Feb. 27, 2023: What’s in Ron DeSantis' new book

Ron DeSantis's “The Courage to Be Free” will be released tomorrow, kicking off a media tour that is widely assumed to be the prelude to a formal announcement this spring that he’s running for president. 

The book rollout is taking full advantage of DeSantis’s relationship with the Rupert Murdoch media empire. The book is published by HarperCollins, which is owned by Murdoch’s News Corp. The first excerpt, “How the Florida blueprint can work for the whole US,” was published in the NY Post. Two authorized leaks from the book, one about his relationship with Trump and, early this morning, one about a private phone call with former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, have been published by foxnews.com.

And DeSantis started his media tour last night by giving his first interview about the book to Mark Levin, on Fox News’s “Life, Liberty & Levin.” The 40-minute conversation was as friendly and fawning as you’d expect. 

After midnight, The New York Times published a review of the book by Jennifer Szalai, who is, to put it mildly, not impressed. 

Taken together the Levin interview and the Szalai review perfectly capture how the right and left are greeting the DeSantis 2024 rollout.

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.