Although Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to announce his bid to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2024, he is hitting key presidential primary states and meeting with locals in a manner that traditionally precedes an imminent announcement. However, as MSNBC's Sarah Posner wrote, he may need to adjust the main thrust of why he should be the GOP nominee because it does not test well with Democrats, independents and a suprising number of Republicans . As Posner explained, DeSantis' reliance on repeating "woke" over and over again may work with his rabid supporters, but it is a big dud outside the far-right bubble. For evidence, the MSNBC analyst offered up a recent poll that shows a healthy number of voters are not only not offended by accusations of "wokeness" but actually approve.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'Trump needs Fox News more than Fox needs Donald Trump' as his options dry up: D.C. insider "The poll, conducted by Ipsos and published last week in USA Today , shows that 56% of Americans consider 'woke' a positive term, meaning 'to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.' Even more than a third of Republicans agree. Just 39% agreed with a negative definition: 'to be overly politically correct and police others’ words,'" she wrote before adding that DeSantis' belief that his "anti-wokeness" rants led to his re-election in 2022 by a substantial margin may lead him to "over-play" his hand.

"But if most Americans believe 'woke' is a positive term, why would they want a president to suffocate it, and replace it with autocratic power grabs and far right curricula? DeSantis won his gubernatorial reelection handily, but he might be a little high on his own supply," Posner explained. She added, "... outside that base, such a message falls flat.

The USA Today-Ipsos findings are broadly consistent with a Morning Consult poll earlier this year, which found majorities of voters opposed lawmakers punishing companies that speak up in favor of abortion rights and other issues. And Republican attempts to use attacks on 'woke Democrats ' in last year’s midterms fizzled." "DeSantis may believe that most Americans share the right-wing doctrine that America’s white Christian heritage is threatened by learning about history, racial injustice, and systemic racism — or that at least that his own charms will convince them of it. But in fact, he’s out of touch with Americans and American families, and that is the most important thing to know about his presidential aspirations," she wrote before predicting, "All that remains is for voters to tell him at the ballot box." You can read more here .

As the 2024 presidential primary season begins to heat up, Donald Trump is going to need a larger platform to keep all the focus on himself and off of his rivals, which means his war with Fox News may need to be set aside because his options are severely limited. According to a report from the Guardian's David Smith, the on-again, off-again love affair between the former president and the ratings-rich conservative news network is now complicated as Fox's hosts are increasingly showing signs of throwing their support behind Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Casting a shadow over what will happen is the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox for supporting the former president's lies about election fraud in his 2020 election loss.

According to former Republican National Committee chairman Micheal Steele, “It’s a toxic relationship." RELATED: Former Trump official working for Fox at the center of keeping election lies alive "They are good and bad for each other at the same time. You’ve got to look at it through that prism to understand what’s going on here. Fox can’t do without Trump and Trump ultimately can’t do without Fox because he knows, at the end of the day, that’s the media vehicle through which he will be able to reach the widest audience of his supporters," he explained. Noted conservative pollster Frank Luntz agreed.

“Donald Trump needs Fox News more than Fox needs Donald Trump because Trump doesn’t have easy access to an uncritical media like he did in 2016," he explained. "There is no alternative for him. He can’t go to CNN or MSNBC. He does have to go to Newsmax, and that just does not have the reach of these other cable news channels.” According to the Guardian's Smith, "Worse still for Trump, Fox News found a new Chosen One.

It reportedly asked DeSantis to appear on air 113 times , or nearly once a day, during one four-month spell and was given exclusive access to his signing of a contentious election law. Reelected in a landslide last November, DeSantis is a culture warrior with a flair for 'owning the libs'. The attraction was obvious." Former GOP campaign adviser Tara Setmayer added a cautionary note, stating, "Fox has already demonstrated that they will move and calibrate their news coverage based on what the audience demands and, as of right now, the demand still overwhelmingly is for Donald Trump. This an example of a dysfunctional co-dependent relationship.

They need each other, whether they want to admit it or not.” You can read more here . CONTINUE READING Show less Donald Trump Junior this weekend suggested that the person or persons who planted pipebombs at the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters immediately before the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection do not exist. Junior explained that he believes this because there were no arrests or significant coverage of the thwarted attacks in the news. "They had the insurrection narrative.

You notice how the, the 'bombers' at the DNC and at the RNC – the guy that left pipe bombs there – just sort of disappeared from the news. It's like, you know what? In case there wasn't an insurrection or there wasn't something bad at the Capitol, they had that to fall back on to continue and perpetuate the evil narrative of what was going on that day," Junior said on his podcast. But since they were able to create and apparently manipulate footage, uh, over that day, as well as just have enough, you know, outrage, cycle and run with it. 'Um, we can forget about the bomber. We don't really need that anymore,'" Junior pantomimed.

"That was just sort of the backup plan. If, if there wasn't enough insurrection created in my mind, then that seems to be what has to have, um, been done here." Watch below: None — (@) CONTINUE READING Show less Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani proposed a plan to "bomb the hell" out of parts of Mexico to set up a "safe zone" free of cartels. On his Sunday WABC radio show, Giuliani explained how he would advise a president to deal with cartel violence in Mexico. "If I were advising a president, I'd say, come on, let's show a pair of cojones here; let's go to Congress and have a declaration of war against the cartels," he said.

"Let's actually declare war against them and say, we're gonna go take them out, and we're gonna set up a peace zone." ALSO IN THE NEWS: Fox News host nails GOPer for offering nothing 'other than just criticism' on Biden's budget "I'm gonna set up a safe zone between the United States and Mexico," Giuliani said, speaking as president. "And when you get control of it, pal, fine. But cartels, get the hell out of the safe zone because I'm going to bomb the hell out of you." Giuliani is an unofficial adviser and attorney for former President Donald Trump, a 2024 candidate.

Listen to the audio clip below from WABC or at the link . CONTINUE READING Show less