Fox contributor Karl Rove: Trump's CPAC speech was “a good one, but not a great one”

Rove: Trump has “begun to emphasize issues, but some of those issues are a little weird”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the March 6, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum

MARTHA MACCALLUM (ANCHOR): Karl, let me go to you next on this. President Trump went after you at one point, went after other Republicans, said, you know, "that's not the direction we're going anymore. We're moving hard on America First and this is the last battle, everyone knows it. The country could be lost forever." And, how did DeSantis do as well, sir?

KARL ROVE (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Well, I'm gonna -- the president did name-check me. I was happy to be named in the middle of Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush. But you know, I think the president's speech was a good one, but not a great one. He has, as you know, he's now begun to emphasize issues, but some of those issues are a little weird. You know, building 10 new cities around America and having people elect school principals just strike me as fanciful ideas. But at least he was talking mostly, not entirely, but mostly about the future. We did have, you know, the recitation that he'd actually won the 2020 election and that he'd won it by a lot, which I think people are over that. Just move on. You didn't win the election. You aren't president of the United States. Stay focused on the future. DeSantis is laying the predicate for a presidential campaign. He's not exactly running for president yet. He understands that people need to know more about him, and I thought his speech in California, and from what I heard the speeches in Dallas and Houston where he spoke to record-breaking audiences for the Republican county fundraising dinners, are all aimed at helping deepen people's understanding of who he is. I think it's a smart move, it's preliminary to becoming a presidential candidate. He recognizes people need to know more about what he's done in order to help prepare him for talking about what it is that he wants to do.