Youngkinology & Jeff Roe Remorse Theories

Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest. I’m Tara Palmeri, coming to you as always on Mondays and Thursdays with the real inside conversations lighting up the White House, the Hill, K Street, and the media companies covering it all. In tonight’s edition, my conversation with former Republican congresswoman turned cybersecurity expert and lobbyist Barbara Comstock, about DeSantis’ stumbles, the Glenn Youngkin lane, Jeff Roe regrets, and what her colleagues really think about Trump. No mini-items today, so let’s dive right into the action…

More Youngkinology & Jeff Roe Remorse Theories

A frank, occasionally angry, always insightful dialogue with former congresswoman Barbara Comstock about Youngkin, DeSantis, the Christie suicide-bomber strategy, and the Republican colleagues she left behind.

TARA PALMERI

Before joining the prestigious Baker Donelson firm as a lobbyist specializing in cybersecurity and privacy issues, Barbara Comstock was a respected two-term congresswoman representing the wealthy outer Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C—a purple-ish district she took over from a Republican, held as it swung from Romney to Clinton in 2016, and lost to a Democrat two years later, during the great midterm revolt against Trump. At the time, she was ranked one of the top ten most effective lawmakers by the Center for Effective Lawmaking. Everyone in Washington knows that Comstock is a serious player. She was head of research and strategy at the Republican National Committee, the director of public affairs at the Justice Department, and a senior advisor on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Now, she’s moonlighting alongside other Never Trump heretics like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to make sure the former president never gets elected again. She’s also supporting anti-Trump candidates at the state, local, and even federal levels. But I wondered about her honest assessment of the other contenders in the 2024 shadow presidential race, like her friend and fellow Virginian Glenn Youngkin, or Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, none of whom would dare say what she will say on the record. Herewith, in this lightly edited and condensed interview, Comstock offers her unique perspective on Youngkin’s post-primary late-entrant strategy, the Jeff Roe curse, the woeful state of the Republican party, and more.

Tara Palmeri: You were a two-term congresswoman from the 10th district of Virginia and you’re friends with current governor Glenn Youngkin, a sneaky, potential late-entry presidential hopeful. What do you think about the idea that he won’t jump into the race until after the Virginia state midterm elections in the fall? Barbara Comstock: Well, I think that’s what he’s decided to do, and I do keep in touch with some of the folks who are running [for seats in the state legislature]. So I think it’s a smart decision he’s made to be focused on that, certainly through the summer because that’s kind of when you’ll get a sense of how things are going to break. Why is it a smart decision? He needs to hold the House—there’s a very narrow majority—and then gain the Senate. It’s a big priority for Virginia to set the stage for next year. He’s really focused on getting some good candidates and trying to get some wins, and I think you always kind of set the tone for winning those races in the summer. As I talk to some of the candidates, I think that’s when, you know, you’re really gonna be set up to win those races in the summer—by Labor Day, you really got to have that plan in place. Do you think it’s even possible for Youngkin to jump into the race after the midterms in November and have a successful run? We have such an unusual 2024 presidential race going on right now. Tragically, it looks like we’re going to have a rerun of 2020, and have what really nobody wants, which is two candidates who aren’t particularly popular. Certainly on the Republican side, I do not want to see Donald Trump. I would absolutely not support Donald Trump if he were the nominee—I would support Joe Biden. I didn’t support Trump in 2016 when he was on the ballot, and I was on the ballot with him. I said he was vile, disgusting, and his Access Hollywood tape was disqualifying—and his comments about it in the recent E. Jean Carroll case made it even more disqualifying. I think everything that has happened since—January 6th and everything while he was in office—disqualifies him further for a second term. It would be even more highly dangerous. So I certainly hope we nominate somebody else. And I think as you’ve also seen DeSantis blow up before the launch. I think anything might be possible because a lot of people would like to see something other than a rerun of 2020, so I think there’s an opening. But I think it’s going to take somebody who’s willing to take on Trump directly, in a way where you state that he not only can’t win, but that he’s morally disqualified. If you’re not going to take him on directly, I think it’ll be difficult for a Republican to challenge him successfully. So far, I think the problem that Republicans have had in challenging Trump is that they’re all dancing around him. Asa Hutchinson is a friend and I am encouraged that he is already out there taking him on more directly than anybody else, saying he shouldn’t be running and that he’s responsible for January 6th. Chris Christie is talking about that as well, although I do think that Chris Christie is more in the sort of “suicide bomber” category. I hope he does get in, too, since he was working with Trump throughout the administration. I hope he takes him on as somebody who saw him up close and tells the American people why he is disqualified. What’s the verdict on DeSantis? Is he toast? I think he was counting on the Tucker Carlson primary and we haven’t even talked about Tucker. I think two weeks off the air is a big cleansing breath. And he just played to that Tucker audience. And, you know, his whole strategy with the woke Disney stuff wasn’t a winning strategy. That’s where his campaign went to die. You represented those swing-voting, college-educated suburban women who decide elections. What do they think of DeSantis’s six-week abortion ban or his permitless concealed carry? In a 50-50 country that comes down to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada, those are the kind of issues that decide those states. It’s also about tone and how they approach the voters. I think he’s not approached them right at all. He’s kind of ignored women and their concerns—that is going to have an impact. He’s not the right person for either. Neither he nor Trump have a strategy for, say, the suburbs of Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit. I mean, DeSantis was campaigning with Doug Mastriano. I think Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania will be reminding people of that. If you look at the people who are around DeSantis, it’s all of these Ted Cruz extremist people who are advising him. It’s this Tucker Carlson strategy, and they’re not people who’re listening to the majority, and that’s the problem. They’re all coming from red, red districts, and they don’t go into the purple territory, which is where you win a majority.

