‘Absolutely not’: Gov. DeSantis says he won’t appoint himself to replace Marco Rubio in the Senate

Is florida taking a hard right?

“Absolutely not.”

So much for Gov. Ron DeSantis engineering his next political move by naming himself the successor to outgoing U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

DeSantis made the declaration in Jacksonville on Friday while responding to a reporter’s question about the potential self-appointment.

Rubio appears likely to be the next Secretary of State, leaving a vacancy in the Senate that the Governor is tasked with filling. DeSantis mocked the idea that he would pick himself, suggesting that those speculating on that were offering “grist for the mill” but didn’t know his thinking.

“It’s funny, you know, these people write these things … and anytime they’re talking about anything I’m doing, they’re just making it up, right?” DeSantis said.

“I mean, they’ll talk to someone because (they’ll) say, ‘Oh, someone familiar with the Governor’s thinking.’ Understand, that means they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. That means somebody is saying, ‘Well, I know how the Governor thinks. He’s probably saying this.’ So they try to do grist for the mill.”

DeSantis also mocked the idea that anyone knew who was under serious consideration.

“‘Oh, this person’s leading, this person’s that.’ It’s all made up, and they’re just guessing. And look, it isn’t that hard to guess 10 plausible people, like there’s some pretty obvious people who would be in that mix, right? But they do,” DeSantis said.

“One of the things I got a kick off was like there was a report: ‘The Governor has removed himself from consideration for the U.S. Senate.’ I was never in consideration for that. Trust me, we’re doing well here, and we’re going to continue to do that. And so it was never something that I considered.”

The Governor anticipates making a selection in the coming days and lauds Rubio for staying put until Trump officially takes office.

“I told people we would do it in the first half of January, and I think we’re probably on course to do that, but clearly we will have somebody in place ready to go on Jan. 20. I think it’s important. I don’t want to see a gap for the state of Florida in terms of the Senate. But we do not have a vacancy right now because I think he’s doing the right thing by continuing to serve until he actually is officially appointed.”

Rubio has a confirmation hearing next week.