Q&A of the Day – Trump’s Record vs. DeSantis’ & What’s the Filing Deadline to run for President?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s Entry: Hi Brian, I have a comment and question for you. My comment is about Trump and DeSantis. I supported Trump twice and if he’s the party nominee I’ll support him again. I’ll be voting for DeSantis in the primary though for one reason. DeSantis gets more done than Trump. If Trump had finished the border wall we wouldn’t have nearly the same sized problems today. My question is about presidential filing deadlines. What’s the latest a candidate can enter the race? With Biden’s #’s still sinking and RFK’s still polling well against him, you’ve got to think big name Dems are thinking about making a run.
Bottom Line: A few thoughts on your comments... You’re not the first person I’ve heard from who’s suggested that DeSantis would get more done than Trump. While that’s somewhat theoretical in the context of the presidency, given that governing the country is significantly different than governing a state, there are some similarities. DeSantis has benefitted from having a Republican governing majority during his five legislative sessions (and numerous special sessions) - including a super-majority most recently. In terms of being able to get stuff done, there’s no question having one-party rule makes one’s agenda profoundly easier to implement. That said, Trump had Republican control of the federal government for his first two years and didn’t accomplish all of his agenda during that time. Here’s a little analytical food for thought about those comparisons as it’s my goal to provide objective coverage of the Republican presidential primary process...
It’s safe to say Donald Trump’s first couple of years as president were marred by three circumstances. One out of his control. One that’s a natural byproduct of being new to politics at the highest level. One that was within his control. The first and obvious obstacle for Trump being able to focus on accomplishing his agenda was quite literally a conspiracy by federal government agencies against him as outlined in the Durham Report. It’s impossible to know the extent to which that impacted President Trump’s ability to do his job. We know that at a minimum it served as a significant distraction, and one he had to take into consideration while attempting to learn the ropes of leading the country. The second consideration, not only being new to the presidency but being new to politics, I likewise don’t blame him for. There’s no doubt that not having any government experience creates added challenges to what’s got to be a steep learning curve for any new president. Trump identified the need to augment this weakness by selecting Mike Pence as his running mate – someone he’d never met prior to the vetting process. He made the selection for one reason above all the others. Pence could help Trump govern, as he was someone with both Congressional experience in leadership and executive experience as governor. And that takes us to the third which was within his control and is where he undoubtedly made mistakes which hurt his ability to achieve his agenda.
Former President Donald Trump admitted to making numerous mistakes with key personal he appointed upon becoming president. From Steve Bannon to Jeff Sessions, Trump surrounded himself at the onset with many key players who had their own agendas which distracted and, in many ways, prevented Trump from fully achieving his agenda. His personnel picking in the early months of his presidency was often so flawed that even when he identified someone who needed to go – a la former FBI Director James Comey, he replaced him with someone who has appeared to be no better in Christopher Wray – who remains a problem to this day. The old saying about one only being as good as those they’re surrounded by certainly applies to Trump and the personnel challenges, especially early in his administration, coincided with the two-year window of time in which Republicans had control of Congress. There’s no doubt that fixing personnel problems slowed down Trump’s agenda during a time when there could have been maximum impact. Speaking of the personnel picker, Trump's decision not to dump Fauci is also something that DeSantis will no doubt point to. With all of that said, it’s likely that if Trump is given a similar opportunity he would be a more effective president as at least two of the three overarching themes that negatively impacted his agenda wouldn’t be in play the next time around. The argument could also be made by team Trump that he’d have far less learning on the job to do than DeSantis. As for Biden and deadlines...
President Biden’s approval rating is 7-points lower than President Trump’s on the same date in his presidency. When your approval rating is seven points lower than the previous president who lost reelection, there’s no doubt but that it should grab the attention of everyone in Democrat circles. Biden is consistently sporting historically low approval ratings for a first term president and the trend has only been getting worse. As for if any big named Democrats decide to get in, that remains to be scene. But in answer to today’s question, how late could they get in? There isn’t a hard deadline this year to run for president. But for anyone attempting to run in a party primary there are as series of deadlines that begin to kick in this fall. States and parties decide what the deadlines will be to qualify for the ballot. The first state’s deadline to qualify for a party primary ballot is Nevada – which is October 16th. That means a candidate could still enter the race after that date, but they’d be conceding the opportunity to win any delegates in that state. Many more deadlines hit in November with most coming in December. Given that any challenger to Biden would be facing an uphill battle, to unseat a sitting president in a party primary, Nevada’s date of October 16th can likely be perceived to be the final date a Biden challenger might step up. So, while the heavyweights for Republicans are in the race, there’s still a lot of time for potential Democrat heavyweights to step up to the plate.