DeSantis Fires Back at Trump

(RightIsRight.co) – Florida’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, has reacted to criticism by former President Donald Trump, once his ally, by pointing to his popularity with the state’s voters.

Shortly before announcing his 2024 presidential candidacy in November, Trump famously called the Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

Trump accused DeSantis of disloyalty because he endorsed the latter in 2018 in his first gubernatorial candidacy. In the 2022 midterms, DeSantis was reelected in a landslide, with a 20-point lead over the Democrat challenger.

During his presidential campaign events on Saturday in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Trump claimed DeSantis mishandled the response to the coronavirus pandemic. He also alleged the Florida governor’s success was due to the Trump administration.

“There are Republican governors that did not close their states. Florida was closed for a long period of time. They’re trying to rewrite history,” Trump told reporters, as cited by Fox News.

“Ron would have not been governor if it wasn’t for me. So, when I hear he might run, I consider that very disloyal,” he added.

DeSantis responded to the former president’s criticism during a news conference on Tuesday by underscoring his landslide reelection.

“Trump has criticized you a number of times in the past couple of days on a number of different issues, one of them being COVID in the state,” Daily Caller reporter Henry Rodgers said.

“I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles. It’s been happening for many, many years. And if you look at the good thing about it, though, is if you take a crisis situation like COVID, you know — the good thing about it is when you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions. You got to steer that ship,” DeSantis responded.

“The good thing is that the people are able to render a judgment on that, whether they reelect you or not. And I’m happy to say, you know, in my case, not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida,” he emphasized.

Fox News points out that Trump was the undisputed favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination until recently. However, DeSantis’s standing with conservative voters has soared, and in December, some polls showed him ahead of Trump.

However, two surveys released in January still showed Trump with a 20-35 percentage point lead over DeSantis.

In his remarks, the governor noted that Florida, which used to be a swing state, has now turned entirely red.

“We won by the largest raw vote margin over 1.5 million votes than any governor candidate has ever had in Florida history,” DeSantis stated.

“And in fact, we almost doubled the previous record, which I think was like [a] 780,000-vote margin. And so what I would just say is that verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida,” he declared.

Who do you believe would be the better presidential candidate for the GOP in 2024? Trump or DeSantis? Share your opinion by emailing [email protected]. Thank you.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR