Morning Joe pounces after Ron DeSantis stumbles into discussion of Trump crimes
Ron DeSantis seemingly walked into a question on Donald Trump's mishandling of classified documents during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
The Florida governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate made a rare appearance outside of conservative media Tuesday, speaking to host Joe Scarborough during a brief interview that focused primarily on the Hamas attack on Israel.
But DeSantis tried to deliver a campaign message shortly before the program ended.
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"Going forward as Republicans, you know, my argument has been very simple," DeSantis said. "If the election is about Joe Biden's failures and our positive vision for the future, which it would be if I was the candidate, we will win. If it is about what piece of paper or document was left at the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, or all these other things on Jan. 6, if that's what the election is about, then it is going to allow Biden to be in his basement and they're going to be able to do it again."
"Just a question for Republicans about what you want to be talking about?"
That left an opening for Scarborough to ask his opinion on Trump's indictment on 40 counts in federal court for retaining classified documents and stashing them in his bathroom and other areas of his beach resort.
"You talk about the toilet as something being -- that really brings up an issue I wasn't going to bring up," Scarborough said. "Let me ask you really quickly, we're about to run out of time. Should Americans be concerned, are you concerned by the fact that President Trump revealed war plans to invade Iran, military attacks against Iran to people that didn't have classified ability to see those documents?"
DeSantis, like most of the former president's Republican challengers, has only indirectly criticized Trump's alleged crimes, which have resulted in indictments in four jurisdictions and 91 charges.
"Well, look, I think that's an allegation, it remains to be seen," DeSantis said. "Obviously if it is proven, that would be a difficult thing. I would note, I think this is why a lot of Republicans are concerned about some of these cases is that he was being attacked for years as being in collusion with Russia, and that was not accurate."
"That was a false narrative that was created, and so I would be remiss if I dove in and accepted all those things. I think he has his day in court, I think he's innocent until proven guilty. The reality is we're dealing with this situation and if the elections is a referendum on all the other issues and we're not talking about inflation and interest rates and the border and crime, then that gives the Democrats a huge advantage to try to retain power."
Scarborough asked whether the election becoming a referendum on Trump, rather than the current president, would be bad news for Republicans.
"I think a referendum on Joe Biden means we win," DeSantis said. "If I'm the candidate, I think a referendum on Donald Trump, if that's it, then I think the Democrats would win. There are millions of voters out there who don't like what Biden is doing, think the country is in the wrong direction, going in the wrong direction. They want to vote for a Republican, but once it is Donald Trump, that's just a deal breaker for them."
"They just won't do it. I saw a report, I think on your network, someone said it was a Republican, he said it didn't matter, he would do Biden. That's just a reality that Republicans have to face up to if we want to win and we saw these losses in the most recent elections. Let's give them a fresh, America a chance for a fresh start, and I think that the results will be very positive for us."
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