Thread by @JeffClarkUS

1/x OK, I've listened so as not to be only abstract. (This will be a long thread as I'm going to take the most salient things on point by point.)

First, there will be snark or acrimony here. I'd like to think of both @JennaEllisEsq and @josh_hammer as friends in conservatism.

https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1663571741162057728

2/x Second, I think reasonable conservatives can differ in the race between Trump and DeSantis.

Third, I think DeSantis does have his merits.

Fourth, I'm not going to descend into the intercamp mud wars.

Fifth, the Jenna-Josh podcast exchange was better than I'd expected.

3/x Still, I think the points they made are thin and in particular, I don't think Jenna carried the burden to explain her switcheroo.

There were many generalities & much public-relations speak. Those things always strike me as so much diaphanous mist.

Now, on to the merits ...

4/x On merits,

First, both Josh and Jenna mentioned Trump's failure to build the wall. Having worked directly on this issue, and with all due respect, I don't think either of you know what you're talking about.

A) Congress did not provide enough money for the wall--big problem.

5/x A) cont'd -- RDS couldn't have persuaded Congress in the 2017-2021 timeframe to have provided the money. That's an illusion. Persuading the Florida Legislature on other issues is not the same thing.

B) It was no mean feat to reprogram what money we could to go to the wall.

6/x C) Coordinating building the wall was a massive bureaucratic project. RDS could not have done a better job at that than Trump. DHS, DOD, Justice and several other Departments were involved. @jaredkushner did a solid job running the coordination process in the Situation Room

7/x C) cont'd -- and Roosevelt Room meetings I attended.

D) Taking the land under the power of eminent domain, which I was in charge of, was also not an automatic, snap-the-fingers process. And it also involved lots of litigation.

8/x E) The Civil Division at DOJ had to defend against an onslaught of anti-wall litigation. I also had to dispatch one of my best Deputy Ass't AGs in the Env't Division to jointly argue such a case pending out in California during the Trump Admin. I remember all of it well.

9/x F) In addition to eminent domain litigation, we also had ridiculous environmental litigation, like being sued by a butterfly refuge to try to halt the wall

G) I mean no disrespect to Jenna, Josh, or even Ann Coulter about this. But none of them have ever been involved

10/x G) cont'd--in any litigation that complex and sprawling involving a veritable legion of statutes across multiple fed'l cts, all while working on solving practical logistical issues. You just haven't.

So I don't want to hear that Trump didn't build the wall. We did our best.

11/x Second, Jenna says Trump made bad personnel decisions. (This ignores that he had plenty of good ones too.)

A) Chris Christie's generally sub-standard transition operation did not serve Trump well. I don't consider this a failure of Trump but of Christie and some others.

12/x B) Trump separated out numerous leading officials that were causing problems or not getting the job done. I'll just give a few examples: Rex Tillerson, H.R. McMaster, James Comey, and sad to add Jeff Sessions (who had great integrity but was not ready to run Main Justice).

13/x C) Given the firestorm that just firing Comey created, I am dubious RDS would have done the same. Comey was Deputy AG under Bush 43. I view him as a closeted Democrat but in terms of credentials he presented as a Republican.

Third, Jenna says attacks on Trump irrelevant.

14/x Third cont'd -- It's true that no one can be "coronated" b/c they're under attack. But that sidesteps the point: Trump is under a massive barrage of lawfare because he is the Rep. leader the Left fears most.

RDS will be (and has been) attacked as well but not to same extent

15/x Fourth, Jenna says she stopped supporting Trump when he started attacking RDS.

A) Everyone knows that this is how Trump is and also knows politics is a blood sport. Trump dissected Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio on stage in 2016. No one can claim surprise.

16/x B) Now here, Jenna has the retort that it's not 2016 anymore & Trump is now an establishment figure.

Come on, that can't pass a laugh test. Trump is anti-establishment, non-establishment, and hated by the establishment. See my point above about why he is under legal attack.

17/x Fifth, Jenna says Trump has failings on the personal morality front. We're not a congregation voting for a new pastor. We're voting for a leader of the nation. Men fall into sin. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Trump's nomination decisions saved millions of babies

18/x I'm not amnesiac enough to forget that there were many never-Trumpers arguing in 2016: if only they could trust him on the courts, they'd vote for him. (Of course, none later changed their mind, admitted Trump did what he said he'd do on nominations, and swung to his side.)

