Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during an interview this week that his record proves that he is the top champion for the “America First” movement and that it was time for candidates who have no realistic chance of winning the Republican Party presidential primary to drop out of the race.
The remarks from DeSantis come as his poll numbers have started to show signs of slight improvement in the latest Real Clear Politics average, moving from 13% to 14.9% in the last few days after a new CNN poll showed him with 18% support, while all other candidates are polling in the single digits. Trump maintains a solid 25-40 point lead in national polls, while some state polls show a slightly tighter race. Aside from DeSantis’ slight bump in support, the other notable change has been former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley overtaking pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy in multiple polls, including CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times.
During an interview with Dave Rubin on Wednesday, DeSantis weighed in on numerous issues in the 2024 presidential race, including attacks from Trump, Trump’s explanation for why he did not fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, poll numbers, future debates, and his record.
Responding to criticism from Trump about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the state of Florida, DeSantis stood by his record. “Look, I think honestly, I think he hurts himself,” DeSantis said. “Nobody in the Republican base thinks New York handled COVID better than Florida. Nobody believes that. It’s not believable. And in fact, he doesn’t believe it because he said for years how good Florida did. He said I was one of the great governors in America. All of this stuff was kind of gospel. Nobody ever questioned it until about three days before the midterm elections, he saw that I was fixing to win a landslide and he started attacking me.”
When Rubin pointed out that during a radio interview earlier in the day with Hugh Hewitt, Trump said that he did not fire Fauci because “you’re not allowed to fire him,” DeSantis said that is not true and that “for a long time that was not his excuse.”
“His excuse had been that if you fired Fauci, both the Democrats and the media would have pitched a fit, which of course is 100% true. But that’s the price of leadership. You got to stand up and do what’s right,” he said. “Clearly, he could have been fired from the White House Task Force. There was no obligation to run him out at press conference after press conference, have him doing media interviews. During the height of the COVID stuff in 2020, Fauci would do local hits in Florida media attacking me for having schools open and some of these other stuff.”
DeSantis said that Fauci could have been fired from the NIH “because he had basically committed misconduct with the gain of function.” He also cited Fauci’s promotion of the claim that the virus was “naturally occurring” in an attempt to tamp down the lab leak theory.
When asked what his message was to the most diehard Trump supporters, DeSantis said, “Well, nobody in the United States in the Republican Party has delivered more on America first policies and principles than me.”
The governor proceeded to rattle off policy achievements, including cracking down on illegal immigration, expanding Second Amendment rights, fighting ESG and “woke” corporations, removing Soros prosecutors, and tightening up elections in the state. “Everything I promised the voters I would do, I’ve delivered on and exceeded those promises,” he said, suggesting that Wahington insiders, the corporate media, and the Democrats “do not want to see me up there” in D.C.
When asked about the current polling in the race that show Trump with a commanding lead, DeSantis said that Trump’s 100% name ID was a big factor and suggested that some of the polls were being paid for to push a political narrative that the former president’s victory is inevitable. DeSantis said that he has data after the first debate that shows while Trump does have a lot of support from diehard supporters, a large chunk of his support comes from voters who are “soft” on him and they would be willing “to support somebody that’s strong, that has a record of delivering on America first principles, and that would be a big time change agent as president.”
Saying everything they are doing on the campaign trail is “geared towards accumulating delegates,” DeSantis said he is quite happy with his current position in Iowa and that he is currently polling way ahead of where people like Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz were at this time during the cycles they ran in and won the state.
DeSantis also said that he wants to see Trump show up to the debates because no one is entitled to the nomination and that it was time for some candidates to consider dropping out.
“I do think you’re going to see a smaller stage because I think some of those folks aren’t going to qualify for this next round,” he said. “And look, my thing is, far be it for me to tell anyone who to run or not run, but you either have a path or you don’t. And if you don’t have a path, then we should focus on the candidates that have a conceivable shot at this.”
“I will say though, being on that stage, I think one of the reasons why I wasn’t necessarily the target as much as people thought is I have a record of success,” he added. “I’ve done the things that people are talking about that we need to do for this country in Florida across the board. And so I’m armed with the ability to say that I’ve done it and also to point out, you know, whatever shortcomings would be from somebody that’s lobbying a grenade my way. So I’m prepared to do however it shakes out.”
Original Article: https://www.dailywire.com/news/desantis-says-hes-the-top-champion-for-america-first-calls-for-candidates-with-no-path-to-drop-out