{"id":187116,"date":"2023-09-20T06:35:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T10:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=187116"},"modified":"2023-09-20T06:35:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T10:35:10","slug":"desantis-wages-all-out-war-against-treacherous-rino-kevin-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=187116","title":{"rendered":"

Gov. DeSantis Wages All-Out War Against Treacherous RINO Kevin McCarthy<\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

DeSantis takes a swing at McCarthy in hopes of hurting Trump<\/h1>\n

As his campaign struggles, DeSantis opens a new fight with a key Republican leader.
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\"Republican

For Florida Gov. DeSantis, the feud provides him a few talking points on the campaign trail, including bragging about how he managed his home state and boosting his image as an anti-Washington candidate. | Bryon Houlgrave\/AP Photo<\/p><\/div>\n

By KIMBERLY LEONARD
\nPOLITICO<\/p>\n

MIAMI \u2014 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is gunning for House Speaker\u00a0Kevin McCarthy, attacking the embattled GOP leader from the right and aligning himself with insurgent conservatives in Congress who are threatening a government shutdown.<\/p>\n

What started as a private strategy session last week between DeSantis and House hardliners has now erupted into a frontal attack on McCarthy. On Monday, DeSantis ridiculed McCarthy\u2019s record on government spending and accused him of being complicit in running up a massive federal debt balance. On Tuesday, the governor\u2019s campaign sent out an email admonishing McCarthy all over again while urging House Republicans to buck the speaker in the current government funding negotiations.<\/p>\n

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McCarthy is one of former President Donald Trump\u2019s closest allies in Congress and has relied on the former president\u2019s support to keep him in the speakership. While he has not formally endorsed Trump for president, McCarthy said in a Fox News interview over the weekend that Trump was a more formidable candidate than DeSantis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That drew a cannon blast response from the Florida governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin McCarthy says I\u2019m a little different from Donald Trump. I agree,\u201d DeSantis posted on social media Monday. \u201cIn Florida, we run budget surpluses. We\u2019ve paid down our debt. I\u2019ve kept every one of my promises. Meanwhile, McCarthy and Trump worked together to add $7 trillion \u2014 more debt than our country racked up in its first 200 years \u2014 to the debt in just four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack on McCarthy returns DeSantis to his own political roots, as a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus \u2014 a group that is now a key focal point for opposition to McCarthy and his proposed deal for spending reductions. POLITICO reported last week that DeSantis spoke by phone with several members of the group \u2014 including Reps.\u00a0Chip Roy,\u00a0Thomas Massie\u00a0and\u00a0Bob Good\u00a0\u2014 and urged them to \u201ckeep fighting\u201d in their standoff over efforts to keep the government open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for Gov. DeSantis to identify with the grassroots base of the Republican Party and implicitly challenge President Trump to do the same,\u201d said Justin Sayfie, a partner at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners who has fundraised for DeSantis.<\/p>\n

A close DeSantis ally, who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity, stressed that the governor\u2019s current posture was grounded in his belief that spending needed to be cut. But the ally did not push back on the idea that some of it was driven by a cool relationship with McCarthy. They noted that the speaker, inherently, \u201crepresents the Washington establishment\u201d and that McCarthy, specifically, had been favorable to Trump even without endorsing him.<\/p>\n

A point of particular contention was the rule change adopted, by the California GOP, that made it so if any Republican presidential candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary they would win all the state\u2019s 169 delegates.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was involved in what the California GOP did to rig the vote out there for Trump,\u201d the ally said of McCarthy. \u201cHe\u2019s signing his own death warrant. If Trump is the nominee, he can kiss his speakership goodbye. We will lose the house and there will be total Democratic control.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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