But is CNN the place to start for a DeSantis media blitz? Yes, even though a lousy showing would be costly. While there may be friendlier or less skeptical interviewers than Tapper — on a Daily Wire or Joe Rogan Experience appearance, say — many primary voters either watch CNN or hate CNN, and they would like to see Tapper, the network’s face, humiliated. Fogies have opinions about CNN one way or the other. DeSantis is 20 points behind Trump in that elder segment, compared with a 50-point gap with the youngest voters, but there are no more than seven GOP voters under 25, and three of them are Trump grifters (good work if you can get it). So while the Trump–DeSantis gap is narrowest with the older electorate, there are a great many voters in the bloc who remain unconvinced of DeSantis’s future.

If DeSantis has any chance of unseating Trump, he needs the free press that a CNN appearance offers.

[Why is CNN an issue when Trump has done appearances there, too? It’s a bit strange to see people defend Trump doing interviews on mainstream media outlets and then scratch their heads at DeSantis doing CNN and Jake Tapper. If it were me, I would have advised doing an interview with Bret Baier first, but DeSantis did do Maria Bartiromo’s show earlier. At some point, GOP hopefuls are going to have to show they can compete outside of the conservative-media arena. It may as well be now. — Ed]