NY Times Predictably Tries to Drag Ron DeSantis Into Trump/Kanye/Fuentes Dinner Controversy
“Quiet [on the Trump/Kanye/Fuentes dinner] from a number of other potential 2024 R candidates, most notably the one who’s governor of the state where the dinner took place,” Haberman tweeted Saturday.
Last Tuesday, former President Donald Trump had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with eccentric rapper/hip-hop artist Kanye West, who in October landed in hot water on social media after posting content widely viewed as anti-Semitic, as well as Holocaust denier/white nationalist Nick Fuentes, and the mainstream media has talked about little else.
Trump, who earlier this month formally declared he was running for president, did not deny meeting with West – who says he’s running for president as well – but said that unbeknownst to him, West decided to bring Fuentes along. Trump also denied knowing anything about Fuentes, and posted several times about the dinner on his Truth Social platform in defense of the dinner:
Here:
NEW 🚨 Donald Trump’s statement on dinner with Kanye West pic.twitter.com/f4LKxkhEVR
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) November 25, 2022
Here:
New statement from Trump on his Kanye and Fuentes dinner: pic.twitter.com/noCjnZRTd0
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) November 25, 2022
And here:
Another Trump statement on Kanye/Fuentes/Yiannaopoulos dinner. Was helping 'a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black…' https://t.co/u20hKkUdxJ pic.twitter.com/biF598of9Y
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 27, 2022
As the wisdom of Trump meeting with West and why his aides didn’t intervene when it was discovered that Fuentes was also along for the ride continues to be hotly debated on the right, it was only inevitable that the mainstream media began playing their “does XYZ Republican condemn this or not?” game, because silence is violence or something.
Not surprisingly, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, whom some have described as a “Trump whisperer,” was among the first to engage in this predictable, tiresome tactic.
Haberman went big, skipping rank and file Republicans, and instead dragged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – a potential 2024 contender and someone who is definitely on Trump’s radar – into the mix since the dinner just so happened to take place in his state and stuff:
Christie criticized Trump for meeting with Fuentes/Kanye. Pompeo said something about antisemitism being bad, without naming Trump. Quiet from a number of other potential 2024 R candidates, most notably the one who's governor of the state where the dinner took place.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 27, 2022
So DeSantis is now on the hook to respond every time a Republican in his state behaves badly at dinnertime? If so, that’s a standard that needs to be applied across the board:
Ron DeSantis is responsible for every dinner meeting that happens in the state where he is Governor. Can’t wait until we apply this standard to Gavin Newsom. https://t.co/TVbB4V1fif
— Just Mindy 🐊 (@just_mindy) November 27, 2022
This is a stupid game. And no one is playing anymore. Not one democrat ever has to give some public denunciation of anything.
These people owe y’all nothing. You have no power over them with your fake and selective outrage. Shut up. https://t.co/Rj6OBQlLDn
— Hooch (@CompanyHooch) November 27, 2022
Further, and as others observed, Trump was relentlessly criticized in the press during his four years as president for allegedly being undisciplined and for exploiting the media’s circus-like tendencies. And yet DeSantis has indicated more than once that he’s not interested in playing the same game yet gets criticized for it by the same people:
Media: Trump exploits the media by turning it into a circus.
Also Media: DeSantis is too disciplined with the media and doesn’t make enough public statements. https://t.co/hOnkfvhdsj
— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) November 27, 2022
"The Governor of Florida was busy doing Governor stuff and hasn't commented on a dinner at a private club." – A reporter from New York. https://t.co/I5bI5Yr6vY
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 27, 2022
Most importantly, however, is the fact that DeSantis’ record on condemning anti-Semitism is crystal clear not only with bills he’s signed into law but also with public statements he’s made:
Earlier this year, DeSantis also blasted the Usual Suspects in the media and on the left for trying to pin anti-Semitic rallies held in the state on him, telling them in no uncertain terms that he would not take lectures from the same party that welcomed anti-Semitic members of Congress like Ilhan Omar with open arms:
“You know, some jackasses, you know, doing this on the street – first of all, state law enforcement is gonna hold them accountable because they were doing stuff on the overpass,” he said. “I’m not gonna have people try to smear me that belong to a political party that has elevated anti-Semites to the halls of Congress like Ilhan Omar, that have played footsie with the BDS movement, that even have people in their party that have cavorted with Farrakhan,” he continued.
