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IN THE FLESH — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his campaign for president on Twitter. But since he’s launched, he’s been dotting around key early Republican primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire and today South Carolina — in the flesh, delivering his stump speech in town halls and restaurants and talking (sometimes) to voters.

Much has been made of his preference for existing inside a protective cocoon, limiting media availability to friendly publications. That early isolation has invited heightened media scrutiny of his every move, which has led his small cadre of trusted advisors to consider opening up the campaign’s tight-lipped, adversarial media strategy.

The early returns from voter events across the country suggest that he’s splitting the difference. Mostly, he grants interviews to right-wing outlets and doesn’t take audience questions at events (though today, he took one: “How did you and your wife meet?”), but he’s also doing a healthy amount of glad handing after his prepared remarks. These appearances have also suggested a mutability on key questions like support for an abortion ban, with his prepared remarks changing slightly based on the audience.

To get a sense of where the fascinating early primary campaign of one of the Republican frontrunners is headed — and to hear some first-hand impressions — Nightly spoke with three POLITICO reporters who spent this week on the trail with DeSantis: Lisa Kashinsky, Natalie Allison and Sally Goldenberg. This interview has been edited.

The knock on DeSantis is that he operates in a protective cocoon and can’t or won’t do retail politics. How accurate is that criticism?

Kashinsky: I’ve covered three DeSantis events in New Hampshire recently and over the past couple months and he’s glad-handed at each of them, taking selfies, signing photos, the works. He even kissed a lawmaker’s baby at a roundtable last month. But he’s not taking questions from voters on the stump, which is a campaigning staple in New Hampshire and something several of his rivals — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, about-to-launch former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — are doing. We heard complaints about that yesterday in New Hampshire. One Republican woman I spoke to even had a question typed out in the Notes app on her iPhone about what changes DeSantis would make to the FBI beyond bringing in a new director — but she didn’t get to ask it, and she was disappointed about that. Voters in New Hampshire expect — if not require — that type of interaction from candidates and will look elsewhere if they don’t get it.

Allison: Part of the reason DeSantis’ trip to Iowa a few weeks ago was seen as such a success was because he made a point to retail the hell out of it. Shook hands and went around the room at his events, stopped at Pizza Ranch, and then the cherry on top was an impromptu flight back to Des Moines that night to visit with supporters at Jethro’s BBQ. He and Casey [DeSantis, the governor’s wife] stood on a picnic table outside and said a few words to the packed patio in between shaking hands and taking selfies. He did that to rub salt in the wound of Trump’s canceled rally that night over weather concerns, but it solidified the idea that DeSantis, despite being seen as avoiding retail politics much of the time in Florida, is in fact capable of that type of campaigning. And of course, he has since done more of that during his return to Iowa and other early states.

To the degree the criticism is true that he struggled to get out of his shell and connect with voters — and it seems like it was — he has quickly worked to prove otherwise.

Goldenberg: Having covered a few pre-campaign events of DeSantis’ before his launch, and a few more in N.H. and S.C. over the last week, what I’ve observed is a politician who is more comfortable and animated delivering a speech and laying out the stakes of the election in an oppositional manner (the “woke left” and “legacy media” and DC “elites” being that opposition) than schmoozing with crowds. That’s not to say he doesn’t do it — he does, to a point. But retail politics doesn’t seem to come naturally to him. He’s an intellectual and a brawler, not so much an empath or a glad-hander in the style of Bill Clinton or Chris Christie. He taps into frustration and anger with more ease than he engages in friendly banter. And he barely takes town hall- style audience questions. He took one today at a midday stop in South Carolina. The audience member asked how he met his wife. He and his wife answered it at length and then left the stage to greet and take photos with people in the crowd before leaving.

Much has been made about his antagonistic relationship with the press. What was the media presence like at his events and what were his interactions with the press like?