19/x Sixth, Jenna says RDS is a constitutional conservative (and, by implication, Trump is not)

A) Again, I think RDS has done much for Florida. But he did go along with issuing unconstitutional lockdown orders in the early phases of COVID. I don't buy that he's as pure as Jenna

20/x B) This is just an attempt to say RDS has an advantage b/c he's a lawyer trained in constitutional law and Trump is not. With the experience of his first term in mind, Trump can find many constitutionalists to advise him.

I find it an advantage that Trump is NOT a lawyer.

21/x C) Clinton was a lawyer, as was Obama. Obama was touted as a constitutionalist too. No one should have bought it. Few lawyers these days are actually constitutionalists.

D) However, I will concede that the substance of RDS's Twitter Spaces was good. I tweeted as much.

22/x Seventh, Jenna says Trump is just pitching "personality populism." I find this elitist.

It boils down to lawyers arguing that it's bad many ordinary people are not policy or law wonks (like me).

But they have families to raise and incomes to earn.

23/x Seventh cont'd -- As long as we have voting, we are going to have voters who have to look at candidates as a package without researching all of their policy positions, by just going off of past track records, their judge of character, etc.

24/x Seventh cont'd -- Just like elitist by training & upbringing Wm. F. Buckley, I'd rather be ruled by people chosen from the phone bk. than a critical mass of Yale & Harvard professors. I say that having gotten elite educational credentials *and* I grew up w/o Buckley wealth.

25/x Eighth, Jenna got close to saying Trump is just pure showman. This pt. in particular doesn't explain why she was a strong backer of his from 2016-2021.

Plus, it's wrong. As I pointed out in a tweet earlier today, no one has shown Trump's mastery of detail.
(cont on new 🧵)

26/x Ninth, I can't believe I have to respond to Jenna and Josh arguing that Trump is overweight vs. RDS who's fit.

This ignores that we've never seen a man on the national stage at his age that has Trump's stamina. He knocks these rallies off like he's just taking a stroll.

27/x Ninth cont'd--Trump's energy campaigning was unparalleled. Trump plays golf constantly. He seems able to run on very little sleep, being able to constantly monitor all forms of media, meet with a plethora of people, etc., etc.

28/x Ninth cont'd--This is not to denigrate RDS but I seriously doubt that if we put RDS through Trump's schedule, he'd be able to keep up.

Also, I think it looks like Trump has lost weight and some days he even looks better than in 2016.

29/x Tenth, Jenna says "if they [Trump supporters] talk substance, they lose."

That's just wrong. As even the Economist has recognized, Bannon's pro-Trump show is merits-focused. Really, the show is all merits, all the time. Bannon's teaching micro and macro-econ to his viewers.

30/x Eleventh, Jenna and Josh say they were 2016 supporters of Ted Cruz before they came around to Trump. So was I, though I probably did so before they did.

Seeing Trump on stage at a debate w/ Cruz caused me to switch to supporting Trump. A legal reporter called me in 2016--

31/x Eleventh cont'd--the reporter was mystified that I was the only law partner in DC he could find at the time who had maxed out as a donor for Trump. His basic question was how I thought he could win or what I knew that other elite lawyers did not know.

31/x Twelfth, I switched because I saw Trump as a transformational future President. I still do. What Trump accomplished against strong headwinds is unmatched in US history.

I'd love to be proved wrong (but in 2028, not 2024) but I don't see RDS as a transformational President.

32/x Thirteenth, Trump faces a lot of lawsuits, Jenna says.

Both Jenna & Josh recognized on Josh's podcasts that the 2 Trump impeachments were nonsense. So are the lawsuits.

Finally, circle back around to the lawsuits being the acid test of whom the Left believes they must stop

33/x Fourteenth, Jenna argued (in the middle of the podcast, but it's a good point to use to sum up) that true loyalty to the country requires her to leave Trump and to switch away to DeSantis.

That's a matter of personal conscience I cannot second guess.

34/x Fourteenth cont'd-But I don't think she's *objectively* proved her case.

For me, both objectively and as a matter of personal conscience, I continue to support Donald Trump.

He was transformational after 2016. And he will be transformational squared post-2024 if reelected.