DeSantis’ record on anti-Semitism includes what he calls the “strongest anti-Semitism bill in the country,” which includes funding for Jewish day schools and a strong relationship with Israel.
Lastly, judging by the MSM’s standards when it comes to condemning things, I guess Maggie Haberman not condemning white supremacy Saturday means she’s totes okay with it, right?
Hi Maggie. I can’t help but notice you haven’t condemned white supremacy or pedophilia today. When can we expect a condemnation?
— 🫃🏼🇺🇦💉Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) November 27, 2022
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
One of my favorite parts about this non story is that the “known white supremacist” was the invited guest of a black man and was also joined by an over the top gay man who openly prefers black partners. All of which runs contrary to the narrative that the left is so desperate to push.
Yes but you have to be able to think for yourself to understand this.
Excuse me, are you seriously doubting that Fuentes is a white supremacist?! I’m afraid he’s put that beyond any doubt.
I really couldn’t a fuck what he is while Democrats openly welcome racists in to their ranks.
So why is he hanging out and dining with a black man?
According to the media, everyone who is a conservative is a “white supremacist.”
As rbj1 notes below, why is a noted “white supremacist” hanging out with an obvious black guy?
How many “white supremacists” do you know that dine and pal around with black men and gay men?
Obviously at least one. Because there is no possible doubt that that is what he is.
Clearly there is abundant doubt for at least two reasons. First, anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders and Pocahontas is labled a “white supremacist.” Second, actual white supremacists don’t pal around and dine with black and gay men.
It kinda ruins their image.
It does lend credence to Pres. Trump’s claims that he didn’t know the guys accompanying Ye.
No, Juris Doctor, there is no possible doubt whatsoever. I cannot believe you actually do doubt it. He’s as openly antisemitic and white supremacist as it is possible to be. Doubting that it’s really true is like doubting that Hitler was one. The fact that he pals around with a black man simply proves that white supremacists do that.
JD, Milhouse is right. Stacey included a link to a long thread of Fuentes in his own words, and he is a vile, disgusting antisemite, Holocaust denier, and white nationalist/supremacist. He’s a dozen other ists and phobes, practically a walking talking stereotype of pure evil.
Black nationalists, commies, and other subversives cozy up to those who can help them achieve their ends–even if they think them subhuman. This is not new. What do you think “useful idiot” means?
And yes, in this instance, it was Trump who was the useful idiot to Kenye, who is also running for president (he apparently is serious about that, though he has a close to zero chance of getting even a single GOP primary vote). Why wouldn’t he play Trump by dragging a well-known white supremacist to dine with Trump? Win win for Kenye, he gets publicity and hangs a white supremacist albatross around Trump’s neck. Trump just sat there basking in their pretended adulation and not giving a single thought to how his judgement would be perceived by everyone no longer invested in Trump.
Horrible move all the way around. Bad optics, as they say, but also horrendous judgement. Trump got played by a crazy person who refers to himself in the third person as “ye.” Humiliating. Or he knew who Fuentes was and didn’t care. Maybe even liked the idea of meeting such a fervent admirer (admiring Trump is a requirement for being near him–a huge security threat in its own right). Sure the Fuentes guy hates Jews, wants them all dead, but hey, he says nice things about me! Ugh.
No matter how you slice it, this dinner was a huge mistake. Sure, his fervent loyalists will think that being a useful idiot (to Kanye West! how humiliating) is some kind of master 3-D chess move, but it’s not. It’s just plain old-fashioned ego and stupidity.
