When asked about the legitimacy of the election on Monday, the Florida governor only acknowledged that “Biden became president”
Ron DeSantis — the Florida governor who is expected to soon announce his intention to take down Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary — still can’t admit that the former president lost the 2020 general election.
“You said during an event in Iowa over the weekend that the GOP needs to reject a culture of losing. Do you acknowledge hat Trump lost and there wasn’t all this fraud he talks about?” a reporter asked the Florida governor during a press conference on Monday.
DeSantis noted Republicans losing the House in 2018, losing the Senate in 2020, and underperforming in the 2022 midterms. He did not say Trump or even the party lost the White House in 2020, only that “Biden became president.”
REPORTER: Do you acknowledge that Trump lost and there wasn’t all this fraud he talks about?
DESANTIS: I think the party has developed a culture of losing. pic.twitter.com/FP7tnk1ltr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 15, 2023
The non-answer — which came as DeSantis signed a bill to defund diversity programs at Florida’s public schools — exemplifies the challenge at the heart of the governor’s expected bid to defeat the man who controls the GOP. DeSantis needs to find a way to differentiate himself from Trump while simultaneously courting his voters. He’s largely refused to do the former, and certainly hasn’t had much success with the latter. Most polls show Trump ahead of DeSantis by dozens of percentage points — even in DeSantis’ home state of Florida, where Trump has already poached several congressional endorsements.
Trump’s latest broadside against the Florida governor came on Monday. “He’s got no personality,” Trump told The Messenger. “And I don’t think he’s got a lot of political skill.”
“I think the media has said he’s doing a terrible job and he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Trump added. “You know, the media has not been friendly to him. They’re saying that he’s a rank amateur. And you know, he started off fine, but then he hasn’t done very well. You look at the polls.”
The former president continued to attack DeSantis — and Fox News for giving him attention — on Truth Social. “He sucks, & so does FoxNews!” Trump wailed.
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DeSantis, meanwhile, has only offered indirect — and very rare, at that — criticism of the former president. He may be holstering a few lines of attack for after he announces his candidacy, which might be dead in the water if he can’t find a way to convince voters he’s a viable alternative to Trump, and not just the latest in a long line of also-rans.
