I have a friend who is a libertarian. He has a very negative view of intelligence agencies today, e.g. the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. He thinks they’re all spying on us all the time. He thinks they use their power to get Democrats, so their budgets, power and salaries will increase. And he thinks that after DeSantis’ Tuesday night town hall, that these agencies are going to stop him from being president.

Before we get started, please be aware that there is a Republican primary debate on CNN tonight at 9 PM Eastern. If you don’t have CNN like me, you can watch it free and live right here.

So, let’s take a look at what DeSantis said, starting with the clip that my friend thinks will get him “stopped” by the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. This is real Barry Goldwater level stuff.

This is a really good clip. We don’t see politicians talking like this much any more. It’s really something else. I have been very disturbed by Obama weaponizing the IRS. Democrat-ordered pre-dawn raids on pro-life homes. Democrats designating concerned parents as “domestic terrorists”, and turning a blind eye to violence coming from BLM and Antifa. We really do need someone who will hold government employees accountable for using their power to elect big-government Democrats.

Anyway, I have another wonderful friend who reads the blog, and follows me on Twitter. And he has the view that Trump has to be the nominee because he is the only one who will stop the weaponization of government by the Democrat party. But when I watch that clip, DeSantis really does not sound anything like Trump. He sounds like he’s going to solve the problem in a way that Trump never did in 4 years of being president.

Remember, Trump had 4 years as president, 2 of those with a Republican House and Senate. He could have drained the swamp. But like so many of his other promises, he never did. And now, in 2023, he is going around explaining that he couldn’t do what he promised, because the left would get angry with him. Trump nominated Christopher Wray, who led the FBI. And Trump wants to build the FBI an enormous new state-of-the-art headquarters.

Trump is currently facing 91 indictments across several states, and many of those cases will be decided by judges and juries hostile to the Republican party. Even if he somehow manages to beat all these charges, and I don’t see how he could, the charges and accusations will still be used against him during the election. Polls show that if Trump gets convicted, he will lose over 10% of his support. Why would Republican voters take that chance, when we can run a candidate who doesn’t have personality disorders and criminal charge baggage?

Trump just isn’t the same guy that he was in 2016. This new ad from the DeSantis campaign is really good. It contrasts Trump’s bold, brash, confident talk from 2016, with his excuses and evasions in 2023:

He promised a lot, but he didn’t deliver. And we don’t have to choose him. He’s not the best candidate for conservatives. He’s not the best candidate for Christians. We will get more of what WE want if we choose DeSantis to be the Republican nominee, instead.

Anyway, some nice long clips from the Tuesday night town hall on Fox News.

Illegal immigration and deportations:

Right to life and Nikki Haley:

Israel, Ukraine and Nikki Haley:

If you want more, I tweeted out a whole bunch from my Twitter account on Tuesday night.