Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) officially entered the 2024 GOP primary race all of two weeks ago, but the media has already set its sights on his wife, Casey DeSantis. Late last month, before Gov. DeSantis had even announced his run, Politico published a lengthy article titled “The Casey DeSantis Problem: ‘His Greatest Asset and His Greatest Liability’” going after the mom of three’s personality, ambitions, and role in her husband’s political career.
At the time, Megyn called the piece an “enormous takedown” that showed just how “scared” the left is of the DeSantis campaign. Flash forward to this week, and The Daily Beast entered the fray with its own hit piece. “Casey DeSantis Is the Walmart Melania” is the name of the article by executive editor Katie Baker that goes after the Florida first lady’s fashion sense and gets in plenty of digs at Gov. DeSantis record along the way.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn shared excerpts from the you-have-to-read-it-to-believe-it piece as she and Jesse Kelly, author of The Anti-Communist Manifesto, broke down what’s behind the attacks.
The Daily Beast’s Attack on Casey DeSantis
Calling the article “laughable” and recommending it for “hate reading purposes,” Megyn said she couldn’t recall “a more absurd hit piece that just checked every box of what the left thinks of Republican women.”
The headline alone tells you everything you need to know about The Daily Beast’s perception of the right. “Let’s bring Walmart into it – let’s rip on those poor fat middle Americans who shop at Walmart,” Megyn said. “We know that’s how they feel, right? That’s how the left feels.” Any comparison to former First Lady Melania Trump would not be considered flattering when it comes from a leftist outlet like The Daily Beast, but Baker chose to take it a step further. “So she’s not even like a ‘good Melania,’” Megyn noted. “She’s like a disgusting, lame Melania – that is The Daily Beast’s suggestion.”
The criticism comes fast and free right off the top:
“The First Lady of Florida showed up on the campaign trail in Iowa this weekend wearing a ghastly black leather jacket—American flag on the front, an alligator and the silhouette of her state on the back, with the sneering words, ‘Where Woke Goes to Die’ — that brought to mind nothing so much as the racks of a Red State big-bin store where it would be retailing for $24.99.
To be fair, Casey DeSantis wore the bomber to a charity biker rally and I’m sure the campaign intended it to be a viral moment, like Melania Trump’s infamous ‘I Really Don’t Care’ coat that the former First Lady donned to check out the border crisis.”
– Katie Baker, The Daily Beast
Baker calls the message on Melania’s jacket “sphinxlike,” much like “the one-time model” herself. Casey’s bomber jacket, on the other hand, “is just like her husband Ron DeSantis’ campaign: Crude. Grasping. Saying the ugly part out loud… DeSantis’ Florida is where the woke go to die — and a lot of other people die as well.”
The piece goes on to criticize Gov. DeSantis’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, LGBTQIA+ rights, and Black history. While former President Donald Trump is “the danger of raw, chaotic id,” Baker writes that Gov. DeSantis is “the little jerk who’s going to make all of us pay for how he had no friends in third grade, or whatever his particular villain origin story is.”
With all of this in mind, Baker concludes that Casey’s jacket is a “warning” to America, and the country needs to “watch out” because, unlike the Kennedys, “the DeSantises will never be Camelot.” In her estimation, “Jackie and JFK symbolized the opposite of vulgar pettiness — they embodied youth, energy, a commitment to moral progress in the struggle for Civil Rights, and a country fresh with idealism.”
Megyn, for one, was happy to put Gov. DeSantis’ track record with Casey up next to the late John F. Kennedy any day, but, “sure, they were totally moral,” she joked.
Comparisons to Michelle Obama and Jill Biden
Because pitting Casey and Melania against one another wasn’t enough, Baker ends the piece by comparing both women to First Ladies Michelle Obama and Jill Biden:
“Of course, neither Melania Trump nor Casey DeSantis could ever embody the class and effortless elegance of Michelle Obama or Dr. Jill Biden. Those First Ladies have used fashion not as a punitive tool to stick it to political enemies — nor as a bored, nihilistic shrug — but as something generous and welcoming. Think the pure sweetness of Michelle’s Jason Wu floral gown for the Obamas’ first inaugural ball, or Jill’s pastel blue coat that echoed the colors of Ukraine’s flag when Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House.”
– Katie Baker, The Daily Beast
Notwithstanding what you might think of Obama and Biden’s wardrobes, Megyn couldn’t help but notice the selective memory Baker exhibited in talking about the “class” and “effortless elegance” embodied by those Democratic first ladies. “I don’t remember Casey DeSantis or Melania Trump ever calling Latinos ‘little burritos’ in a national speech, and I don’t remember either one of them bashing America as racist,” Megyn noted. “ Is that classy, really?”
How the Left Treats Women on the Right
As Kelly pointed out, this kind of criticism of women on the right is nothing new. “This is how they treat all the GOP first ladies, and it just goes to show you, once again, they never mean anything that they say,” he said. “They lie about everything they care about – they don’t care about the climate, they don’t care about women, they don’t care about Black people… you can tell this because the second a Republican one steps up, she gets smeared.”
Even so, Kelly says the right is partially to blame. “We watch these people do this forever and we’ve always assumed that we could just do enough to earn their approval – maybe if I’m more pro-women they won’t act like I’m the Antichrist, maybe if I run enough Black candidates they’ll finally accept that I’m not a racist,” he explained. “We haven’t accepted yet that those days will never come.”
Perhaps it is time for Republicans to learn something Megyn picked up from Pride and Prejudice long ago. “It reminds me of the line from Pride and Prejudice, ‘I have no wish for their good approval.’ That’s exactly how I feel about the left,” Megyn concluded. “There’s no point in trying to seek it – it’s not available to you no matter how good you try to be under their standards.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Kelly by tuning in to episode 566 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.