It’s not a controversy in the first place. Have dinner with anybody. Talk to your enemies.
Trump and Kim would be an example.
The cancel culture is the moron.
This is so true. If we can’t talk to each other, how are we supposed to get along?
We are not supposed to get along with f**king nazis. Decent people shun them and have nothing to do with them. Trump’s only excuse is that he didn’t know.
They weren’t f***ing nazis. They were having dinner.
Almost lost my coffee on that one!! 😉
Can we then also have the same standard about not getting along with f**king Communists, Islamists and Nation of Islam people?
Look Milhouse, I am also Jewish and my father fled both Nazis AND Communists.
But can we have ONE standard here?
By your going along with this double standard, you are legitimizing the likes of Farrakhan, Palestinian extremists, and frankly Marxists — and the latter these days only seem to control our news media, BigTech, Big Law and Ha-shem knows how many other institutions.
This Fuentes character, like David Duke is a marginal figure that the Marxist media likes to wave around like a bogeyman when he has ZERO influence on politics and culture.
Meanwhile, the equally Jew-hating leftists have made it impossible to be openly Jewish on college campuses and even in Tech companies.
What double standard? Where did you get the idea that I have a double standard? Fuentes is exactly as odious as Farrakhan or Sharpton. No more, but no less either. And all decent people ought to be upset when anyone normalizes such people by knowingly sharing their company.
Trump is a private citizen who can have dinner with whomever he wants. Unless they were plotting rebellion, it’s neither my business nor yours.
I gotta give you credit, Milhouse. When you want to change lanes, you give a signal that can be seen for miles. Are you surprised when you get horns blown at you?
.
Trump is a declared candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Reply to Fuzzy: Indeed, he’s a declared candidate but until he’s elected he’s a private citizen running for public office.
.
As a candidate, his every move matters, and Trump’s judgement is . . . shaky at best. As in this case. You can “private citizen” all you want, and that’s fair enough, but in the real world, his judgement matters for the job he’s applying to the American people for. You may not care, but others do. A lot.
Nobody has suggested that he should be legally constrained from dining with anyone he wishes. If he wants to befriend a notorious multiple rapist, or serial killer, or whomever he likes, nobody should be able to stop him, or should even want to; but by making a decision like that he would be removing himself from decent society, and nobody should want anything further to do with him. It would be unthinkable to support him for president if he were to knowingly do something like that, and anyone to whom it makes no difference is not a decent person.
But he can’t be expected to know who every person is, or to have heard of every obscure personality that crawls out from under a rock. Not everyone has heard of Fuentes, and even those who have heard of him don’t necessarily know enough to condemn him. That’s why I give the maximum benefit of the doubt to anyone who associates with him, so long as there is any doubt left.
Everyone keeps assuming this was Pres. Trump’s idea, but it wasn’t. I would give him the benefit of the doubt, and think Ye dropped this one on him for some undisclosed reason.
If you don’t like Trump, then fine, but don’t assume that he is the only party in this decision.
And as for Pres. Trump’s “every move,” you know that sort of monitoring hasn’t stopped since 2015. If he refused Ye an audience, there would be no mention of Ye’s scurrilous friends, and Pres. Trump would be deemed “racist” for turning down the dinner.
I don’t assume it was Trump’s idea. That’s why I wrote that “it would be unthinkable to support him for president if he were to knowingly” do this. But I assume that he didn’t knowingly do it, and that makes all the difference.
I also want to back a little away from that statement. If he were to knowingly associate with Fuentes or someone like him I would be very disappointed in him and angry at him, but it should not rule out supporting him for president, if the alternative is worse.
