id and you know maybe exaggerate the other direction what the other person did. So they both seem to have a claim that the other one got it wrong. And I try to follow the argument so I'm like okay on this date DeSantis was a little bit pro-lockdown but on this date he was anti-lockdown. But Trump, he was pro-vaccination but then not mandatory but then he wasn't against lockdown. And then what about masks? What do they say about masks, you know? So I think it's too complicated. Now if it's too complicated voters will just retreat to their bias and back their candidate. So I don't think it has much punch. What do you think?

I think that both of them are going to be looking at sub-optimal performances because everybody was sub-optimal in the pandemic. You could argue that DeSantis was one of the better ones but apparently even New York state had a lower death rate. Did you know that? That's Trump's claim. I don't know if it's true. So Trump is claiming that even New York state did better on death rates than Florida did. But Florida made a conscious choice to protect the elderly and let everybody else live their life. So was that a mistake? Was it a mistake to let people live free knowing of course that the death rate would be higher? I wouldn't call it a mistake. I would call it a choice. So I don't know. I think neither of them are going to get traction. I think that we're over the pandemic. We understand that nobody was perfect and they both I thought they both did the best they could under great uncertainty. So you know I told you before at the beginning of the pandemic I told you that I was going to be an easy grader for all the leaders who got it wrong because there'd be a lot of people guessing and they would be getting it wrong. So from the very start I said let's be a little bit generous on this one. On this one people are genuinely guessing so you don't want to throw your good leaders under the bus because they guessed wrong. Now you could argue there are things that were more objectively true when they got it wrong but nobody was going to get everything right. That wasn't a thing. So I tend to not care so much about what they got wrong. You know they were in the ballpark. I think both Trump and DeSantis were in the ballpark of my preference, meaning they were struggling to understand as best they could, make the best decisions they could. They were well-meaning. I don't know. I have nothing to complain about honestly even though it was sub-optimal.

All right, Larry Elder has a book, "As Goes California: My Mission to Rescue the Golden State and Save the Nation," now available. That feels like an important read because I think he's right on this. You know, as goes California because California is sort of the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. It's like well we're doing this this year. Just wait two years, you're going to be doing it too, whatever it is.

All right, I saw it's not a, Lawrence Jones referred to DeSantis as Trump light. What do you think of that framing? DeSantis is Trump light. Now this is similar to Bill Maher saying that DeSantis is the tribute band. But here's what I like about calling DeSantis Trump light because it reminds you of Bud Light and Bud Light is now carrying some bad vibes with it. So I'm not sure the first time I said it, when the first time I just said that DeSantis is Trump light