Ron DeSantis blames Donald Trump for 2022 setbacks

Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to rebut Donald Trump’s apparent belief that he’s not central to what the Governor calls a “culture of losing” in the Republican Party.

During an interview Monday on the Guy Benson Show, the Governor pushed back against the former President, linking him to bad outcomes in every election cycle since 2016.

“Well, we have had three election cycles in a row where we have had poor results. I mean, that’s just the fact, 2018, lose the House, 2020, presidency and the Senate. And then, 2022, the circumstances were probably never better for our party in the last 10, 15 years, to have a floundering president in Joe Biden, approval rating at 40%,” DeSantis observed.

“And what did we do? Not only did we not gain Senate seats. We lost a Senate seat, yes, picked up the House, but on the skin of our teeth, and really just because of Florida and New York. And so it was a historic underperformance across the board,” DeSantis added, before questioning whether the former President knew what he was talking about.

“So I’m not sure what he’s saying that his candidates did well in the midterms. If that were the case, we would have 54 Senate seats. We would have swept all the governorships. All that stuff was in play for us as a party, and we weren’t able to get it done.”

These comments were the second attempt Monday to respond to Trump’s attacks on DeSantis as not a “winner.”

“First of all, I’m not at all caught up in the past. And second of all, I’m doing much better against Biden than he is in the polls, and I’m doing much better against him,” Trump told The Messenger. “I mean, I’m beating (DeSantis) by 40 points in some polls, so he can talk about what he wants. And third of all, I did very well in the Midterms.”

The comments on Fox News Radio amplified remarks the Governor made in Sarasota earlier Monday.

“I think the party has developed a culture of losing. I think that there’s not accountability. And I think in Florida, we really showed what it takes to not just win, win big and then deliver big.”

“Ultimately, when you’re doing all this, what results are you producing for people? That’s really what matters. You can sit there and talk about cable news, social media, all these other things that people are fixated on,” DeSantis added. “And for me it’s like, ‘OK, what’s that true north?’”

“You’ve obviously got to win, otherwise you don’t get a ticket to the dance,” DeSantis continued. “But once you do that, how are you going to be able to actually bring about big change to make people’s lives better?”