A MESSAGE FROM INSTAGRAM

How can families create positive Instagram experiences together? Family Center supervision tools allow parents to view who their teen follows and who follows them, manage daily time limits and be notified when their teen shares reported accounts, once Supervision is set up. Explore 30+ tools.

More Youngkinology

Back to Youngkin. Why does he keep signaling that he’s out, then that he’s maybe in? What do you think he ultimately decides to do? Well, I think it’ll depend on whether these other candidates choose to take on Trump or not. If there’s that opening—which I think you’re gonna have if Fani Willis drops these indictments in Georgia—it may be in the summer, because I do expect Trump will be indicted, one or two or more times throughout the summer. So that’s going to impact how the race shakes out. Asa Hutchinson has said those things have disqualified Trump, but the other candidates rush to Trump’s defense. Do you think that Youngkin would take Trump head on? What I’m saying is if he chooses to be a candidate who takes him head on while the others don’t, that’s where the opening is going to be. Do you think he will? Well, I guess I’m giving advice. I think first and foremost what he’s focused on right now is helping his own candidates here in Virginia. I think whether or not he chooses to run in the fall, or at some point later, is probably going to be dependent on the current candidates and whether they succeed in taking on Trump directly. I think that DeSantis’s campaign has already failed to launch because he’s sort of been a mini-me Trump. Trump is in effect already giving Democrats the attack ads against DeSantis if he’s ever to be the nominee. I think DeSantis has his own problems that are becoming more and more apparent before even he gets into the race. So how this plays out over the summer, and if it becomes more likely that Trump will be this very flawed candidate, it will provide an opening for somebody who might directly take him on. Because if people look and say, ‘Well, we can’t have Trump for a second term,’ who is that person who would step in and say, ‘Well, I’m willing to take him on?’ What’s Youngkin going to do now that he’s lost Jeff Roe? Is there any strong talent around him that could bring him to the national stage for a late entry in the fall? Well, first of all, I think it’s a plus for Glenn that he doesn’t have Jeff anymore. Look, Jeff went with the DeSantis team and he’s been tanking, hasn’t he? But I think Glenn does have some talent around him. Some of the people who are working with him are people who’ve won Virginia races for years. I think this is such a unique situation, in that anybody who wants to take on Trump is going to have to put together a coalition of Republicans and independents and probably Democrats who are concerned about any number of things with Joe Biden. Put that together, and you may be able to talk to a unique group of swing voters. Jeff has failed a lot of candidates over the years, if you look at his record. [Roe did not respond to requests for comment.] Have you ever worked with him or challenged a candidate who was working with him? I don’t know him, but the problem right now is that you have a lot of Republican consultants who are all catering to this Trump base, which has shrunk the party since 2016. So in 2022, you had people like Governor Chris Sununu in New Hampshire, the only Republican to win there—and he won by double digits—yet these Trumpy candidates who were the congressional candidates, and one who ran for governor, all lost. Same thing in Arizona. All the Trumpy Republicans go down in defeat. When you had coalition-type candidates, they won in those states. A coalition candidate has to find it in themselves to run a different kind of race and be willing to go directly through Trump, or be a suicide bomber like Chris Christie, willing to make the case for why Trump would destroy democracy. The facts are out there. Trump’s own lawyers, his campaign manager, his attorneys general and dozens of staff have all said he lied about the election. There is going to be an ample amount of ammunition out there for anybody who wants to amass it—they can quote it in ads, use it in debates. People can point out a lot of the failures of the Trump administration. But still, a lot of these candidates say, I don’t want to talk about Trump. Well, if you’re not going to take on Trump, why are you there? Why don’t you just go be a press secretary for him instead of being a candidate? Because so many of them have decided that when he gets indicted, they’re going to be out there cheerleading for him. Do you think that Youngkin could have a political future after 2025, or is this his moment because he has one term? I think all of these issues are swirling around, and how you respond to the issues of your time determine the kind of political future you have. So that’s why I think if you’re focused on what’s going on in Virginia, on the issues that are important—whether that’s crime or education—then how you meet those challenges matters. A lot of disaffected Republicans like myself—and I still count myself as a Republican, I was here before Trump—are concerned about democracy. A lot of Republicans voted against people like Kari Lake and Blake Masters because of their disrespect for democracy. So I think Republicans have to reach out to those of us who are concerned about our democracy. That’s why I think what Congress is doing right now in supporting Ukraine has been very important. It was a huge mistake for DeSantis [to not support Ukraine], and he really got it when he did that. So I think any Republican looking for a future needs to think about standing up for these democratic norms that cross over party lines like standing up for NATO.

