As RedState senior editor Joe Cunningham noted on Wednesday, the number of hit pieces Politico put out on Ron DeSantis in just one day (after his visit to Washington, D.C.), essentially proclaiming his presidential run “over” was downright hilarious considering a) DeSantis hasn’t even declared yet and b) we’re not even close to the first GOP presidential primary debate nor primary.

Regardless, the media are gonna media, and that’s exactly what happened Friday when Politico put out a new “walls are closing in” article in which they trotted out the big guns against DeSantis – a former GOP Congressman who got fauxfended because DeSantis didn’t mingle much with others, including him, during his time served in Congress:

“I sat right next to DeSantis for two years on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and he never said a single word to me,” it read. “I was new to Congress, and he didn’t introduce himself or even say hello.”

It was from former Rep. David Trott (R-Mich.). We called him up to talk about it.

“I go to my first [House Foreign Affairs Committee] hearing early, and DeSantis showed up right at the gavel time and didn’t say hello or introduce himself,” Trott said. “And then the next hearing, the same thing happened. I think the third time it happened, I thought, ‘Oh, this guy’s not ever going to say hello to me.’”

Ohmigosh. He didn’t say hello. What a scandal!

That said, Trott finally got up the nerve to introduce himself to DeSantis, but even though he determined that there was “something” to DeSantis in terms of his “ability to size up the electorate and figure out what issues and hot buttons he needs to press to advance his political ambitions,” Trott ultimately still concluded that DeSantis was “an a**hole” because he didn’t schmooze much with other lawmakers:

“If you’re going to go into politics, kind of a fundamental skill that you should have is likability. I don’t think [he] has that,” Trott said. “He never developed any relationships with other members that I know of. You’d never see him talking on the floor with other people or palling around. He’s just a very arrogant guy, very focused on Ron DeSantis.”

[…]

“He wasn’t really liked when he was in Congress. And now it’s coming home to, you know, prove out as some of the Florida delegation endorsed Trump…”

[…]

In short, said Trott, “I think he’s an a**hole. I don’t think he cares about people.”

Before we get into why this is such a hilariously bad argument to use against DeSantis, let’s remember that Trott, an occasional guest of the “Morning Joe” show, infamously endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 as part of the “Republicans and Independents for Biden” campaign. This is something that was pointed out by numerous readers in the comments to the Politico tweet on the story.

As for DeSantis allegedly keeping to himself and not clinking glasses much with the D.C. elite, that’s not exactly a mark against him though it’s been repeatedly tried in other media pieces on DeSantis before, including the hilarious “he eats pudding with his fingers” Daily Beast “report.”

DeSantis said in his book that his entire time in DC he never cared about rubbing elbows with the Swamp and didn't care about parties and gatherings, instead he put his head down and worked for his district and went to his office to call his family. Makes me like him more. https://t.co/ymCB0yQBiB

— Unfiltered☢Boss (@Unfilteredboss1) April 21, 2023

It’ll make a lot of other Republican voters like him all the more, too.

In the coming months, things are going to get even more interesting in the GOP primary with more candidate announcements coming and more shots being fired by The Usual Suspects in the press, the candidates themselves, and their surrogates. As exhausting as all of it is, it’s all part of the process. I get it.

But as I said before, regardless of where one stands now on any GOP hopeful, my advice to Republican voters and independent voters who tend to vote for Republicans is to simply ignore the mainstream press and talking heads to the extent they can and make judgments about candidates based on not just listening to them but researching their records and seeing what their accomplishments are.

Because there are few things the corporate media loves more than trying to manipulate the minds of impressionable voters ahead of elections, even if it revolves around using the deceptive claims from alleged “mega-donors” and the empty words of discredited so-called “Republicans” who get easily triggered over colleagues who refuse to play by the establishment’s rules.

Flashback: Purported ‘Journalist’ Asks the ‘Hard-Hitting’ Ron DeSantis Question of the Day