There were a lot of fireworks at the first 2024 Republican presidential debate. But there was also a very noticeable absence. Former President Donald Trump opted to skip the debate and do an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson instead. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy gathered the most headlines post-debate, someone Democratic political strategist James Carville, Host of "Politics War Room with James Carville & Al Hunt," dubbed the "Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann of this cycle." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis didn't gain as much attention, despite polling as second behind Trump. Carville says the problem is DeSantis went all-in on woke, but the topic didn't even come up until late in the debate. "Every other word out of his mouth was woke this, and woke corporations... and now the whole thing has kind of petered out. So he's stuck with a long position in an underperforming asset," Carville says, using terminology Yahoo Finance's audience may be familiar with.

Click here to watch Akiko Fujita and Seana Smith's full interview James Carville.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: There's not a lot of talk about the number two here, Ron DeSantis, based on his performance yesterday. I mean, why do you think he's just not getting traction, at least within the Republican Party?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, Ron Sanders made a huge bet. This is Yahoo Finance's. He took a strong position and he went long on woke. And woke wasn't even mentioned until minute 90 last night. So he got in early on a turkey of a stock, and he doesn't know how to sell it.

And if you stop and you think of this, every other word out of his mouth was woke this and woke corporations, and I don't know-- woke bathrooms or woke whatever. And now the whole thing is kind of petered out on him. So he's stuck-- he's stuck with a long position in an underperforming asset, to put it in your words

SEANA SMITH: James, do you think he can win back support? And what does he need to do?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, I mean, look, anybody can do anything because Trump is severely overweight. I think he's going to weigh in at over 277 tonight at the Fulton jail. He's under enormous stress. He's already fantasized about leaving the country or whatever.

If you watch him on Tucker Carlson last night, he was talking about how Jeffrey Epstein had multiple beautiful homes and he committed suicide because he was incarcerated. You can assume what's on Trump's mind right now.

So if that collapses, Ramaswamy has one strength is, he's not attacked Trump, which means a lot to the Trump people. I mean, DeSantis they're not going to like him because he attacks Trump. But if Trump does end up not able to run, which is-- I don't know. It's a distinct possibility, but it's somewhat of a possibility.

It'd be start over again. And I guess he's got some money. He's got some rich backers. He shakes his lobbyists in Tallahassee down for tens of millions of dollars. So you can't discount him. But he's got-- like I say, he got stuck with a long position in a really crappy stock.