Roger Stone threatens to run against Ron DeSantis over lack of 2020 election audit

Longtime GOP operative residentRoger Stone announced that he's considering a campaign against Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over his frustrations that the state has not yet implemented a statewide audit into its 2020 election results, which former President Donald Trump won.

"If Florida governor Ron DeSantis does not order an audit of the 2020 election to expose the fact that there are over 1 million phantom voters on the Florida voter rolls in the Sunshine state," Stone wrote on Gab, "I may be forced to seek the Libertarian Party nomination for governor Florida in 2022."

Stone went on to include the hashtag "#ByeRon" in the Gab post, complete with a picture of himself.

Within a subsequent message posted to his Telegram channel, Stone continued to rail against DeSantis.

"I heard governor Ron DeSantis say that Florida had the most honest election in our history in 2020," Stone stated. "Yet I know for a certainty there are 1 million phantom voters on the Florida voter rolls. These 'voters' simply do not exist."

In true Stone-style, he added that the Republican lawmaker "can kiss his arrogant Yalie ass goodbye."

A Salon request to comment to Stone wasn't returned on Sunday afternoon.

It remains unclear why Stone is seeking an audit in Florida, since Trump won the state by over 300,000 votes in the 2020 election. The calls to audit Florida originated, notably, from MyPillow CEO-turned-2020 election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, who has been at the forefront of pushing baseless claims that Trump won the state by over 1.2 million votes.

The provocative comments from Stone come as DeSantis is being hailed as a hero in right-wing media over his handling of the coronavirus — which currently leads all states in its per-capita death toll since the Delta variant first swept ashore.