Former Virginia Attorney General and Ron DeSantis ally Ken Cuccinelli defended the Republican presidential candidate on CNN after DeSantis was criticized for using the phrase “listless vessels” in an interview to seemingly describe voters.
CNN host Kasie Hunt got into an argument with Cuccinelli after she showed an edited clip of DeSantis on “State of the Union” Sunday. “There was a pretty interesting moment in a recent interview where Governor DeSantis talked about Trump supporters,” Hunt said, adding that he “used the words listless vessels.”
“He wasn’t talking about Trump supporters!” Cuccinelli shot back.
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The clip that Hunt showed on CNN cut nearly a “paragraph” out of the middle of DeSantis’ comments, Cuccinelli said.
“A movement can’t be about the personality of one individual,” DeSantis said in an interview with The Florida Standard over the weekend. “If all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable moment.”
“Everybody just saw there that there was a cut,” Cuccinelli told Hunt immediately following the clip. “You cut from the beginning of that quote to the ‘listless vessels.’ You just did what the problem is. So everyone who just watched that, understand, go read the transcript.”
“How do we get from there to listless vessels?” Hunt asked Cuccinelli.
“There was a pretty big gap in your cut. So he’s talking about some of the folks in D.C. who’ve endorsed Trump. He’s talking about the more general environment and referring to all of us collectively,” Cuccinelli claimed, telling viewers again to read the transcript for themselves.
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The full transcript shows that DeSantis contrasted Trump supporters with “liberal left-wing records” against other Congressman like Chip Roy who have more conservative records.
“So there will be people who are huge Trump supporters, like in Congress, who have incredibly liberal left-wing records that is really just atrocious, and yet they’re viewed by some of these folks as like, really, really good,” DeSantis said. “Then you have other people, you know, like a Congressman Chip Roy, who has endorsed me, Congressman Thomas Massie. These guys have records of principle fighting the swamp that are second to none. And yet, they will be attacked by some of these people and called RINOs. So it’s just been totally detached from any type of substance.”
He continued, “And ultimately, a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual. The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people? And that’s got to be based in principle. Because if you’re not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.”
Some Republicans have fired back at DeSantis for what they said were insulting comments against supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t know why anyone running for president would put down half of the electorate and identify them, call them listless vessels because they support the former president,” GOP Rep. Nancy Mace said on Saturday. “And you’re right, he and I don’t always see eye to eye but I call it like I see it. Why Ron DeSantis would do that while his numbers are tanking is really beyond me,” Mace said, reacting to the comments.
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Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
