Navarro Tars DeSantis: ‘Vindictive, Thin-Skinned, Awkward Bobblehead’

When not co-hosting The View on ABC, Ana Navarro doubles as a political commentator for CNN and on Tuesday’s CNN Tonight, she responded to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s interview with Jake Tapper by dismissing him as a “vindictive, thin-skinned, awkward, bobblehead of a bad candidate.”

Host Alisyn Camerota wondered why Republicans are sticking with Donald Trump despite all his legal problems and developments that 16 people in Michigan were charged as part of a fake electors plot from 2020. Navarro offered up two possible explanations, “Because — because it’s baked into the cake. Because they think that Donald Trump is being victimized. Because, frankly, Ron DeSantis is not making the sale because it turns out he’s a big paper tiger. And so, there’s no alternative to Donald Trump, right?”

Referencing the Tapper interview, Navarro continued, “But Ron DeSantis has been a failure. And he’s not failing because the corporate media, as he calls it, is attacking him. No. He’s failing because he has been a bad candidate. He’s failing because he is not articulating the positive vision for America that he discussed, that he was going to do in that interview. Instead, all he does is a verb, a noun, and woke.”

DeSantis simply answered the questions Tapper asked which were mostly about Trump, foreign and defense policy, and the nuts and bolts of campaigning. The one time Tapper asked about social issues as they relate to domestic policy, DeSantis declared, “We’re leading a big movement for parents rights to have the parents be involved in education, school choice, get the indoctrination out of schools. Of course there’s bread and butter issues that matter too, inflation, more economic opportunity. Florida’s economy is ranked number one of all 50 states. We’ve worked hard to make that happen.”

While Navarro may not be DeSantis’s target audience, it is hard to tie DeSantis’s performance to an obsession with wokeness given his landslide re-election win. That wouldn’t stop Navarro from trying, however, “And that becomes very exhausting. And that becomes very lacking creativity. And it bores the electorate. And he’s just coming across as a vindictive, thin-skinned, awkward, bobblehead of a bad candidate who Republicans are not willing to let go of Trump for to hold on to that other rope.”

There are still several months until Iowa and the first debate is still a month away. CNN ought to stop putting its thumb on the scale with its horse race narrative building and let Republican voters decide what they think of the candidates.

This segment was sponsored by AARP.

Here is a transcript for the July 18 show:

CNN Tonight

7/18/2023

11:27 PM ET

ANA NAVARRO: Because — because it’s baked into the cake. Because they think that Donald Trump is being victimized. Because, frankly, Ron DeSantis is not making the sale because it turns out he’s a big paper tiger. And so, there’s no alternative to Donald Trump, right?

Chris Christie is not an alternative to Donald Trump when it comes to conservative voters. I mean, most of the — you know, the people on that stage are just not breaking through with the exception of Tim Scott who’s got a glimmer of hope.

But Ron DeSantis has been a failure. And he’s not failing because the corporate media, as he calls it, is attacking him. No. He’s failing because he has been a bad candidate. He’s failing because he is not articulating the positive vision for America that he discussed, that he was going to do in that interview. Instead, all he does is a verb, a noun, and woke.

And that becomes very exhausting. And that becomes very lacking creativity. And it bores the electorate. And he’s just coming across as a vindictive, thin-skinned, awkward, bobblehead of a bad candidate who Republicans are not willing to let go of Trump for to hold on to that other rope.