Kashinsky: DeSantis didn’t take questions from reporters at the events I’ve covered. But in between stops in New Hampshire on Thursday he did interviews with friendly and local media — the NHJournal and Fox News’ New Hampshire-based political reporter Paul Steinhauser. He was also on the “Good Morning NH” radio show with Jack Heath.

Allison: Whereas Trump on Thursday in Urbandale [Iowa] waltzed into the Machine Shed restaurant and almost immediately turned to the cameras, smirked and acknowledged the “fake news,” DeSantis mostly went about doing his own thing in Iowa. He threw in some references into his stump speech about the news media and his claim that his policies on any number of issues anger the mainstream press, but he wasn’t directing his supporters to boo or the types of things we’ve seen from Trump. He tried out a new thing Tuesday night after his event and did a presser, though he only called on reporters from a list presumably given to him by his staff — and none of the questions were particularly difficult, although we did get to hear a bit more from him than just his stump speech.

Goldenberg: A consistent part of his stump speech is attacking the “corporate” and “legacy” press for, in his view, beating him up unfairly over his Covid policies, siding with Disney in his war with the massive company, and propping up the “woke left” while lacking a genuine understanding of everyday Americans who, in his view, make up his base. (They may; we’ll see.) It seems like his anti-press posture is a bit more real than Trump’s.

What did you learn about him that you didn’t know?

Kashinsky: DeSantis doesn’t want to talk about abortion, at least not in New Hampshire, where polling shows the majority of voters identify as “pro-choice” and believe the Supreme Court erred in overturning Roe v. Wade. He spoke of the six-week ban he signed into law in Florida while he was in Iowa. But he didn’t mention it once in the four stops he had in New Hampshire on Thursday — a state that allows abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and in limited cases after. Removing the line from his stump speech in New Hampshire nods at the state’s more moderate and libertarian politics, and its open primaries. If DeSantis wants to win the first-in-the-nation primary, he’ll have to appeal not just to Republicans, but independents who skew more centrist.

Allison: I thought DeSantis talking about his home life, in detail, was fascinating. We’ve heard Casey mention previously that he’s such a “great dad” and devoted to tucking in his children at night and what not, but this week was the first time I had ever heard him discuss doing normal things with his kids. Taking them through the drive-thru. Explaining how not to cheer for the other team at a football game. And, of course, trying to get his 3-year-old to use a public bathroom. Those are the types of “I’m just like you” stories you’ll never hear Trump telling — and Trump doesn’t have to — but it could be a key point of contrast between DeSantis and the former president.

Goldenberg: He tells a story of having to spend an entire early-career paycheck buying OSHA-compatible boots for a job he got and how he resented that. It’s a more relatable story from a candidate who veers into highly intellectual territory and connects with voters more by positioning himself against the Democratic Party and talking about his record in Florida than personal anecdotes.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at [email protected]. Or contact tonight’s author at [email protected] or on Twitter at @calder_mchugh.

— Fitch warns it could still cut U.S. debt rating even after deal: Fitch rating service today warned that it could still downgrade the U.S.’s credit rating even after Congress passed a bill that averts an unprecedented default on government debt. While the deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending are “positive considerations,” Fitch said “repeated political standoffs” over the federal government’s borrowing limit “lowers confidence in governance on fiscal and debt matters.”

— Key Mueller witness seeks mercy for his cousin: A key cooperator in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of former President Donald Trump is pleading for leniency for a convicted Jan. 6 felon: his cousin. Sam Patten, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to acting as an unregistered lobbyist for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, is the cousin of Noah Bacon, a Massachusetts resident found guilty in March by a jury for obstructing Congress’ Jan. 6 proceedings. Court documents indicate that Bacon was among the earliest rioters to enter the Capitol and spent 10 minutes on the Senate floor after watching others attack police officers trying to keep them out of the chamber.

ALL WRAPPED UP — The Justice Department has ended an investigation into former Vice President Mike Pence’s handling of classified documents discovered in his home, according to a letter sent by DOJ to Pence’s attorney and obtained today by POLITICO.

