Fellow Republicans have been needling Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as he deals with attacks and mockery from Donald Trump. The former president has attacked DeSantis for his record on Social Security and Medicare, but he's also hit DeSantis for eating pudding with his fingers during an event. Trump's favorite accusation seems to be that he "made" DeSantis in his own image, and ensured his success at a time DeSantis was thinking of dropping out of the race. DeSantis denies this.
In a Sunday comment, former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) even predicted that DeSantis would never be capable of attacking back because he doesn't have the charisma or snark necessary to land a proper insult.
While in Iowa over the weekend, DeSantis faced even more insults and mockery from Trump who continues to say DeSantis would never have won without his support. So, DeSantis tried some new veiled insults implying that Trump is a loser after he lost the 2020 election.
Fox News Radio host Guy Benson asked DeSantis about it: "Were you talking about him with those comments? And what’s your reaction to that response that I just summarized for you?"
DeSantis said that there have been three election cycles in a row with Donald Trump as the party's head, and each time they've "had poor results. I mean, that’s just the fact, 2018, lose the House, 2020, presidency and the Senate."
Even in 2022, DeSantis said that the circumstances couldn't have been better, but they didn't gain a single Senate seat, in fact they lost one.
"Here in Florida, we did have a red wave. In fact, we had a red tsunami," DeSantis claimed. "And I think it’s because we have governed in a way that not only has produced tangible results for people, but has been willing to add to our coalition. Like, yes, I want all the Republicans, but you know that’s not enough to win nationwide. So we won independents by 18 percent. We won over 60 percent of Latinos. We won women voters by 9 percent. We won, of course, in rural areas, and I set a record for a Republican. I used to think, like, Philadelphia, you would see, like, 90 percent go Democrat in some area. I was like, that’s got to be fraud, right? Well, no, I was winning 90 percent in some of these rural areas, 92, 90 percent, 88 percent. We swept the suburbs, and we won urban areas like Miami-Dade County, and not only took a county that voted Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 30 points. We won it by double digits. And so I think we have shown a pathway forward to be able to win, get the coalition necessary to win, but then, most important, because winning just gives you the ticket to the dance."
Then what he said he intended to do with it is what he's doing now.
Hear the interview in the clip below or at the link here.
