DeSantis didn’t mention Trump by name, but he did take a veiled shot at the losses Republicans have suffered over the past three election cycles as Trump helped lead the GOP’s efforts.
“None of that matters if we don’t win,” DeSantis said. “There’s no substitute for winning. We can’t continue the culture of losing where we lose winnable runs.”
Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis super PAC, also framed his comments as anti-Trump, even when DeSantis didn’t directly mention him by name.
After his speech, the group tweeted that the crowd booed “Trump for siding with Woke Disney!” The crowd booed when DeSantis talked about Disney, but didn’t mention Trump once.
After his speech, DeSantis held a separate meeting with a small group of pastors. At the meeting, which was billed as a panel discussion, DeSantis briefly re-emphasized many of the points he made in his speech.
At a private dinner Thursday night to discuss conservative-leaning criminal justice reforms, there were people in the room who were openly upset that DeSantis did not support the First Step Act, a Trump-era piece of legislation that focused to reduce re-incarceration rates. DeSantis made waves last month when he told conservative pundit Ben Shapiro that he would repeal Trump’s signature criminal justice reform, saying it “allowed dangerous people who have reoffended and really, really hurt a lot of people” .
Rep. Doug Collins, a former Georgia Republican who sponsored the First Step Act when he was in Congress, hosted the private dinner and now works on criminal justice reform issues.
“No one who spoke mentioned DeSantis by name, but there was clearly disappointment in the room,” a person who was at the dinner told NBC News. “And those headlines were talked about.”
It’s a reference to the series of stories that were written after DeSantis told Shapiro he would repeal the proposal.
On Saturday, a public safety panel featuring Ja’ron Smith, a former Trump administration official, focused heavily on the First Step Act, a sign that it has not lost support with conservative criminal justice reformers.
“We were able to pass legislation called the First Step Act,” he told the crowd, “which focused on reducing recidivism in our federal prisons.”
Trump himself is no longer vocally promoting the legislation. Other candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence, have said it’s time to “rethink” the law. As the legislation has become a talking point in the Republican primary, Trump has not weighed in, including not responding to a request for comment from NBC News.
Collins told NBC News that DeSantis “sat next to me” on the House Judiciary Committee and voted for it. DeSantis voted on a version of the bill in May 2018. The final version passed in December of that year, after DeSantis had already been elected governor.
Collins said candidates, including DeSantis, who have begun questioning the bill have not contacted him. The bill passed the House in 2018 on a bipartisan vote of 360 to 59, including support from DeSantis.
“If any of them want to talk to me about it, I’m happy to talk to them,” Collins said Saturday night of presidential candidates who might have concerns.
The DeSantis campaign did not return a request for comment about why it no longer supports the proposal after it was voted on.
Most of the other presidential candidates who spoke at the conference this week focused on their records and plans if elected, generally without mentioning Trump or any other candidate in the field.
Common themes were parents’ rights to education, making sure the federal criminal justice system isn’t “weaponized” — a term that has been used consistently by Republicans after Trump was impeached for allegedly keeping classified documents from his time in the White House – and abortion, which has long been one of the biggest political struggles for the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
“We are creating a culture of life in America,” said South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. “And that’s very good.”
The Trump administration’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said she was the “most pro-life governor in the country” when she was governor of South Carolina.
Even the candidates who want the party to move on from Trump tried to raise the issue gently. Larry Elder, a conservative radio host who is running for governor as part of a 2021 effort to recall Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, says he still likes Trump but doesn’t think he’s eligible.
“Have you lost friends because of Donald Trump?” he asked. “Are you walking on eggshells at work because of Donald Trump? Do you have strained relationships because of Donald Trump?
Elder argued that swing voters will never get to Trump, and that Republican voters “need to realize that they need to rally around a candidate who is not Trump, but who has the same policies of America First”.
But there was an overwhelming sense that those legal problems not only did not concern Trump’s most ardent supporters, but that those who defied him would be mocked and mocked.
“Chris Christie couldn’t be here, I apologize,” Christian Broadcasting Network commentator David Brodie joked as he opened a panel on media bias.
After about 15 minutes, he turned to the same laugh line to close the panel.
“Chris Christie salutes,” he said, to conclude the event.
