A.G. Gancarski
During an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Ron DeSantis rebutted Donald Trump’s claim that DeSantis in 2018 “did well because (Trump) endorsed him,” made most recently by Trump during a rally in Hialeah.
“The idea that he is responsible for Florida’s success is absurd,” DeSantis told Brian Kilmeade, in an interview recorded remotely despite “Fox & Friends” actually airing from Miami on Thursday.
“If his endorsement was so important, why have Republicans been losing so many of these races where he’s endorsed, have fewer Governors than when he got elected President, fewer (U.S.) Senators, fewer U.S. House members?”
DeSantis’ remarks on the Fox News Channel are just his latest attempt to argue that Trump’s endorsement, which DeSantis lobbied for before running for Governor and promoted heavily throughout the 2018 campaign, didn’t matter much.
On the PBD Podcast in October, the Governor distanced himself from an ad depicting him as a staunch Trump defender as a naked bid for earned media.
“That’s obviously tongue in cheek. … Of course, it’s a funny video, but here’s the thing about it: When you’re doing these campaigns, you want to get as much free media as possible. So I knew that that would cause the corporate media to light their hair on fire and they did. And so they just kept playing it for me. So we didn’t even have to really pay for the ad.”
From there, DeSantis suggested that the ad’s touting of Trump wasn’t as appealing to Republican voters in the race against Adam Putnam as the depiction of his family was.
“Part of it is that ad gets out, what do the average voters see? They say, ‘Hey, this is a guy with a, you know, this beautiful wife, young kids, everything like that.’ And that, that, that kind of helped us there,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also said he would have won in 2018 without Trump’s endorsement, which he suggested actually held him back from winning by more than 34,000 votes against Andrew Gillum.
“The test of that is I won by 34,000 with his endorsement. Four years later, he attacked me three days before the election and I won by 1.5 million votes,” DeSantis said.
“Trump was a factor in 2018. It didn’t matter what I did, they were going to vote against me. That was, that was the reason they viewed me as that.”
8 comments
My Take
November 9, 2023 at 9:49 am
Trump the Trifle
That theme ought to get him going.
Michael K
November 9, 2023 at 11:44 am
Here’s what the polls are showing:
Woke is a joke. The rest of the nation woke up to DeSantis’ blathering, pandering, and Mickey Mouse attacks.
P. Pig
November 9, 2023 at 12:57 pm
“And that, that, that kind of helped us there,” DeSantis said.
Th-Th-Th That’s all, folks!
He’s done.
TJC
November 9, 2023 at 1:08 pm
Not only does the man ban books, he rewrites history. Of course Trump’s endorsement was the game-changer in 2018. Trump rounded up all the racists, misogynists, and sexual orientation bigots with his loud and clear endorsement of DeSantis. Until Trump chose his boy Ronald, Putnam had the GOP nomination locked up.
Tom
November 10, 2023 at 7:19 am
I was thinking the same thing. I’m not sure what Florida desantis lives in but in 2018, trump (sadly) was the kingmaker and ronnie would not have had a prayer were it not for that endorsement. Revisionist history 101 I guess.
MH/Duuuval
November 9, 2023 at 10:40 pm
As they did in 2000, the GOP voter suppression machine worked overtime in 2020, especially to diminish turnout among African American and Latinx voters.
The recent arrest by six deputies serving a warrant at 3 AM on a 69-year-old Black woman and former felon indicates voter suppression is alive and doing bad sh*t in Florida. (This doesn’t happen if you commit a ballot felony and live in The Villages.)
A
tom palmer
November 10, 2023 at 9:40 am
Adam Putnam was well on his way to being the GOP nominee for governor before Trump endorsed a little-known north Florida Congressman. Historical revisionism is another reason DeSantis is unfit.
MH/Duuuval
November 10, 2023 at 1:32 pm
Putnam haters may today regret hoping the obscure Dee would win the nomination.
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