Rick Scott plotting how to wreck Ron DeSantis — so he can run for president himself: report

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 2022 midterm cycle, has ambitions of running for president — and according to Tara Palmieri for Puck, he is considering a plan to tear down one of his most bitter rivals: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis, who holds the office Scott himself once occupied in Florida, has become a favorite of the D.C. Republican donor class, who view him as a potential alternative to another run by former President Donald Trump — and at least some polls have suggested he led Trump with Republican primary voters, although other more recent polling suggests Trump may have regained his lead.

"The beef between Scott and DeSantis has been thoroughly documented in all its pettiness and vaingloriousness: the last-minute appointments by Scott, the dueling inaugurals, the party he threw in the governor’s mansion on the day that DeSantis’s young family moved into the residence," reported Palmieri. "At the time, of course, DeSantis was just a 30-something largely unknown figure who narrowly defeated a hyper-liberal candidate, Andrew Gillum. Over the intervening years, Scott has developed a different narrative regarding DeSantis’s success—namely, that he piggybacked on his own achievements, such as lowering unemployment from 11 percent to 3 percent, reducing the deficit, and cutting taxes. His team is particularly piqued by the lack of gratitude. Just this month, after DeSantis’s resounding re-election, Scott skipped his second inaugural address."

According to the report, Scott is already considering some lines of attack he might use against DeSantis if the both of them were in a presidential primary.

IN OTHER NEWS: 'Absolutely disgusting': Kentucky GOP group shocks diners by airing gruesome footage of Breonna Taylor raid

"Scott views the DeSantis administration, I’m told, as overly focused on culture war piñatas rather than fiscal issues," wrote Palmieri. "When Scott rode into the governor’s mansion in 2010 thanks to his checkbook and a Tea Party wave, he defeated party favorite Bill McCollum by zeroing in on his abuse of government perks, like availing himself of the state jet while he was Florida’s attorney general. I’ve heard that he would similarly try to frame DeSantis as a taxpayer-mooching grifter who is worth $300,000 while still carrying student loans, and who asked the state legislature to buy his office a $15 million private jet. (As a sign of belt-tightening, Scott sold all three of the state’s jets. After all, he had his own.) The two would also compete for the Florida donor network, which Scott has impeccably maintained."

Scott, notably, has also feuded with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Scott tried to set the agenda directly for Republicans running for Senate in 2022, complete with a controversial policy document that included raising taxes on the poor and subjecting Social Security and Medicare to potential five year "sunsets." Democrats hammered the GOP on these issues in key Senate races, and went on to retain control.