Following a lackluster showing by many GOP candidates in this week’s midterm elections, a number of high-profile Republicans have engaged in intraparty finger-pointing in an effort to suss out the underlying causes.
For his part, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a broad swipe at an unidentified conservative who he believes has engaged in too much partisan rhetoric without the actions necessary to back it up.
In a tweet on Thursday, he wrote: “Conservatives are elected when we deliver. Not when we just rail on social media.”
He went on to assert that his party can win when elected officials and candidates “fight for families and a strong America.”
Although he did not specify which conservatives he believed were falling short, the remark came on the heels of a controversial social media post by former President Donald Trump.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, the 45th president took aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican who won a decisive re-election bid on Tuesday and is widely discussed as a potential 2024 presidential nominee.
Rehashing the nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious,” Trump declared that Fox News and other NewsCorp brands were “all in” for the popular governor.
Nevertheless, the former president denounced DeSantis as “an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn’t have to close up his State, but did, unlike other Republican Governors, whose overall numbers for a Republican, were just average — middle of the pack — including COVID, and who has the advantage of SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was.”
Trump unloading on DeSantis over on Truth Social. pic.twitter.com/HNLqX1iHZI
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 10, 2022
The social media diatribe evoked mixed reviews from the Republican side of the aisle.
Trump adviser and confidante Roger Stone sided with him, declaring that DeSantis “owes his governorship to Donald Trump” and that it “would be a treacherous act of disloyalty” for the governor to challenge Trump in the 2024 presidential primary.