Comstock 2.0?

Would you run for governor after Youngkin? I’m done. I’m definitely done. But I help young candidates get involved in state elections and still work to help women get elected. But I’m trying to really find candidates who support a new generation of leadership that is rejecting what Trump is, this authoritarian, anti-democratic troubling trend. I’m still working with Adam Kinzinger, who’s got his Country First group, which last year focused on Secretaries of States to make sure we had people who were counting the votes accurately and not trying to be election deniers. I think what is going on now is loud, but it’s temporary. There’s not too many people who want to see the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Lauren Boehberts hanging around much longer. But at the end of the day, Madison Cawthorn is gone. Tom Tillis did a great service to the state of North Carolina helping to get rid of him, and I think Lauren will be gone in the next cycle, and you’re gonna see people like that move along and a better crop of people coming forward. Do you ever regret not denouncing Trump more on the campaign trail? Yeah. Well, in 2016, I did. I was on the ballot with him and I did oppose him. I supported another candidate in 2016, and I didn’t endorse Trump ever in 2016. But yes, I regret that we all didn’t challenge him more. I recall once in the White House when he started talking about shutting down the government, I challenged him to his face with the cameras on, and my own colleagues were saying, What are you doing? Why are you saying that? Because I thought it was a dumb thing he was saying. I was trying to be as polite as possible saying, ‘Don’t shut down the government, Mr. President.’ He wasn’t happy that I said it. But, you know, every day you were trying to both serve your constituents and stop him from doing stupid things. It was kind of amazing. You certainly thought when he was finally in office that he would maybe start working with people. I was only there the first two years of his Presidency. He wiped out a lot of us. But those first two years were about trying to get him to work within reason and work with people. I was happy once there was a Democratic House because they at least impeached him for his actions. I certainly supported both impeachments, but I was on the outside at that point. I know so many people who were in his administration in 2020 and who voted against him, because they saw up close what he was doing. Many of them stayed there, only because they were so worried about what he would do if they weren’t in there. So I do sympathize with people who are still in office, who can’t say some of the things they want to say because they know if they’re not there, a Marjorie Taylor Greene might be in their seat instead. What do you think will ultimately happen? I think democracy will win. In the end, they will not support Donald Trump because people will stand up and fight, but it will be difficult. As Winston Churchill said, “You can always count on the American people to do the right thing after they've tried everything else.”