Tara Palmeri

Another week in the spring of 2023, another round of claims that the 2024 Republican primary is over before it has even begun. As regular readers will know, this newsletter’s firmest 2024 conviction is that it’s far too soon for such definitive declarations. Trump may not be like other presidential contenders, but anyone ready to hand out prizes should remind themselves who was leading the pack at this stage in previous cycles. Driving the sense that it’s all but over is a growing consensus that Ron DeSantis doesn’t have what it takes: he lacks charisma, he doesn’t know what ideological lane to occupy, he has made the fatal mistake of trying to beat Trump at his own game.

Joe Biden has long sought to depict himself as a champion for women — from sponsoring the Violence Against Women Act as a senator to fronting the It’s On Us anti-campus sexual assault campaign as vice president. But frankly, he's not having a very feminist week. Cockburn was shocked to read a report in Politico that TJ Ducklo is “on the cusp of officially reentering Biden world in a senior communications role on his reelection campaign.” Ducklo, you may recall, resigned as White House deputy press secretary in 2021 after yelling at Tara Palmeri, a female reporter then at Politico,  threatening to “destroy” her. Palmeri had contacted the White House to ask about Ducklo’s relationship with Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond, who covered the Biden campaign.