Will DeSantis and the Conservative Media Hold Their Fire Over Trump Now?

 By Jon Friedman, June 11, 2023

Now that Donald Trump has been criminally charged, the stakes are higher for the former president, but the theme remains the same for candidate Ron DeSantis and the conservative media:

 DeSantis was not the only one who could have been accused of holding his fire when it came to calling out Trump’s candidacy.

 Most conservative media outlets were also playing a long game as the world waited to see whether Trump would face game-changing charges in court in Washington or Atlanta or New York City. 

Now the point is: with a trial in Florida roughly a year away, will DeSantis and the journalists continue to hedge their bets about openly attacking the Republican who dominates the polls and could be the Republican Party’s standard bearer in 2024?

Taking the long game remains a sensible political strategy. Why go out on a limb at this early juncture? Why risk looking reckless and stupid later?

For DeSantis, the governor of Florida and nemesis of Trump, that is, it makes sense.

But for the righty journalists who are taking a wait-and-see attitude, out of fear, the posture stinks, pure and simple.

I mean, isn’t it the job of a commentator, of any political stripe, to inform readers by taking a point of view? Of course, it is. When these pundits and columnists fail to do that, it looks like the journalists are beyond timid. They appear to be negligent, as if they are afraid of taking on the establishment when they might cause trouble – although it is practically in the job description of a professional journalist to be willing to cause trouble sooner or later.

The question now is: How long will the journalists decline to assert themselves? How long will they collectively prefer not to ask tough questions about Trump’s legal jeopardy?

The Christie Factor

The pundits threatened to look increasingly ridiculous last week as former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announced his candidacy for 2024 and got television time, which he used partly to take shots at his former partner, Trump. 

Christie announced on Tuesday in New Hampshire that he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, even though he was crushed during his 2016 campaign and is barely a factor in current national polls.

But Christie matters on one level. He, virtually alone, has made it his crusade to challenge Trump’s actions. Even if Christie continues to bring up the rear in the Republican polls — and there is no reason to suspect that any other outcome will occur for him – he seems invested in holding Trump accountable.

True, you might say Christie is no crusader, either. His charges against Trump were cloaked in jibes more than fire and brimstone talk. And didn’t Christie briefly even lead Trump’s transition team following his 2016 victory?

Ultimately, even if Christie is not exactly stamping his foot and shaking his fist, he is raising the points that the right-wing media should be doing.

Of course, Republicans may be quick to dismiss Christie by sneering that he represents the “old” Republican party, pre-Trump, and that he thunders around like a classic sore loser.  Before Trump emerged in 2015, Christie was the tough-talking Republican national leader. Christie was the one most likely to insult a reporter or a heckler.

Now, Christie seems like a throwback to another century, not merely an earlier decade.

Yes, this is a disorienting time for the normally tough-talking Republican pundits.

They don’t know how to assess Trump’s political future. Their uncertainty has caused them to suffer a sudden case of paralysis of analysis. 

They seem to be paranoid about making a mistake. It’s possible that they secretly worry that Trump’s legal woes may intensify, and fast. So, for now, they decline to discuss what they know.

But if it was Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris who was facing legal peril, you could be certain that the media on the right would be telling the world what they think.

And loudly, too.

Jon Friedman wrote MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman’s Media Web column from 1999 to 2013 and has taught classes in journalism and other subjects at Stony Brook University. for the past decade. He is the author or co-author of three books and has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal.com, The New York Times Sunday Business Section, The New York Post, Our Town and the websites of such publications as Esquire, Psychology Today and Time. 

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