Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a verbal potshot at former President Donald Trump, the leading 2024 GOP primary contender, that appeared to link him with President Joe Biden’s declining mental capabilities.
Standing with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), DeSantis said he agreed with the governor’s view that retail politics is about “being able to answer questions.”
“And what Donald Trump does now, he is wedded to the teleprompter. He can’t get off that teleprompter, any time he does, he says things like ‘Don’t vote.’ He’s telling people not to vote like we have all the votes we need. Really? Wait a minute, you lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016. You don’t have all the votes you need,” DeSantis said, referencing a recent remark by the former president.
“And so I think that it’s just shown this is a different Donald Trump in 2015 and ’16. Lost the zip on his fastball, has a sense of entitlement — all this stuff — doesn’t think he has to go through and earn it like other candidates. And that’s just not going to fly in Iowa and New Hampshire,” he continued.
“And that’s why, you know, how this came to be with Iowa and New Hampshire along the way, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you, just having been here, I’m glad that it works this way because I do think you’ve got to earn it,” DeSantis continued. “I think the voters expect that. That’s the first thing.
“Second thing is, I think Chris has said, and I’ve said, we need a candidate that can win the general election,” the GOP governor continued. “There’s too many people that just are not going to vote for Trump at this point, is my view, and I think Chris’ as well. But you have another wrinkle now with RFK Jr. as a third party, RFK Jr. will be a vessel for anti-lockdown and anti-Fauci voters if Trump is the nominee.
“If I’m the nominee, they all go to me because I stood up against Fauci, I’m going to clean out CDC and all those. It’s a big part of my platform,” DeSantis said. “With Trump though, he created Fauci, he elevated Fauci, he never fired him. He said that he did everything right during Covid, claims he saved 100 million lives, you know, with the mRNA vaccine and all this stuff.
“And I think those voters who are understandably still very frustrated with how this federal government handled Covid, and the lies that were told and all the mistakes that were made with no accountability, they’re going to want a vessel for that. And I think they may default to Kennedy,” he predicted.
“So I think he will hurt Trump way more than he would hurt any other candidate. And that makes it even a tougher uphill battle,” he added.
DeSantis remains in second place, generally speaking, in most national surveys for the GOP nomination, but he is far behind Trump in polling.
This is a different Donald Trump from 2016. pic.twitter.com/ygyFCIsbq2
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 24, 2023
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