The letter, dated June 1, arrived just days before Pence is expected to launch a presidential bid. The Justice Department confirmed the authenticity of the letter but declined additional comment.

OFF THE TRAIL — Nikki Haley’s husband will soon begin a yearlong deployment with the South Carolina Army National Guard to Africa, a mission that will encompass most of the remainder of his wife’s campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

A formal deployment ceremony will likely happen in the next few weeks, Maj. Karla N. Evans with the National Guard told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Michael Haley will be deployed as a staff officer with his unit, which will be at “the core of” a task force that supports the U.S. Africa Command, Evans said, “replacing a unit from a different state as part of a regular rotation of forces.”

It will be Michael Haley’s second active-duty deployment since he joined the Guard as an officer in 2006.

TWO NIGHTS ONLY — The Republican National Committee says it will consider adding a second night to the first GOP presidential primary debate this August in Milwaukee, according to new qualifying standards announced today.

The first debate will be Aug. 23 on Fox News Channel, with a possible second date of Aug. 24 if enough candidates meet polling and fundraising criteria — and also commit to supporting the eventual Republican nominee and pledge that they will not participate in any outside debates, reports POLITICO’s Marcia Brown.

Candidates will have to garner donations from at least 40,000 national contributors and poll consistently above 1 percent in three national polls or two national polls and a state poll, according to the RNC’s announcement. Candidates must secure donations “with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in 20+ states and/or territories.” The candidates will have until Aug. 21 — 48 hours before the debate — to meet the criteria. Polls conducted prior to July 1 won’t count toward qualification.

HANDSHAKE DIPLOMACY — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin shook hands with his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, at a dinner in Singapore today, underscoring the U.S.’s effort to maintain relations with China amidst growing tension between the two superpowers, writes Marcia Brown.

“The two leaders shook hands but did not have a substantive exchange,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder in a statement. He emphasized U.S. efforts to maintain “open lines of military-to-military communication” with China.

The two were not expected to meet at all during the annual defense and security forum that brought Austin to Singapore, after China rejected a U.S. invitation for a meeting.

The surprise exchange comes as the U.S. has begun repairing a relationship that grew acrimonious after a Chinese spy balloon was spotted earlier this year in U.S. air space. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned trip to China in the aftermath, but last month announced plans to reschedule his travel. The handshake also comes days after high-level trade discussions between the U.S. and China.

BELLY OF THE BEAST — After CNN hosted former President Donald Trump for a town hall in May, staffers were angry. CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy and CNN Chief International Anchor Christian Amanpour called the network out directly. The incident, though, was just the latest public display of growing internal frustrations within the network, especially aimed at new boss Chris Licht. For The Atlantic, Tim Alberta spent a year inside CNN, speaking with staffers and shadowing Licht. Read his comprehensive account here.

PASS THE AUX — As the 2024 presidential campaign kicks into gear, candidates are once again cherry-picking the songs they’ll be using to pump up the crowd at rallies, trumpet their pick-me-messages in campaign ads and signal their coolness on TikTok — or not, writes Ella Creamer.

For decades, candidates on both sides of the aisle have tussled with musicians who didn’t want their music associated with them, threatening all kinds of legal action. (See: Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake vs. Tom Petty’s estate.) They’ve been embarrassed. (It was “rather rude,” singer Sam Moore said, for the Obama campaign not to ask permission to use his 1966 hit “Hold On, I’m Comin’.”) Or they just really … misfired. (See: Ronald Reagan vs. Bruce Springsteen.)

Clearly, this is not a task to be taken lightly.

Stinking up the vibe with a bad campaign song probably won’t lose anyone an election. But you don’t want would-be constituents cringing any time you pick up an aux cord. Nailing the sonic selection could galvanize your base and shine up your image. With that in mind, POLITICO Magazine reached out to a host of political consultants and other campaign music experts to find out how to curate the ultimate soundtrack for campaigning in 2023 and beyond — at a time when social media rules the Internet and an ill-conceived TikTok can spread like wildfire.

Read their recommendations here.