It also shouldn’t automatically mean shunning him. In principle I don’t believe in secondary boycotts. It is reasonable and proper to boycott (aka “cancel”) people who do such grievous wrongs that one considers them to have removed themselves from decent society. It’s also reasonable to ask others to join in that boycott. But one must remember that other people’s priorities are not the same as one’s own, and if someone decides not to boycott that other person, perhaps because he doesn’t consider that person’s offense to be as terrible as one does, then I think it is not reasonable or proper to boycott him. Once one starts on that road there’s no end to it; one ends up imposing tertiary, quaternary, quinary boycotts, forever and ever world without end.
Nazis were clear antisemites.
The Dem party supports and applauds antisemites.
How is this antisemite worse than the ones with power that the left supports?
He isn’t. But he’s every bit as bad. We condemn Democrats when they knowingly consort with antisemites. We can’t be silent when Republicans do the same thing. Trump’s only excuse is that he didn’t know. I don’t expect him to know who every obscure person is. But if he knew and did it anyway then there would be no excuse and all decent people would have to condemn him for it.
Agreed, but Trump’s story is that Ye sprung this on him. The SecService should have been all over this, which makes me wonder, particularly in conjunction with the Mar-a-lago raid.
Frankly, if Fuentes is as described, the SS should have refused entry (or shot him and made it look like an accident. No court in the land would convict them).
My apologies for not knowing who Fuentes is, but like QAnon, the NYTimes says I should know and agree with them.
I do neither. I take the Blues Brothers approach to Nazis, from the left or the right.
I don’t think it’s the Secret Service’s job to shield Trump from embarrassing political associations. I think that the Secret Service determined that Fuentes was not armed and was not likely to try to harm Trump, and left it at that; they had no reason to prevent his meeting, or to advise Trump not to meet him. His political aides ought to have done that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he has none, or they’ve learned by experience not to try to dissuade him from errors like this.
So you’re saying we should never again talk to democrats?
Not all Democrats are the same. But there are many Democrats who ought to be boycotted, except of course for necessary business. Would you ever invite Maxine Waters to your home?!
“Ron DeSantis is responsible for every dinner meeting that happens in the state where he is Governor. Can’t wait until we apply this standard to Gavin Newsom.”
Newsom?
He’s not even responsible for the hypocritical dinner parties he’s been caught attending.
This playbook is old and tattered. X person does Y action then the media demand a statement from Z who had zero to with either X or Y. Of course this media play is only applicable to r and not d/prog. Curious that.
Well, it gave Haberman something to do.
What a hack she(?) is.
Maggie Haberman is to the NY Slime as Taylor Lorenz is to the WaPoo.
Naturally, the water-carrying, mainstream media sycophants/prostitutes/propagandists/lapdogs never press the vile Dhimmi-crats to answer for their vicious and unabashed Jew-hate and anti-Israeli vilification and slanders, and, to explain why the Party welcomes gleeful Jew-haters and bigots into its tent.
Dr Santis is not obligated to comment or critique any lack of judgment by Trump so as to create a civil war among conservatives that NYT staffers and readers are passionately waiting for
That is SO on the mark.
You can just see what their little minds are up to. You can almost smell it.
Ummm, the reasons why I voted for Trump..
1. Any thing other than Hillary..
2. Trump did such a good job with economy, my retirement bounced back to pre Obama level.. Oh and Biden was apart of the previous administration that wiped out.my retirement and business..
3. The reason why I’ll vote for Trump again? Not Biden.. 😁
Bingo!! Everything Biden touched turned to crap, or got hugely more expensive, then turned to crap.
70+% of Americans agree, and we are supposed to believe that the not appearance of the red wave was due to voters liking what Biden and the Dems are doing.
Sheesh.
What has been left out of coverage of this
1. Why didn’t Trump know who Fuentes was? If he can’t be bothered to do his homework now why should we expect him to do homework later if we let him be the nominee?
2. Does Trump have a staff or a royal court? How exactly nobody stopped Trump from allowing Fuentes to stay is incredible. No other modern politician has a staff that would fail to alert their employer in this kind of situation. Personnel is politics. If the personnel are that incompetent or just such extreme yes men that they are in practice worthless…….
