this time, either. He knew what the path was supposed to be for Ian, and he knew that CNN made their coverage plans on that best guess as well. Even when there was pushback by Nadia Romero, he rejected it while simultaneously explaining that he moved the staging of resources south as Ian moved east.
So why did Senator Scott seem to get caught a little flatfooted by Dana Bash? Well, the cynic in me would suggest that Scott certainly is entertaining at least the notion of a presidential run in ’24 himself, and if DeSantis gets bloodied up a bit by Ian and he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty, that could explain why Scott didn’t object to the premise of the question. Consequently, however, by not pushing back, Bash exploited it with follow up after follow up, trying to get Scott to give her the payoff that it was all DeSantis’ fault. It was painful to watch.
Republicans at least on the margin have been getting better at recognizing that media isn’t their friend, and will never become their friend. If there’s one thing good in the wake of Donald Trump is that more Republican candidates are better attuned to detect gotcha questions and are nimbler in their responses. Not near enough, mind you, but it does appear as this cycle continues on towards the November midterms, they’re getting better. Here’s another case and point.
In Arizona last week, Kari Lake was giving a press conference at the RNC Hispanic Community Center. Amid a gathering of supporters, one member of the media tried to corner her on her pro-life position, tying it to the state’s recent legal wranglings, temporarily reverting Arizona back to its pre-state law essentially banning abortions outright. Lake was lying in wait as the question was asked. Here’s how that exchange went:
She robustly defended life, a position that is admittedly a minority position in the latest Gallup poll, 39-55%. When you ask the same question in the second trimester, however, the numbers essential invert. And when you ask the same question during the final three months of pregnancy, 71-20% support banning abortions. So the life position is not just some radical, fringe position as the reporter’s question intimated, and Lake staked out her stand on the issue.
Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a future Arizona state legislature to pass what Arizona’s law is going to be. And they will come up with something. For media to play gotcha with Lake by trying to make her defend the old law now back on the books is actually pointless. Lake didn’t waste time with the question’s predicate and instead held up a mirror to media for not treating Katie Hobbs with the same scrutiny. It was a masterful way to handle the subject – reject the premise, flip the script to the point you’re trying to make, and not coming across as a jerk in the process.
Regardless of who the Democrat is in any race being run in this country, the Republican candidate is also running against the media. That’s just the political landscape we face. Any pretense of objectivity in media went out the window with Donald Trump, and it’s not likely to return anytime soon. It’s gratifying to finally see more office holders and candidates incorporating strategies for how to wage that two-front campaign. Let’s hope more candidates go to school on this in the future.
