Is Murdoch sick of DeSantis? Billionaire media mogul is tired of Florida governor’s focus on ‘waking up’ and still wants Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin to join the race to take on Trump
- Rupert Murdoch is reportedly losing faith in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
- Murdoch thinks DeSantis’ anti-woke 2024 campaign is sloppily executed
- Florida governor not rising in polls against Trump
Billionaire media magnate Rupert Murdoch is reportedly tired of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as Fox News’ chosen nominee for 2024.
Rolling Stone laundry out with a piece Tuesday that describes how Murdoch “privately shuddered” at DeSantis’ anti-woke campaign that has been the centerpiece of his GOP primary run thus far.
Sources said the owner of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post believes DeSantis is campaigning sloppily and has made missteps — including releasing a video of him addressing former President Donald Trump for being better for the nation. LGBTQ community than DeSantis, 44, would be, which came across as bizarre and homophobic.
That reports the New York Times Wednesday that Murdoch still Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants to see jump in the 2024 race.
“They’re transactional and they can smell a loser a mile away,” a Fox insider told Rolling Stone about DeSantis’ current attitude toward Rupert and son Lachlan Murdoch, as well as Fox News’ top executives.
Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch (left) is reportedly tired of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (right) as Fox News’ nominee for 2024
According to Rolling Stone, the Murdochs have become increasingly irked by Team DeSantis’ tripping, the candidate’s perceived inability to connect with voters and his lackluster polling results.
Every opinion poll conducted since DeSantis entered the race at the end of May has still left Trump overwhelmingly at the top.
For the past two years, The Times said, Murdoch has privately told people that despite Trump’s popularity with the Fox News audience, the billionaire believes he is bad for the Republican Party.
Under Trump, the GOP first lost the House, then the Senate, then the White House.
The 2022 midterm elections, which were expected to be a “red wave,” ended with Democrats winning a Senate seat and Republicans only a slim majority in the House.
Part of the blame fell on Trump-backed candidates.
Trump was already openly hostile to Fox News before announcing his 2024 candidacy, though he will still appear on the network.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Rupert Murdoch still hopes Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin enters the 2024 presidential race
Former President Donald Trump was dominant in the 2024 polls, with Fox News hosts asking DeSantis why that is
The Murdochs became interested in DeSantis because he was Trump-like, but possibly more electable.
But then DeSantis decided to run his campaign to the right of the former president and put culture war grievances front and center.
He also signed a six-week Florida abortion ban — something that could prove toxic in a 2024 national vote.
‘[Rupert’s] understandable concern is that we will end up with Trump anyway,” a senior Fox source told Rolling Stone. “And DeSantis is underperforming.”
“Anyone can see that… [and the Murdochs]they see it too,” the source added.
Murdoch’s news organizations have also been cracking down on DeSantis lately.
During an appearance on Fox Sunday, host Maria Bartiromo — a Trump fan — bluntly asked DeSantis, “What’s going on with your campaign?”
“There was a lot of optimism about your candidacy for president earlier this year. … What happened?’
DeSantis responded by saying these are just media stories.
“The media doesn’t want me to be the nominee. I think that’s very, very clear. Why? Because they know I’ll beat Biden,” Florida’s governor said. “But more importantly, they know I will actually deliver on these things.”