3. Trump’s failure to do homework flushed millions of votes down the toilet.
Trump is very obviously not an anti-Semite; he is a man who appears not to even pretend he will do homework.
Good points here, and ones that I thought immediately, as well. Even dining with Kanye was a huge mistake given his recent bout of public antisemiticism. But Fuentes is a bridge too far for me. He’s an actual Holocaust denier and white supremacist. He’s not right wing, he’s a National Socialist (the political spectrum is more circular than linear, and at some point the far left and far right merge and become indistinguishable, in my opinion, anyway).
I can’t believe that literally no one in his employ bothered to Google Fuentes before letting him in. Where the hell is the Secret Service, fgs? This sort of recklessness and willingness to let anyone who praises him that close to him is an actual danger to his personal safety. And that’s on top of the poor decision making and worthless staff/hangers on (though Trump must take responsibility for that, too, since all he wants around him are yes men.).
If they had, would they have told Trump? Nope, he only hires yes men that will let him do whatever he wants whenever he wants and will take the fall when he screws up.
It’s why his list of potential staff grew thinner with every month in the WH. He burned what he had, the left took care of the rest.
Ben Carson is hardly a yes man. but you know, you be you darling 😂😂
All I’ve seen of Carson lately is his lending his name to snake oil add on some of the more tabloid-ish websites.
I see anti gay, anti abortion and some things like that but I’m really struggling to find where the political orientation or ‘philosophy’ could be called of the right. Or the left really. More like ‘of Pluto”. Also, if the ‘don’t vote’ thing cost us the GA special election, he was its prime cheerleader.
Is this a reply to me?
Derbyshire’s item on what is a white supremicist is good, in response to John McWhorter’s too simple dismissal.
https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2016-12-02.html#05
Most of the categories are not Nazi at all.
I agree completely and am glad I wasn’t the only one who thought that.
I should articulate further
Right now the left has taken over every institution of any importance in this country. Everything from corporate America to Hollywood to Academia is under their control.
They have a major incident they did not need to prove their case now. We can’t give the left ammunition they use it effectively.
[Elective] Abortionist? [Clinical] Cannibal? Diversity [dogma] (e.g. racism, sexism, ageism), rabid? Politically congruent (“=”)? Redistributive change (i.e. trickle-down economics, slavery)? Authoritarian/leftist?
“I demand that you acknowledge that my imaginary boogieman is real!”
And imaginary sex, and imaginary importance, and imaginary voters….. you get the drift.
These people are self important three year olds, and the media is like a baby with a live hand grenade the way they misuse the “news.”
What no one’s getting is that Trump is masterful at bending the will of the likes of Kim Jung Il. The likes of Kanye West and this other guy are easy.
Trump was trying to counsel West.
Look, the second the left calls out the racists within their own ranks is when I’ll start taking notice of their petty cries aimed at conservatives.
Do the American people enter that consideration?
This incident was viewed by Americans who aren’t hard left.
Through the filter provided by the NYTimes.
There is no filter this isn’t bad through.
And those capable of thinking for themselves have two fucks and moved on to more important things like filling their gas tanks and putting food on their tables.
Think McFly! THINK!
The 2022 election results shows that what you just said is wrong American voters actually do care and they are in fact the boss.
We talking about the one where Republicans took Congress off Democrats right? 😂😂
Has anyone asked Youngkin to denounce the meeting? Virginia shares the Atlantic Ocean with Mar A Largo. It’s all very silly.
Robert Barnes(@barnes_law last) night discussed this with @vivafrei(David Freiheit) and Robert Barnes thinks it is possible that Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos orchestrated this ambush Trump/Fuentes photo op to milk Kanye of a chunk of his piles of cash. Barnes even speculated that there might even be an outside chance of Roger Stone being involved but he thinks that would be a stupid move by Stone.
-Paul in Sweden/EntryReqrd
Have any Democrats ever disavowed election-denier Hakeem Jeffries?