That first debate is just two days away – and with frontrunner Donald Trump's announcement on Sunday that he won't be participating, the other candidates will try to use the event in Milwaukee, hosted and moderated by Fox News, to jump start their campaigns.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who has been running a distant second in most polls for months – has received some advice from a firm associated with "Never Back Down," the super PAC that has effectively taken over his presidential campaign. It has released a memo listing four basic "must-dos" for the governor:
- Attack Joe Biden and the media three to five times
- State his "positive vision" two to three times
- "Hammer" contender Vivek Ramaswamy in a response
- Defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to an opponent's attack
Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, tells AFN that DeSantis has some savvy handlers.
"It indicates to me that he's got some very wise political advisors," he explains. "Anybody who thinks they can get the Republican presidential nomination and go on to win the general election – [and] in the process … alienate the Trump base – is smoking something that's still illegal in most states."
Bauer, a Trump supporter, says if this cast of candidates succeeds in taking Trump down and alienating his supporters, the consequences will be catastrophic for the nation.
"If he is laid low, forced out, or appears to have been betrayed by the elites of both parties, their revenge will be a revenge that unfortunately will doom the country to a globalist, neo-Marxist future," he warns.
The two-page memo advising DeSantis was posted only temporarily on the website for Axiom Strategies. It was deleted after The New York Times inquired about the memo.
